| Re: New CA law. Yellow on black license plates allowed! (and blue) |
Subject: Re: New CA law. Yellow on black license plates allowed! (and blue) by bogus on 2009/7/11 16:44:50 This is where Delaware was quite unique... The Delaware plate has pretty much looked like this for the last 60 years or so:  The font has changed a bit, but it's the same silk screened blue/gold unit you see above. The trim has changed, but you get the idea. The early versions had numbers spot welded to the backing plate. They switched to silk screening in the 70s. Now, prior to the blue and gold plate, they had this thing called the black and white diamond tag. These tags are metal with seperate letters and all porcelinized. Very nice.  Well... Delaware allows the owner of a registration with number 86999 or less (and some motorcycle numbers, don't remember the range) and get it made by the same company that used to make them for the state 60 odd years ago!! The plates cost about $80 to make. The plates are made to the same standard that was used back in the 30s and 40s. Very nicely done. Before the black and white diamond tags went away, they changed from the porceline finish to a black paint finish with silver letters spot welded. There were no age limits on this, just the number restriction. It's also why tags start to pick up values, quickly. My mom had 8884, and I figure that was worth about $5k!!! Tag number 57 was sold to the Del Lotto folks as part of a themed contest with a 57 chevy bel air vert, that plate sold for $75k!!! A one digit plate (#1 is the governors, #2 is the Lt Govs, #3 is the Sec of States) last sold for $675k!!! Even 5 digit tags are getting valuable. The DMV has stopped reissuing them, the last I heard... If you sell a car with a 5 digit plate, you can add $500 to the value of the car. You can also sell registrations now. Before, when someone was trying to sell a plate, they would put it on a $200 piece of junk and ask $25k for it - or more. Oh, native car tags do not have letters, only numbers. The letters designate something special about the plate. C is for commerical, PC for people carrier, FT for farm truck, etc... also, there are all the special interest tags... colleges, environmental groups... |
