LICENSE PLATES AND OTHER HOBBIES

ALPCA # 1825, Europlate # 160
Member of Society of Automotive Historians
and other transportation-related
clubs.

Hobbies and Interests:
Computers; Collecting License Plates and Transportation-related permits,
Keychain Tags, Historical Information about License Plates (generally
1960's to present).
Also the following:
Transportation Tickets and Tokens,
Automotive History,and Map Collecting
 

The first hobby that will be covered on this page is
license plate collecting. As I have a number of hobbies,
and I cannot possibly name all of the relevant organizations,
I will not cover all of them on this web page.
Most of hobbies are transportation-related.

LICENSE PLATE COLLECTING

This page is designed to introduce the new hobbyist
or someone who is just curious to the hobby of
license plate collecting. From this page, you can find a
number of links to explore this hobby. Although I have
listed a number of links to license plate organizations
and to some of the publications in this area, no attempt
has been made on this web page to link to the many other
collectors who have their own colorful and ingeneous web
pages. Many links to personal web pages can be found
within other web pages, such as Drew Steitz' web site
(this link is given below). In addition, the license plate
club websites often have a "tab" for links, as well.
As you surf the web, use some of the links I have provided and
use the various search engines, and you will discover
many more web pages on license plates and related hobbies.
You will be overwhelmed with the number of "hits" using "Google",
so be prepared for that fact.
 

POSSIBLE ITEMS TO COLLECT
AND LICENSE PLATE INFORMATION
I suggest that you try a search for "license plates" using
any of the popular search engines (such as Altavista or Yahoo!
<or "mywebsearch").
There are many different sources of license plate images and products
so your results may run into the thousands.

LICENSE PLATES LISTSERV

Some people like to begin a hobby by becoming
part of a list of collectors and receive e-mail
messages about plates for sale, plates wanted, and
also the various questions that we all have about
license plates. The following link will take you
to such a list. When you have read through the
page, you will be given the "listserv" commands
such as subscribe and unsubscribe. A message to
the listserv address will provide you with many
additional useful commands. The name of this list
is "plates". Although the number of messages you
receive will vary, some days you will find as many
as 30-50 messages. These can come to you as individual
e-mail messages, or you can use the "digest" command to see
groups of messages instead. Finally, you can logon to the Listserv
and click on a specific date to see what new messages were processed
on that date.

 License Plates Listserv

GOVERNMENT PLATES
 

Or perhaps, you might have an interest in the
license plates used by the United States
Government for its vehicles. I am aware of several
collectors who strive to obtain information on both recent and older
United States Government License Plates. A list of the
current prefix letters used on such plates has been
assembled, although living and working in the Washington
DC Area, I have found that no list is 100% complete,
even the one which is published in the Code of Federal
Regulations, so as you observe Government Plates,
you may, from time to time, see a one, two, or three letter
code which does not appear on the various lists.
Please be aware that the Federal Government views the
possession of any current or recent license plates as
ILLEGAL, so let this be a formal warning.
This warning extends to all Department of State plates issued
to Diplomats, Embassy Staff, Consular Corps, and United Nations
Administrative Staff. All of these plates are due to be re-issued
beginning in 2007, possibly as flat plates, such as the passenger
plates in Washington, DC, and the United States Government Plates,
issued in the past few years.
 

FOREIGN PLATES
There are collectors with huge numbers of domestic
(U.S., Canada, Mexico) or Foreign plates for sale or
for trade. Aside from the major Online Auction Website, eBay,
look at some of the collector's sites, with Drew Steitz website
as an example:
Drew's Plateshack Web Page

You will see a small number of examples of domestic and foreign
plates from my collection at:
License Plates (a "Homestead Web Site")
I am working on several other websites as this time (August 2007)
 

CLUBS AND NEWSLETTERS

There are a number of license plate collector's
clubs worldwide, however the largest club is the
Automobile License Plate Collector's Association,
commonly referred to as ALPCA. ALPCA has
several thousand active members (membership
numbers exceeded 10,000, at the end of 2006).
A bi-monthly newsletter, called PLATES,
is published. There are local and regional meets
(those sponsored by ALPCA Regions and also independent
meets, those without direct ALPCA sponsorship or
affiliation), but listed in The ALPCA Register.
In addition, there is a National Convention, held
at a different location each year, with hundreds of
collectors and their families in attendance. The
2004 (50th Anniversary Convention) was held in Providence,
Rhode Island. The 2006 Convention was held in Ontario, California,
and the 2007 convention was held in Huntsville, Alabama.
The 2008 ALPCA Conventions was held in Salt Lake City, and the
2009 Convention in Erie PA, respectively.
Contact me or any ALPCA member for the exact dates of conventions
and also how to join ALPCA to get in on all of the excitement.
You can also get membership information through the ALPCA Web Site
In addition,the ALPCA Web Page lists the dates and locations
of local and regional license plate meets. Sometimes, the antique
automobile shows, particularly periodic shows held in Hershey,
Pennsylvania, are a good source for license plates and related
items of automobilia.
Here is a link for the ALPCA Web Page, which
was developed by member Mike Shackleford
and maintained by Joe Wasielewski, John Upton and others,
and with web content by Dr. Roy Klotz, Jr.,
(particularly the ALPCA Archives).

ALPCA Web Page

ALPCA ARCHIVES
Over the past few years, under the stewardship
of Dr. Roy Klotz, Jr., the ALPCA Archivist, and
with the contributions of other members and
non-members over the years, a huge amount
of information on the license plates of the
United States, Canada, Mexico, U.S. Possessions
and Territories, and many foreign countries has
been collected. This information includes colors
of the plates, codes used, photographs when available
from members, etc. All of this information has
been accumulated into State-by-State as well as foreign
archives of license plate information from the pre-State
era of issuance to the present. Since 1998, access to
the ALPCA Archives has been limited to members of ALPCA and
some related clubs.
This is yet another reason to consider joining ALPCA.

EUROPLATE
For European, Asian, African and other foreign
license plates, the largest collectors club
is EUROPLATE (the European Registration Plate
Association), which publishes a newsletter every
other month. Every four to five years, several
of the EUROPLATE members compile with the
assistance of much of the membership, and motor
vehicle licensing authorities (whenever possible),
Registration Plates of Europe and the World.
In addition, EUROPLATE holds a convention
every other year in either the United Kingdom or
on the European Continent. Europlate has a web page
which not only describes the club, but also will give
you information on some interesting publications.
Here is a link to their web page:

Europlate Web Page
Membership dues are currently (as of January 2007),
$46.00 for members who live in the United States.
For other rates, please see the Europlate Web Page.
 

CLUBS

Here is some basic information about a few of the license plate clubs worldwide.
 

NUMBER PLATE COLLECTORS CLUB (NPCC)

One of the clubs with worldwide membership is the
Number Plate Collectors Club (NPCC). Their
quarterly color newsletter displays news and
photographs of the many types of Australian
Plates, including the commercial plates where
a company can display its logo and slogan on an
Officially-issued Australian License Plate. It
should be noted that less than 50% of each issue
has color photographs, but they are not limited
to Australian Plates. Issues throughout 1999, for
example had photos of a great variety of plates
from Argentina. Other counties, including the
United States are represented as well in the newsletter.
There is a web page which can be found using the following link:
NPCC Web Page.
 

SAMPLE PLATES

You may also wish to collect sample passenger
and non-passenger plates from your State, certain
other States, or perhaps all States and Canada.
At this time, some States and Canadian Provinces
sell passenger sample plates to the public, and a
few sell various types of non-passenger sample
plates. Two States, New Jersey and Virginia,
have a large variety of non-passenger samples,
including many organizations and colleges and
universities, available at $10 each or less.
ALPCA and other sources can provide you with
addresses of the various Department of Motor
Vehicles, as well as fairly current prices.
 

There are sample plates of many varieties and
types available from Virginia. Since the late 1990's,
you can purchase a sample (embossed with the
word "SAMPLE") for $10.00, and for $20.00
order a plate personalized with whatever you
want(up to the maximum number of characters
permitted, and good taste). Both types of
plates will have SAMPLE stickers. See the
Virginia DMV Web Page for more information on
license plates, driver's licenses and other
information. This Web Page also gives you the
opportunity to see if your initials or proposed
phrase for a personalized plate has already been
assigned on a specific Virginia base plate.

 Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Web Page

LOCATING DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLE ADDRESSES
Addresses for the various State, Provincial
(Canada), and Territorial Motor Vehicle
Agencies or Departments can be obtained from
a number of sources, including the PL8S Web
Page (you will find the link above), a few
individual's Web Pages, and the following
Organization, American Association of Motor
Vehicle Administrators, Inc. (AAMVA), who
despite their name have Canadian Motor
Vehicle Departments among their membership
There is also news available on their Web
Page on the Federal Government as well as State
Motor Vehicle Licensing, and a publications
listing on various aspects of driver licensing,
police, enforcement, etc. The following is a
link to that Web Page.

American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrator's Web Page

Many States have illustrations or photographs on their web
pages of the various regular issue passenger plates as well
as optional plates.

REGISTRATION NUMBERS CLUB (FOR THOSE WHO OWN
OR WHO ARE INTERESTED IN CHERISHED NUMBER PLATES)

There is a club dealing with "cherished numbers",
called the Registration Numbers Club (RNC). They
have a periodic newsletter with a wealth of good
material about the codes contained within the 3-9
character Plates of the United Kingdom, and which
indicate the county, county borough council or in the
past 10-20 years, the Vehicle Registration Offices
where a vehicle is first registered. The following
is a link to a web site maintained for RNC, which
will give the present or potential collector much
information. A discussion group is in its early
stages, I posed a question to British vehicle
owners about "cherished number" plates.
In addition, there is also information on a number
of books in print showing who owns various
"Cherished Number Plates", including in some cases
pictures of the plates on their current vehicles.
Also you will find stories about the various sightings
of these plates, and the history of ownership.
The Registration Numbers Club Web Site can be contacted
through the following link:

Registration Numbers Club

KEYCHAIN ("DAV") TAGS
 

I have not so far covered such various types of
plates as the keychain (often known as DAV
keychain tags). Although not so many years ago,
in addition to the more well-known keychain tags
mailed to vehicle owners by the Disabled American
Veterans, certain tire manufacturers also issued
such tags. Dr. Edward Miles of New York City, an
active ALPCA member, has a keychain club and a
periodic newsletter. In addition, Dr. Miles has
authored books on the types of and collecting of
Chauffer's Badges; and he would be pleased to
provide information on the availability and cost
of these books. Please E-mail me for his address
(or for ALPCA members, check the Roster),
if you want more information on this aspect of the hobby
In addition, there are a few keychain collectors who
have their own web pages. One example of a keychain
tag web page is that of Kris Kimbrough. Please use
the following link if you would like to view that
web page.

Kris Kimbrough's Web Page

IMAGES OF LICENSE PLATES
 
Another area of interest, not only to the license plate
collector, but also to the artist or the automotive
historian, is a search engine of images. This search
engine is operated by Altavista, and you can use
"license plates" or any other keyword. Your strategy
will retrieve either images on Altavisa or images on
Altavista and the Web. You can specify images in
black or images in color. The following link will take
you there.

Altavista Images Search Engine

Another place for searching images would be Yahoo!, and here is that link: Yahoo! Search for Images

PHOTOGRAPHS

In addition to all of the information and links I
have provided above, I have added a small but growing
gallery of photographs of license plates from my
collection or observed on vehicles in the Washington
DC Area. Please see the bottom of the text portion
of this Web Page for my Photo Gallery.
 

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OTHER HOBBIES

TRANSPORTATION TICKETS

Another transportation hobby which I will briefly
mention is collecting transportation tickets,
tokens, receipts, etc. There is an active
organization called the Transport Ticket Society
in England, which publishes a monthly journal.

TRANSPORTATION TOKENS

If you are interested in Transportation Tokens,
I suggest that you write to: The American
Vecturist Association, Attention: Mr. J.M. Coffee,
Jr., Post Office Box 1204, Boston, MA 02104,
and ask for a sample copy of "The Fare Box" and
membership information. If you join, please say
that I referred you to be a member. By the way,
I'm sure many are wondering, vecturist is a term
used to describe collectors of transportation
tokens. One of the benefits of membership is that
you can subscribe to a New Issues Service (for
transportation tokens) and/or a Parking Tokens
New Issue Service, and you will receive new
tokens automatically each month. In addition,
they have available extensive catalogs of all
of these types of tokens. Contact me for current
information on their web site.

 

OTHER TOKENS

In addition to transportation tokens, there are a number of
trade tokens, issued by merchants in the 18th through 20th centuries.
Also a few States issued tax tokens to substantiate that a sales or
use tax was paid to and collected by a merchant. There are
several organizations covering all of these types of tokens.
They include the Token and Medal Society, the American Tax
Token Society, and various State Token and Medal collectors
clubs. Please e-mail me if you want more information about these
organizations, and I will try to put you in touch with the proper
people.
 

ROAD MAP COLLECTING

Another one of my hobbies is map collecting. In recent years there
has been a surge of interest in maps, particularly
road maps issued by gasoline stations and others, such
as the American Automobile Association. The early historical
maps are favorites of some collectors. Also, there are
other categories of maps, such as "Officials", those
issued each year or so by State Highway Departments,
and usually distributed free of charge, and American
Automobile Association (AAA) maps, primarily produced
There is a club, the Road Map Collectors Association (RMCA)
About 450 membership numbers have been issued, and when I
joined 3 years ago, I received member number 200.
As with many clubs, the number of active members varies
over time, so I do not have an accurate count of the
active membership of RMCA.
Their newsletter includes many historical articles
about various types of maps, the issuance of road maps
by the oil companies (gasoline stations) and a color
insert with images of the covers of various maps. In
addition, the club has a free Listserv to communicate
map-related topics to all interested parties, and a
free E-mail forwarding address for all members. The
following is a link to the RMCA Web Page.

Road Map Collectors Association Web Page

THIS IS A STARTING POINT
 

I have more transportation-related hobbies, but
to describe them would take a web page of its
own. I hope that I have given you a few interesting examples,
and given you some places on the web to start to look for
more information. That was one of my goals in starting this
dynamic web page.
SOCIETY OF AUTOMOTIVE HISTORIANS
There is an International Organization of people interested in the manufacture, design, sales, etc. of cars, trucks
and even earlier experimental steam, electric and other types of vehicles.
Please go to the following web site if you believe that this organization
may be of interest to you. The following is the web site link:

Society of Automotive Historians

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My web page is intended to be a starting point
for someone new to license plate collecting, or
to someone curious about the hobby (who is not
yet collecting "tin", plates, or tags). I have also
discussed in much less detail a few of my other
hobbies. If I can help you with a question about
license plates or transportation tokens and tickets,
or perhaps a related hobby, then please e-mail me at

the following address:David Doernberg

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Good luck with your collecting, whether it is:
license plates, keychain tags, transportation tokens, tickets,
coins, stamps, or whatever. There are many web pages and
hobbyists out there to help you.

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Updated March 26, 2009 and still under construction.
Your comments are welcome.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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