3-digit - nice plate ! I've got a couple of 1906 & 1909 vintage NYS leather plates hanging in my plate collection on the wall of my barn. I'll get a pic of them tomorrow.
Number issued Sept 15 1906 to one E.O. Moorr of Milbank S.D. for a 16 horse power Moline car with horn and lights. I wish I had the round disc for the dash. That was the only thing the state actually issued. t was up to the owner to prominently display the number and SD but they could paint it on the back of the car if they wanted. The aluminum numbers on leather are the most common pre-state because there were kits sold with the numbers so your blacksmith, harness maker or hardware store could make them up.
It's a first for me. thanks for posting it. I do have some wwII era fiberboard plates (can't remember what the material is- soy?) Now I need to go look in the social groups and see if there's a plate collectors group.. Greg
I thought I had two leather NYS plates, but when I went to take pics, I see one is tin. I guess it's been a while since I got them...... In any event, the first pic shows the leather plate, #74461, which was used in 1909. The second plate is the tin one and was used in the first 6-months of 1910. NYS started issuing & providing plates in June of 1910. Previously the state assigned a number and the owner had to make or have plates made.
Yes on just a state issued interior number tag. I have a guys 1912 car here now, and it has about 5 of those tags nailed to the wood seat riser, not the dash issued by town of: Desplains, ILL The coolest thing I read about the old dash tags: A guy on AACA was using a metal detector in nor cal. He found out that it was one place where the wreckage of the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake/fire was dumped. He found a 1906 S.F. brass tag with burn damage!
Thanks for starting this thread, always good to add some automotive history for newcomers to the hobby. I've seen leather plates but never stepped up and bought one. I think it is interesting to track down the car the early plates were on. The same can be done with early photos, many early (pre 1910) cars had a professional photo taken along with the family in the car. Bob
Mass. was the first to issue plates, in 1903... http://www.massrmv.com/rmv/history/ Interesting to see that the number on my OT vehicle plate was issued in that first year....
Yes, they're original. The clips on a few of them are the same because they were probably made by the same company. Back then, an owner was given a number and was responsible for making or having made, their own plates with the size of the plate & numbers / letters specified by each particular state. Often, one state wouldn't recognize another state's plates and it wasn't uncommon to see a vehicle near a border of two or three states, driving around with two or three different plates on the vehicle at the same time.
Last year on American Pickers on the History channel they found a Michigan 1906 leather plate. The number traced back to owned by the Olds Motor Co, they sold it to the Oldsmobile Museum for $1500, if I remember right.
those plates are cool. found this online... ""In 1910 458,500 motor vehicles were registered in the United States, and motor vehicle manufacturing was rapidly growing into one of the nation's major industries.""
I was think SD in specific. We only had 583K in population but have always been on the front edge of technology. We even had at least 2 car manufacturers back then. I would bet SD had only 1000 cars?
I could find out. First year was 1905 and they numbered 1 through about 378 IIRC. You can only tell the year of SD pre-state plates by the numbering sequence and by the last year (1912) they were up toward 17,000. That was a total for all years 05-12.
VERY cool, at least to a license plate geek...... From the book, "License Plates of the United States" by James K. Fox: "The original authority to register automobiles in Minnesota was vested in the state boiler inspectors! The numbers they issued, beginning in 1903, were to be painted on the body of the vehicle to be registered. The authority was shared with local city authorities, and it appears that the vehicle owner had his choice of where to register. In 1905, full authority was turned over to local city clerks, and a dated 1908 Minneapolis plate exists today. It is made of metal characters riveted to a metal base." The book I quoted from was copyrighted 1994 and maybe other examples have been found since then, but if not, you have a VERY rare plate, my friend.
This website has some great info I like to use for reference. http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/idx.html
Great motoring history here. I thought my 1913 Oregon plate was early, and had no idea that they used leather. I cant do the link thing, as im on my hand crank phone, but us plate geeks have a social group, called licence plate collectors.
Wow, what a find. They are as good as you can get. Usually the first thing to rot off are the two tabs and yours are mint. I hope you realize that you have a museum quality find. Congrats!!
Here's two links for more information about leather license plates: leatherlicenseplates.com www.leatherplates.com
I have a 1944 Montana license plate made from soybeans. Metal shortage because of the war. I know it's not leather, but it's still biodegradable. Sent from my SM-G900R4 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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