1921 New York License Plates I Got

[umodelnut]

I go up and mow my great grandmas lawn and she told me there was some old plates in her garage. So Papa was there mowing too and he got them down and they are pretty dang old. One is sun baked pretty good and the other is nice. I cleaned them up with simple green and now I gotta find a place to hang them. I think they're pretty interesting.

[Green Dash]

Nice find. You cleaned them up pretty good without compromising the the original finish.

[RowdyRebel]

I found a matched set of 1926 Illinois tags at an antique shop in town...working on restoring them to like-new condition to give to my dad for Christmas. He inherited his dad's restored & show-winning 1926 Model T, and he'll be able to run these on the car as long as he keeps the antique vehicle tags issued by the state in the car with him. I never know what to get the guy...hope he likes 'em. Best part is, I've only got $50 tied up in the project...plates, rust-dissolving chemicals, primer, and the 2 colors of paint. Otherwise it's just my time with the body hammers & dollies straightening them out & raising the letters, cleaning the rust off, patching up the few minor holes, priming, spraying the background color, and then hand painting the letters & other raised sections. The ones I got appear to have the same color scheme as your...navy background & white letters. I opted for "close"...1 shade lighter on the background (available in a spray) and an ivory color for the letters ($15 cheaper for the quart I was going to have to buy...they screwed up mixing somebody else's paint, so it was on clearance). I figure it'll just give them that slightly aged appearance...but should be close enough that nobody should notice (or even care).

Here's what they looked like after hammering on 'em for a few minutes:

[Superdog]

nice find,Vinny,especially since they are a matching set.I hunted along time to fine a set of 1921 Iowa plates for my AC.

[Loadstar]

Those are nice!!! Especially the bottom one.... I saw a show a while back..... I think it was "Chasing Cars... they were at an estate sale of collector who had tons of car and motorcycle stuff.... What surprised me the most were how much the old license plates collections brought.....Big dollars!!!!

[JTFormula]

I've got a small plate collection, maybe 30 plates, half of those from Europe and one from Western Australia, I got from my over seas customers. I have a NY trailer plate from 1914. Pretty cool. I think the most I paid was $20 for a plate. Got them hanging in the garage.

Loadstar - you are right it was on Chasing Classic Cars. That was the Hartung Auction, Lee Roy had a huge amount of plate sets. Some were pretty rare. I would have loved to dig through that pile of stuff.

[umodelnut]

nice find,Vinny,especially since they are a matching set.I hunted along time to fine a set of 1921 Iowa plates for my AC.

I wish I could find year matching plates for the U, but in New York I think they have to be original to the truck. Theres a couple more plates there but they are Alaska trailer plates from like 88.

[mackniac]

they would look good on the U bumper

[farmer52]

Problem with "antique" plates, in the 60s some states went to a yearly sticker. Finding plates with the year stamped in them is difficult.

[Maddog13407]

yup and Ny had the plate and gave you the little year upgrade. it was the year stamped out in metal that you bolted to the corner of the plate overtop the old plate. my grandfather said all the truck drivers workin for him use to steal them and sell them or trade them so they started spot welding the numbers to the license plates.

[Loadstar]

Heres a question about old plates......In my state (MA) you can use a year of manufacture plate for antique vehicles...while I was looking for a 1953 plate I noticed that there were different year plates with the same numbers on them. So in some states did you have to turn your plates in every year??????? Seems like a big hassle...

[bulldogboy]

I remember in New Hampshire they would issue new plates every year in reverse colors. One year would be a white background with green letters and numbers, the following year the plates

would be a green background with white letters and numbers. I don't think that you had to turn the old plates in. The motto on the plates at the time was "Scenic" at the top with "New

Hampshire" on the bottom. One year the motto was changed to "Photoscenic" but people complained that it was promoting the photography business so it went back to "Scenic".

bulldogboy

[41chevy]

I wish I could find year matching plates for the U, but in New York I think they have to be original to the truck. Theres a couple more plates there but they are Alaska trailer plates from like 88.

New York will let you register with old plates from the year of the vehicle. If you have plates the reguire a year sticker on the, you can buy them after market. Main requirement is antique or classis insurance and registration for the vehicle. My 1941 Chevy and 1970 Monte Carlo both have NYS legal vintage plates on them. Rhinebeck swap meet , Hersey or any ATHS show is the best place to find Commercial vintage plates. Paul

[Maddog13407]

this is what I put on mine. found an old tag hanging in the garage that was from 59. these were the ones they use to issue I think to update the plate for the new year. these are the ones my grandfather said they use to have to spotweld or pop rivet to the plate because everyone use to steal them. should have kept them this way instead of the high dollar stickers New York makes us put on the windshield now that wont even stick longer than a month!