Any plate collectors here?

[Kevin M. Parkinson]

The hearse plate has the plus sign and 3 digits and another plus sign (+123+), however, like the ambulance plate, it can only have numbers.

The are still using the white letters on the green background for the the Ambulance and Hearse plates, so in theory, the person that had registered the 1956 ambulance plate could get a 2012 plate with the same numbers and it would look just like the 1956 plate.

So would a hearse owner have the choice at registration of the green back ground and white letters you describe or white background and green letters as seen in the photo posted in #4 of this thread?

 

[Steve Lichtman]

...The "Live Free or Die" motto is not used on the Antique, Hearse, or Ambulance license plates because of lack of room for placement...

That and, well, I think that phrase might be a little tacky on a hearse or ambulance, if you know what I mean.

 

[Paul Steinberg]

So would a hearse owner have the choice at registration of the green back ground and white letters you describe or white background and green letters as seen in the photo posted in #4 of this thread?

I have no idea. What I was told by the lady at the NH DMV is that they are presently issuing the green background with white letters. It might have something to do with when the plates are issued. It also might be that she wasn't totally up to date on what was currently being issued. She seemed quite knowledgeable about what plates had what colors etc., but as we all know, it is sometimes impossible to know what changes are being made at the executive level.

 

[Mike Stevens]

hearse plate

This HEARSE plate is not on a hearse. It is on my new everyday driver. It may be a long time before it becomes collectible. Other special order plates I considered were already taken. This was availible so I thought, why not?
Mike

 

[Steve Lichtman]

This is the current plate for funeral vehicles and private ambulances in Maryland. The C-plate has been in use since the late '80's, and prior to that, it was a "CA" plate. But the "C" or "CA" is the series just for funeral vehicles and private ambulances, nothing else. I have seen some funeral home limousines and service vans with the "C" plate, so it's not just for the hearses, it's any funeral home vehicle.

Fire department ambulances either have custom printed red/white tags with the fire department name on it (issued by the state MVA) - sorry for the little photo - or have government plates.

Not very exciting, is it? That's Maryland for ya.

 

[Jeremy D. Ledford]

Took this photo of a Georgia hearse plate this past weekend. The HB designation means Hearse Body with the GA DMV. That last three numbers have been whited out

 

[Rick Franklin]

Here in Washington State

In our state, private ambulance services such as AMR or Rural Metro use standard issue plates, nothing special. Government owned rigs have their own plates...."D" lettered plates for city vehicles...."C" lettered plates for County. The Washington State Patrol has either ___WSP or ____SP on their plates. on the "___WSP" plates, the first 3 numbers are the troopers unit number.

 

[Andrew G. Zajkowski]

I may have missed it but i do have 3 plates in question 1st is ontario -1967 confederation dk blu whit letters, last digits are 35x, illinois 1984 mfr (21) with a (k) on the right, gold dk letters , and last lite blu dk blue letter's illinois 1985 mfr (21) witha (w) on the right the illinois one's will be with me on saturday.

 

[Pat Post]

Kansas just used regular plates and Florida has "RESTRICTED" on the bottom of their plates.

 

[Kenn Evans II]

My 63's plate is Arizona Historic Vehicle numbered 401K this is my retirement project.

 

[Jacob M. Fournier]

Spoke to a representative of the NH DMV this morning, and got the information about the above 1956 NH license plate. It is indeed a ambulance license plate, however, the only thing that makes it an ambulance plate is the fact that it has only numbers with the plus sign (+123), and ambulance plates it cannot have any letters.
The hearse plate has the plus sign and 3 digits and another plus sign (+123+), however, like the ambulance plate, it can only have numbers.
A vanity passenger plate can have the plus (+) however, it must also have 2 letter with it (+AB) or it can have the (+) and be an alpha numerical plate (+AB123) or (+AB12+) with a maximum of 7 total characters. (+ab123+).
The plus that is used on both the ambulance and hearse license plates is exactly the same as the plus symbol that is used on the vanity plate.
The "Live Free or Die" motto is not used on the Antique, Hearse, or Ambulance license plates because of lack of room for placement. The are still using the white letters on the green background for the the Ambulance and Hearse plates, so in theory, the person that had registered the 1956 ambulance plate could get a 2012 plate with the same numbers and it would look just like the 1956 plate.

I finally had a chance to speak to a neighbor of mine, who is a funeral director in New Hampshire, and asked him about the license plates on his hearse. They still bear the plus/cross at the beginning and end of the plate, and do not have the "Live Free or Die" motto at the top. I would disagree about it being left off because of lack of room, the size of the embossed lettering is the same as a passenger car plate, and there is the same amount of room for printing the motto as on a standard plate, but that's just my opinion - I can't speak for the NH DMV. My neighbor's understanding of the plus signs on the plate is that the tradition began when the majority of funeral homes were providing ambulance service, indicating a vehicle used to provide medical transport. NH hearse plates are not available in a vanity configuration, but the plus is available as a special character on a vanity plate, so he has a vanity plate with a plus sign, followed by the initials of his funeral home, followed by another plus sign, on the minivan he uses as a first call car. The state of Vermont has no history of special plates for either ambulances or hearses, current ambulances have different plates based on who owns them, private services have standard green truck plates, municipal owned ambulances have a red background with MUN vertically on the left side of the plate, as do other municipally owned vehicles, there is also a red background plate that says VOL for volunteer based organizations. Residents of Vermont who receive permission from the Vermont Ambulance Association can get an "Emergency Medical Services" plate with the Star of Life emblem on the right side, but I have only seen them on private vehicles, never on an ambulance. For a good history of Vermont license plates, check out this - http://dmv.vermont.gov/registrations/drivers/plates/history - for current plates available - http://dmv.vermont.gov/sites/dmv/files/pdf/DMV-Plate_Listing.pdf
The conversation with my neighbor did lead to the following being dropped off at my house, so I was quite pleased.

 

[Kevin Lynch]

New Hampshire license plates

Well when I left police work in New Hampshire and moved to Florida, I found they are called tags here. Whatever. Anyway, when I was in NH (1980-1985) you could have a + or a - or a & (ampersand). Or any combination thereof. The funny thing is that these tags could not be run by any LE agency OUTSIDE of NH. I think such an agency would have to send a teletype to Concord (NH) to have it looked up.
I had the + before and after my initials on a 1980 Chevy Chevette. No reason for the +; I was in police work but thought it was cool.
LIVE FREE OR DIE has been on the plates for ages but some group sued the state a few years ago stating they didn't agree with the statement. So I think you are given a choice when you get the plates. The Old Man in the Mountain image had been on plates forever- but don't forget, his nose fell off several years ago. I don't think they wanted to have a nose-less plate. I wish all states had front and rear plates like NH does.
And now you know....the rest....of the story.

 

[John Burchfield]

Georgia has had the "HB" plates for years, and just a few years ago I saw one on a van (Type II) ambulance in Cobb County (just North of Atlanta, Marietta is county seat) As far as I know Cobb County still contracts with one or more private ambulance operators for EMS service instead of having a county or hospital run service. There are probably some of the other 159 Georgia counties that also have this arrangement. I thought it was a cool carryover from the passenger car ambulance days that modern private ambulances still get hearse plates! They're cool on a hearse, too! In North and South Carolina there are no special plates for hearses. They get regular passenger car plates. On my registration cards (SC) the body type/style is listed as "HRS" or "AMB."

 

[Jacob M. Fournier]

It is interesting that New Hampshire does allow +, -, and & as characters on vanity plates. In Vermont, no special characters are allowed, but they allow spaces, which I understand that New Hampshire does not. When I tried to duplicate the Montana vanity plate that my ambulance had in the '70s, here in Vermont, I had to replace a - with a space. I wasn't aware that law enforcement was unable to run the special characters - pretty neat fact.

 

[Patrick J. Martin]

I hope no one minds me revisiting this thread that seems to have run its course, but I recently came across a booklet on the history of Illinois license plates, and thought I share some pertinent information here.

1941 - Illinois creates their For Hire class, consisting of taxis, livery cars, funeral home vehicles, and ambulances. These license plates look just like every other license plate, the only thing that makes them for this class of vehicle is that they have a '0' (zero) as the first digit in the number.

1972 - The For Hire class is broken up into separate taxi, livery, funeral home, and ambulance license plates. The '0' number use is discontinued, and plates receive either AMB, FH, TAXI, or LIVERY.

1982 - The ambulance plate is redesigned. The AMB letters are discontinued, and the word AMBULANCE now appears on the plate. The ambulance plate also discontinues the use of a random number. There are now three separate numbers on the plate. The first number is the emergency medical service region of the state in which the ambulance operates, the second number is the ambulance company's registration number with the state, and the third number is the unit number in the ambulance company's fleet.

1990 - A Medi-Car plate, using the letters MC is introduced for vehicles engaged in the non-emergency medical transportation.

Now for some miscellaneous information that some here might find interesting:

1907 - Illinois registers cars for the first time. Motorists receive an aluminum round disc to mount on the dashboard, and are required to supply their own license plates.

1911 - The first state issued license plates are introduced.

1917 - The last year Illinois issues dashboard discs along with license plates.

1948 - Illinois creates the Manufacturer license plate, with Manufacturer plate number 1 going to the Tucker Corporation of Chicago.

1949 - First year for an antique vehicle plate, which is called a Horseless Carriage plate.

1961 - Having run out of numbers, Illinois begins using both letters and numbers on their plates.

1968 - First year for a Police plate. The Horseless Carriage plate becomes the Antique Vehicle plate.

1985 - The Tow Truck plate is introduced. (Just for you, Rick Franklin )

Here is a photo of a couple of the plates in my collection. The photo shows a set of the 1975 For Hire plates except for a Taxi plate, as well as the current design for Ambulance and Funeral Home license plates.

 

[Kevin Lynch]

1980 Chevy Chevette with New Hampshire "plus" tags

When I moved to NH in '80 I got the 'plus' signs before and after my initials. It wasn't on a hearse, it was a little Chevy Chevette. It was an optional "character" that anyone could apply for including "-" and "&."

 

[John ED Renstrom]

here is one for you

 

[Kyle Wilkinson]

The personalized plates that are now gracing my dad's '68 Dodge.

 

[Martin Harvey]

We used to have a system to recognize the license plate before 1979 here.

Between 1951 and 1972 H- plates were hearses and ambulances, then H- became hearses between 1973 and 1978 They used the CO- for "Corbillard" only at the end of 1978 and in 1979.
AM- plates were used for ambulances between 1973 and 1979.

Now every commercial car is plated F something; hearses, police cars, ambulances, rental cars, etc.

 

[Tom Hoczyk]

The New Hampshire "Old Man on the Mountain" facade actually came tumbling down quite a long time ago. I remember taking a photo of it when I was driving by one time, long ago. No doubt that's why it's not on the plate any more.