Grayed, Found in Barn
Gideon Nicksic
Wisconsin first started using reflective sheeting in 1967, after using painted plates for 62 years beforehand. While the changeover to reflective sheeting has usually not been an issue, in recent years the reflective sheeting on Wisconsin license plates has been having widespread problems with peeling off of the license plate and graying.
This problem isn't unique to the state of Wisconsin; I've heard reports of it being a widespread issue in New York, Ontario, and Pennsylvania, just to name a few states. While this article is focused on the peeling plate problems in Wisconsin, a lot of the information here can apply to practically any state with peeling plate issues.
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Please note: I am not affiliated with any government agencies, rather I'm an independent hobbyist license plate historian writing a summary on the information I've gathered on the peeling plates problem.
Wisconsin started adding reflective sheeting to most plates in 1967, though some special classes of vehicles and heavy truck/trailer types continued using nonreflective painted plates. From 1967 to 2014, license plates were replaced in intervals between 5 and 15 years or so. The last plates to be automatically replaced were plates issued in the late 1990s, which were replaced in 2014. After that, Wisconsin stopped replacing license plates in a scheduled fasion and it was up to motorists to replace plates once they wore out.
During this time period, most license plates didn't have many, if any, issues with wearing out. Some plates would gray after many years of sitting in hot barns or humidity, some would fade a little, and others would have the sheeting crack and start to blister, however peeling plates were almost never an issue, even on plates used 15+ years at a time.
In 1999, Wisconsin switched their reflective sheeting suppliers from 3M to Avery. These new Avery sheeting plates commonly had the sheeting bubble and lift up around the serial, and some plates blistered around the serial, exposing bare metal.
Avery plates also had issues with fading over decades of extended usage, and after 15-20 years they'd also start cracking like earlier plates.
However, blistering plates are relatively rare, and even plates that are blistering, cracking, and faded are still at least somewhat readable. Even the worst of the Avery plates I've seen don't come close as bad as many of the more recent plates.
In 2006, Wisconsin switched sheeting suppliers from Avery back to 3M. The first of these plates seems to have fared similarly to the 3M plates previously issued up until 1999, however beginning with plates issued around 2008, these 3M license plates began having widespread peeling issues.
Beginning in the early 2010s, some license plate collectors started reporting that their license plates issued around 2008 started graying. By 2016, people had started noticing that their plates are peeling - and that this wasn't just an isolated issue. Throughout the rest of the late 2010s and early 2020s, these peeling license plate problems only became more and more widespread.
What usually happened with these plates was that they'd be fine for anywhere between 5 and 11 years or so. After that, commonly around the 7th year of usage, they'd start quickly graying and peeling, and within a year they'd have large sections of the reflective sheeting peeled off. Many plates have all of their sheeting fall off this way.
Other plates would only gray and wouldn't peel severely, if at all. Reportedly, plates on vehicles stored outside seem to have the tendency to abruptly gray and peel, while plates on vehicles stored in garages tend to just gray, though the accuracy of such information isn't known.
In 2016, Wisconsin switched sheeting suppliers from 3M back to Avery once again. These plates initially seemed to hold up better than their 3M counterparts, though some specialty plates from around 2019 had issues with the clear plastic layer shifting and peeling away from the reflective sheeting. This appears to be a resolved issue.
Since the earliest of these plates are 7 years old at the moment, it's too early to tell for sure if these plates will gray and peel like 3M plates did. Unfortunately, beginning in April 2023 I've began to see an increasing number of Avery plates issued around 2016-2017 begin to gray, and in November 2023 I got two significantly grayed Avery plates issued around 2016. The two plates were aging like a hybrid between 3M and older Avery plates; both are very gray, and both are starting to peel around the serial like older Avery plates. Additionally, they were peeling around the edge of the plate like 3M plates at the beginning of their peeling.
Whether this is all Avery plates will do or if they'll catastrophically peel and fall apart like the 3M plates isn't known at the moment.
In late 2023, Wisconsin started issuing plates with a new type of sheeting, called "prismatic" sheeting, supplied by 3M. This new sheeting has a different texture than other sheeting, and it's supposed to be brighter than the older sheeting used by 3M and Avery over the last 60 years or so.
Since this sheeting is relatively new, not much is known about the long-term durability of plates with this sheeting. I've heard reports from other plate collectors saying the oldest of the sheeting in Manitoba (from 2017 or so) has held up well and hasn't had any widespread issues. I've also heard reports from other collectors saying that the top layer of the new sheeting peels off easily and I've seen images of Minnesota plates with the top layer completely peeled off. Overall, we really don't know how well these plates will hold up over the next 10 years or so.
In light of the widespread issues with sheeting peeling off of plates, Wisconsin started a 10 year rolling replate in 2023, beginning with replacing the Avery plates from the early 2000s that were still on the roads. Last I heard, plates issued around 2004 were being replaced in this rolling replate.
The future of peeling plates really depends on how the last two runs of reflective sheeting hold up over 10 years of usage; it looks like graying plates will be an issue at least until the newest Avery sheeting plates are replaced in the early 2030s, but whether the newest prismatic sheeting from this year will hold up the full 10 years isn't known.
When it comes to figuring out why these plates are peeling, that unfortunately isn't very well known. However, there are several theories as to why plates are suddenly peeling in a fashion that has never been seen before.
According to Kristina Boardman, the Wisconsin DMV administrator, she believes the issue with these plates is a combination of age and exposure to the elements. The manufacturing process itself hasn't changed according to her.
While it is true that older plates aren't immune to age, I don't believe that age alone would cause current plates to fall apart like that, especially considering older plates were never replaced, age in a completely different way, and even after being used nearly 10 years more, they never peeled like the newer plates have.
Aside from the theory from Kristina, there's really not any other "official" theories on this issue. However, several license plate collectors and other people have their own theories.
In a recent issue of the ALPCA PLATES magazine, the editor of the magazine asked license plate collectors in the association if they had any information on why recent license plates have had widespread issues with peeling reflective sheeting. This issue isn't exclusive to Wisconsin, so there were multiple different collectors with multiple theories as to why plates are peeling.
One theory suggests that in 2005, recycled aluminum began to be used for plate manufacturing. The collector theorizes that this recycled aluminum had issues with impurities, causing the reflective sheeting to peel off of the license plate. Oddly enough, the first plates to peel severely were plates issued around 2007.
Another theory that a collector shared was that he heard from another collector that the peeling sheeting was caused by a varnish used on 3M sheeting that wasn't able to handle the elements, causing the plates to gray and peel. Given how Avery plates are beginning to age similarly to 3M plates, this could also be true but it's beginning to look like it's not an issue exclusive to 3M plates.
A collector in Ontario suggests that there was a change to 3M sheeting around 2007 that caused the plates to have widespread problems with delamination and peeling, and that given how aggressively 3M lobbies for plates to be replaced every 7 years, he believes it could have been an intentional change designed to force states to replace their plates more often. Personally, I believe it's a stretch to say it's a form of planned obolescence and I am suspicious of such a theory. However, I wanted to include it as a part of the theories known on these plates regardless.
Another article describes the 3M sheeting as a lower quality sheeting, which would disintegrate at unexpected speeds.
As for what I think the reason on why these plates are peeling, I think that it's possible that the manufacturing of the plates at the prison hasn't changed (and that's probably where the DOT's theory comes from), but I believe that something has changed with the materials of the plates, such as the sheeting, the adhesive, the metal, etc. Given how this is a known issue with two sheeting manufacturers, but only on newer plates, I think either 1. both sheeting manufacturers started producing lower quality sheeting that grayed and peeled much sooner than they should have, or 2. there was a change in the metal composition or the adhesive that caused the sheeting to not adhere well and peel after a while.
Especially considering that other jurisdictions like Ontario haven't replaced plates since 1973 and never had issues with peeling sheeting until around 2015, I highly doubt it's an issue with age alone.
As many people have recently noticed, Wisconsin license plates have had new problems with the sheeting peeling off of the license plates in ways never seen before. While there's many theories on why these plates are peeling, there is no conclusive answer on what has changed in Wisconsin license plates to cause them to peel like this. All that is known is that something has changed in the license plates to cause this.
Since Wisconsin started requiring plates over 10 years of age to be reissued recently, the peeling plates issue likely will not be as severe in the coming years. Whether the newer plates can last the full 10 years is unknown at the moment, but if they do peel, at least they'll eventually be replaced.
Q: Why are Wisconsin license plates peeling all of a sudden?
A: Please see the theories section for the known theories on the cause of this issue.
Q: Is there a specific batch of plates that are defective?
A: It appears that the worst of the peeling plates is from around 101-NMA to 999-ZCY, while plates above that are the graying Avery plates. Plates from AWL-1001 onward use the new prismatic sheeting and I'm not sure if they'll peel or not.
Q: Will it cost me money to get my peeling plates replaced?
A: Unfortunately, yes, it costs $8 to replace your plates per the Wisconsin DOT website.
Q: Why are my plates being replaced if they're perfectly fine?
A: In 2021, a new law was introduced requiring plates over 10 years old to be replaced, and in 2022, the rolling plate replacement started. Currently they're reissuing plates around 20 years old as part of the transition into this new 10 year replacement cycle.
Q: Will I keep my old plate number when my plates are replaced?
A: No, when you get replacement plates you're issued a new number in whatever sequence is being issued.
You can see more information about plate replacements on the Wisconsin DOT website.