I am Gideon Nicksic, ALPCA #12423 and DLPCC #211, and welcome to my website. This site is focused mostly on documenting Wisconsin license plate schematics and history, from their introduction in 1905 to the present day.
I have been interested in learning about license plates since 2012, when I was 9 years old. My research journey started with me writing down and memorizing Wisconsin license plate sticker colors that I had observed from various sources. My research of license plates and their numbering systems started around May 2018, and this website was created on October 10th, 2018, as part of a project for my computer science class in 10th grade. Since then I've been working on researching Wisconsin license plate history and photographing examples of license plates issued over the last 120 years.
Down below is a bunch of blog-like articles I write about the process of developing this website, topics involving Wisconsin license plates, writings of my plate adventures, and so on. I have no schedule for writing articles currently, though I'd like to get into the habit of writing something at least every once in a while.
See blog posts from: 2023-2024 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018
Welp, my camera I've used to photograph most "current" plates on my website finally got an upgrade in mid-August, after two years of wanting a replacement.
Back in 2016, I found a camera at a thrift store for only 5 dollars. Thinking I had nothing to lose, I bought it, and it turned out it was a relatively good, albeit outdated, camera. It worked almost perfectly, and I used it as my main standalone camera from 2016 until June.
I initially used it for personal, non-license plate images, such as photographing animals we see out and about. In 2019, I brought that camera with me to this restaurant in the Dells that had a lot of plates on display, and I photographed plates that were of particular interest to my website. And in 2021, I brought that camera with me to a school field trip to photograph plates on vehicles on the bus ride.
I found that using sport mode on that camera allowed me to photograph plates while on car trips without the pictures being blurry. From 2021 to mid-2022, and from mid 2023 to June 2024 I brought that camera with me to most trips, photographing the plates on vehicles of particular interest. Many of my images were of very common plates, though many of the images are of exceedingly rare plates that even 3 years later, I've never found another example of.
Unfortunately, even with how useful and reliable the camera is, the camera always used lithium batteries and would drain them very, very fast. Initially, this wasn't much of an issue, as I could just buy another pack of disposable lithium batteries every once in a while. But over the years, lithium batteries got more and more expensive (going from 8 dollars a pack to over 15 dollars a pack), and disposing of them is a nightmare in our very rural area. So, I put getting a new camera on my "lower priority" list of things to eventually buy.
And, last month, I finally got an upgrade camera, another Kodak, from Walmart. I verified that it had the same features, and that it specifically had a rechargeable battery and didn't take disposable lithium AA batteries because I'd rather not spend another $300 on batteries a year. After a few test runs, I found out the sport mode on the new camera doesn't work as well, but I have more options with manual mode so I'm able to take decent pictures anyway.
Over the next couple of weeks, I got better at photographing plates with the new camera. These are a couple early image examples from August, and I'll be importing newer photos soon. Some other highlights include a 2023 demonstrator plate, a California plate used on a Google street view car, quarterly truck plates, and quarterly tractor plates.
Between 1989 and 1996, license plate stickers in Wisconsin usually used a clear plastic layer on top of the sticker itself. After 1996, most validation stickers were simply reflective stickers with no other plastic layer on top of them.
However, for a few years now I've had a 2006 farm trailer plate that I've suspected to have a 1998 sticker with this plastic layer on it. Such a sticker would be completely unprecedented, as no stickers beyond 1996 had been known to have this clear plastic layer, and no plate types that were revalidated to 1998 with stickers were revalidated before the plastic stickers ceased production. And so, I just assumed it was a 1995 sticker that had been stained and slapped on top of a later 97 sticker by mistake, as I've seen similar sticker errors on other plates before.
About a week ago, I finally caved into the curiosity and decided to peel the stickers off to see what the mysterious sticker was. And to my absolute shock, it actually was a 1998 sticker with that plastic layer on top of it! Moreover, the style of the sticker is similar to stickers dated 1993 to 1995; 1996 stickers used much less noticeable score marks, while this 1998 sticker used very prominent score marks.
Now, as to why this sticker exists is up for speculation. As I said, the style is nothing like any other sticker from that time period, so it's highly unlikely it was just some random sticker produced with the previous materials a couple years after they were discontinued. The only thing I can really come up with is the fact that 5-year plate types, such as school bus and special-X, were revalidated in 1993 to expire in 1998. These plates never received stickers, however previous bases and subsequent bases did receive stickers. Moreover, the style of the 1998 sticker is identical to that of other stickers issued that year.
So, given this, my crazy theory is that Wisconsin initially planned on revalidating these new plates with "98" dated stickers, produced some of these "98" stickers, then at the last minute changed the plans and went with a stickerless "98" dated plate instead. Then, when other plate types were being revalidated for 1998, they found these unused 1998 stickers, and issued them as if they were normal 1998 stickers.
Unfortunately, I really can't find any documentation on such stickers from any source, and asking around the plate collector circles currently hasn't unearthed even a single other sticker in such a style. So for now, the reasoning behind the strange 1998 sticker is a mystery.
Last year, I heard that Wisconsin was introducing "EV" stickers to electric and hybrid vehicles. And in February, I was sent images of these new "EV" stickers.
Currently, I haven't documented these plates as I planned on making a separate page for electric vehicle plates, which would include plates with EV stickers, low speed plates, "electric vehicle" plates that were issued briefly in the 1970s, and local "EV" plates issued in the late 2000s.
So far I've seen EV stickers on regular passenger, truck, and heavy truck plates. I currently have photographed an undated passenger, a 2024 passenger, and a 2025 passenger with EV stickers on them, along with an undated truck plate that looks like it might have an EV sticker on it, though the image is too low quality for me to know for sure.
Absent this page being written yet, here's a few images of EV plates I've photographed in the last month or so:
And in news for the website that probably nobody will really notice, I've finally began using my new script to adjust the data tables layout depending on the size of the screen being used; for phones used in portrait mode, it'll have more narrow tables, while for desktops and laptops the tables are normal. This is so you don't need to side scroll, while also allowing for people using a wider screen to see the tables better.
It's still a little buggy (particularly tables with 3 columns on mobile devices having an extra table cell sometimes) but it's an improvement over the previous system, so I've begun to finally release it after months of working on the script on and off.
Maybe in a month or two I can finally figure out why it does that after I let it sit for a while and come back to it. But this is the closest I've gotten with this project so I'm just gonna leave it be for now, and work on other things that desperately need to be worked on, like my second most popular light trucks page that I've barely updated for the last 3 years or so, and my new "electric vehicles" page I've been planning on creating for the last year or so.
For many years, I've wanted to make mockups of plates that I don't have photos of, particularly rare license plates that are hard to find examples of. Throughout the years, I've tried several platforms to make these mockups, but usually these mockup tests are very inaccurate. However, in early March 2024, I started making mockup tests on GIMP, to see if I could make better mockups. These mockups are much more successful and are relatively accurate for how imprecise my illustration skills are.
(Yes, I know that there's text at the top left. That's from a caption I put on my font sets to mark what they are, which I forgot to remove before exporting my mockup tests.)
I may or may not add some mockups of older plates that are very difficult to find examples of, particularly plates like early trailer plates and stuff.
One issue I've been kind of keeping track of over the last 5-ish years or so is the issue with peeling and graying license plates. Since it's a long article with a lot of information in it that I've gathered from various sources, I've elected to write the article as a separate page, which can be found here.
I've chosen to write a detailed article about what I've been able to gather about this, since I get asked about peeling plates a lot and there really isn't any documentation on this issue beyond "plates have been peeling recently and that wasn't happening before".
Long story short, the peeling plates are a new problem that wasn't seen before 2015 or so; at least, not to the severity and magnitude that we see today. Unfortunately, there isn't really any documentation on why these plates are peeling, though from what I've gathered, this isn't a problem with environmental factors such as weather, age, or liquid rock salt exclusively. While these factors could be exacerbating some problems, something has definitely changed with the plates themselves to cause this problem to the degree we see today, and even the worst of the plates from the early 2000s still in use today are still in better condition than many plates issued in the early 2010s.
I'm hoping this article can shed some light onto this issue and investigate it in detail, as this issue has largely been brushed off as an "age issue" and, from what I've seen, practically nobody has even attempted to investigate this issue.
Since 1978, almost all Wisconsin truck and trailer type plates have carried a stacked 2 letter prefix or suffix. For some types, like RV trailer, the prefix/suffix is simply an abbreviation of the plate type. For other types that are weight classed, like heavy truck and trailer, the top letter always represents the weight class of the vehicle, while the bottom letter is usually a serial letter.
From 1978 to 1991, all of these weight classed plates other than special-UX/Z and farm trailer plates used a simple lettering system for the bottom letter, with it simply being an incrementor once the regular format for a particular weight class is exceeded. For example, once GA9999 was reached on heavy truck plates, GB 1 was issued, and it would continue on from there. And this basic system was kept for all types, with the exception of the previously mentioned types which used constant X, Z, and F bottom letters respectively.
However, in 1992, two new weight classes were added: X, which was added between the C and D weight classes, and M which was added between the L and N weight classes. In addition, heavy farm trucks started using a bottom letter of "F" like farm trailer plates. For the most part, however, the bottom letter system was unchanged until 1994.
In 1994, the entire system was reworked; heavy truck plates all incremented their bottom letters from whatever it last was on the 1992 base, while trailers gained a constant bottom letter "R" and tractors gained a constant bottom letter "S." For types that previously had constant bottom letters, the numbers started at a constant number somewhere in the middle of the letter series; heavy farm trucks started at 30001, farm trailers started at 5001, and special-UX/Z plates started at 1001 for all their weight classes. B and C weight class trailers quickly overflowed their respective series, leading to a second bottom letter "T" being used after "xR9999" is reached.
The current base of heavy truck and trailer type plates was issued beginning in 2009, and most of these series started at a number close to where the 1994 plates stopped; 1994 X weight class truck plates stopped at around XC75000 and started at XC80001 for the current base. The Y weight class was added between the D and E weight classes for trailers, with numbers starting at YA10001, while C weight class trailer plates started at CA10001.
And for most of the 2010s, this system of serial progression where heavy trucks used simple bottom letter incrementing, trailers used R, T, then A for bottom letters, and all other types used a constant bottom letter was retained. However, around 2017 that started to change drastically.
Around 2017, D weight class truck plates reached DG99999. Under the old system, they would have just gone to DH10001. However, instead of doing that, they jumped back to DG 1001, then issued 300 plates up to DG 1301 and then went to DH10001. F weight class tractors also went from FS 999 to FS 101 around this same time for unknown reasons. Unlike the DG plates, however, the tractor plates never went to FS 1001 or FS10001 like they would have under the previous system, and to this day still continue to increment up from FS 101.
Then, around 2020, an entirely new system of serial letter progression was evidently adopted. Whenever any series would exhaust its current serial format, the bottom letter would increment no matter what. This so far has led several completely unexpected series popping up over the last few years, with an entire new letter being introduced to these stacked weight class codes for the first time since the extended weight classes of tractor plates in the 1970s!
Under this new system, many, oftetimes peculiar, new series have popped up, including:
And this is only the beginning of the weird series. BF farm trailer plates are almost to BF 9999, P weight class trailer plates are becoming much more common in such a short amount of time that PT will likely be seen by 2030, SR trailer plates are at SR 98 and will likely go to SS 11 in the very near future, and XR trailer plates will likely reach XS within the next few years.
Why Wisconsin has chosen to throw away their functional plate numbering system seemingly overnight is beyond me, especially considering Wisconsin is obviously trying to reduce series overlap as much as possible. While I may understand BT99999 being followed by BU10001, PR 999 going to PS 101 is just ridiculous and the PR series has enough capacity for decades at the current rate of issuance, and I see this series exhausting weight class codes much faster than is necessary if this system is used indefinitely.
Recently, while going through photos of insert stickers, I noticed that for March 2023, 2024, and 2025, all three stickers had the state shape at the top right. Now, for March 2024, that wasn't too out of the ordinary as some stickers (such as the March 2021 stickers) carried the format from the previous year. However, to see that happen two years in a row was unexpected. And upon double checking my images, I found out that all 2023 and 2024 insert stickers had the state shape at the top right, in addition to the March 2025 sticker that had recently been posted online.
From 2007 to 2023, the state shape on the stickers had changed positions in the order of top right, bottom right, top left, and bottom left, with a few rare exceptions for singular quarters/months. So to find this new constant format was unexpected, to say the least.
For the time being, normal stickers are still using the same right-left alternating pattern on the state shape position, through at least 2026 and up to at least 2028. 2027 stickers don't come out until late 2025, though 2030 stickers do come out in June for long-term trailer plates; for the time being there doesn't appear to be any changes to regular sticker formats.
A while ago, I heard that Wisconsin was going to be switching from Avery sheeting to a new type of sheeting, called "prismatic sheeting." This new sheeting is brighter than the older sheeting types, and many other states have recently begun to switch to 3M prismatic sheeting over the last few years or so.
And on November 30th, this image was posted to a group for license plate collectors:
And this is the older sheeting used on Wisconsin license plates from 2016 to 2023:
The new plates have a special pattern on them, hence the name "prismatic" sheeting. This sheeting variation is relatively easier to spot than older variations, so hopefully over the next few months more of these plates will be spotted and I'll have more data on the breakoff points between sheeting types. But for now, this is the only plate I know of to have this sheeting so far.
Update: As of January 16, 2024, the truck plate above is still the only known plate with this prismatic sheeting. I'm currently trying to find this sheeting on other plate types, like regular passenger plates, fleet plates, and other non-passenger plates that should have the new sheeting out by now, but I'm unaware of anyone else seeing this new sheeting on any other plates so far.
As of today, it has officially been 5 years since I created this website. I never thought my website would hold this amount of information, nor did I ever think that my website would be as visited as it is now. When I created these pages in high school for my computer science class, I never imagined that my website could be what it is today. And I'm thankful for all the people that have contributed information, images, and such to this website.
As a little treat for this mini celebration of this website turning half a decade old, I've released a few of my side projects I've been developing for a little while now, particularly massively expanding my "other info" page.
More updates to come...
My website was created in a unique year for Wisconsin license plates. Every plate type in the state expired in 2018 at some point, which is a phenomenon that won't happen again until 2048. Which means that my original tables for sticker colors extended out to 2024, which was a sticker issued to long-term ZA trailers in June 2018. 2023 stickers were issued to school buses in June 2018 and special-x and driver education vehicles in December 2018. 2020 stickers were issued to farm trucks in February 2018 and motorcycles/mopeds in April 2018, and of course 2019 stickers were issued to all other types beginning around January 2018, in addition to quarterly stickers being issued to various types of heavy truck and trailer plates as usual.
What this means is that the tables I created were valid until June 2023, then after that I would have to extend my tables. This is because school bus plates are dated June 2023, and sometime within the next couple months 2028 stickers will begin to be issued.
Currently the only place where the 2028 sticker color is shown is in a small table I made recently on the colors page detailing all of the current sticker colors, which 2028 stickers in theory should exist, however whether there are school bus plates with that sticker out there hasn't been confirmed yet. As such, the sticker color is currently unknown and I've put my educated guess as to what the sticker color will be, based on the loose pattern that Wisconsin sticker colors follow with them cycling about every 7 years or so.
The main sticker colors table is going to be completely redone from scratch soon, and when I do finish that part it'll be extended to 2028. I'll also have to extend the tables to 2030 next year as long-term ZA trailer plates are valid until June 2024.
From 1940 to 1962, Wisconsin issued large tabs to heavy trucks, trailers, and buses, which has given heavy truck plates the nickname "insert truck" plates. There is a large amount of these kinds of tabs in existence, and with as many as nine color cycles for each year of tab and several cryptic letter codes used during that time period, there are plenty of unique tab formats out there.
Wisconsin heavy truck tabs were first issued in July 1940, set to expire in either September 1940 or June 1941. Tabs would typically consist of one to two letters and one number, with the letters indicating fee and carrier information and the number being a quarter number, with 1 for September, 2 for December, 3 for March, and 4 for June.
The letter codes are more complicated. A C or K would indicate a contract/common carrier, while a P or Z would indicate a private carrier. C and P were used on odd year bases, such as 40 41, 44 45, 53, etc. while K and Z were used on even year bases, such as 41 42, 45 46, 54, etc. A X is typically used in combination with the previous four letters, which indicate a reduced fee.
In addition to these designations, T was used on tax only plates from 1955 to 1962, and XT was used on dairy tractors from around 1958 to 1962. Tabs without quarter numbers were also issued, with "P S" and "C S" tabs and their even-year counterparts being issued for special operations vehicles. P S and C S tabs had two tabs for each base, one in December quarterly tab colors and one in June quarterly tab colors. A "K C" tab on a 40 41 plate is also known to exist, however there is no documentation on such a tab. Years ago I also saw two tabs on 53 and 55 base plates with tabs that read "85-01" if I remember correctly, which was theorized to be referring to the law that made whatever plate type it was. Unfortunately it's been a long time since I've seen those tabs and I don't remember much information about them.
As for the colors, from September 1940 to June 1947, tabs for common/contract carriers and private carriers used separate colors from each other, while tabs from September 1948 onward had all tabs of a quarter use the same color. Tabs from September 1940 to June 1941 had private carrier tabs use the reverse color scheme of the corresponding contract/common carrier tab, with March 1941 tabs for contract/common carriers using silver text on a blue base and private carrier tabs using blue text on a silver base, for example. From September 1941 to June 1944 colors for tabs on contract/common carriers and private carriers had no connection to each other whatsoever for the most part, with each series using different, unrelated color schemes. Tabs from September 1944 to March 1947 used reverse color schemes of each other like 1940-1941 tabs, and June 1947 tabs appear to have been similarly colored to each other for both carrier types.
There were 6 tabs issued to the 62 base, because the base was extended to December 1962 when the state shifted heavy truck expirations from June to December. After December 1962, stickers replaced tabs for heavy truck plates.
I learn the tab colors more by guesswork and process of elimination type research I do when I find a tab with a color and designation that I haven't found yet. Since the letter designation alternated on odd and even years, there's not too many tabs that an unknown tab can be; for example, when I found a black and white K 4 tab earlier this year, I was able to categorize it as a June 1944 tab because June 1942 and June 1946 tab colors were already known. However, other tabs aren't as easy to categorize, and I generally rely on tabs being with the correct plate to learn the colors, which is relatively accurate however sometimes is inaccurate.
From September 1947 to December 1962, tab colors are relatively well documented, though a couple tab colors were missing or incorrect. Given how few tabs were unknown, if I found a tab I didn't have the color of, it was relatively easy to categorize and plug a hole in the known colors.
Anyway, this are the tables I've created categorizing all the tabs known to exist. Cells without a border are unknown colors.
1940-1947:
| Base | Quarter | C/K | P/Z |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 41 | Sep 40 | C 1 | P 1 |
| CX1 | PX1 | ||
| Dec 40 | C 2 | P 2 | |
| CX2 | PX2 | ||
| C S | P S | ||
| Mar 41 | C 3 | P 3 | |
| CX3 | PX3 | ||
| Jun 41 | C 4 | P 4 | |
| CX4 | PX4 | ||
| C S | P S | ||
| 41 42 | Sep 41 | K 1 | Z 1 |
| KX1 | ZX1 | ||
| Dec 41 | K 2 | Z 2 | |
| KX2 | ZX2 | ||
| K S | Z S | ||
| Mar 42 | K 3 | Z 3 | |
| KX3 | ZX3 | ||
| Jun 42 | K 4 | Z 4 | |
| KX4 | ZX4 | ||
| K S | Z S | ||
| K C | |||
| 42-43 | Sep 42 | C 1 | P 1 |
| CX1 | PX1 | ||
| Dec 42 | C 2 | P 2 | |
| CX2 | PX2 | ||
| C S | P S | ||
| Mar 43 | C 3 | P 3 | |
| CX3 | PX3 | ||
| Jun 43 | C 4 | P 4 | |
| CX4 | PX4 | ||
| C S | P S | ||
| Sep 43 | K 1 | Z 1 | |
| KX1 | ZX1 | ||
| Dec 43 | K 2 | Z 2 | |
| KX2 | ZX2 | ||
| Mar 44 | K 3 | Z 3 | |
| KX3 | ZX3 | ||
| Jun 44 | K 4 | Z 4 | |
| KX4 | ZX4 | ||
| 44 45 | Sep 44 | C 1 | P 1 |
| CX1 | PX1 | ||
| Dec 44 | C 2 | P 2 | |
| CX2 | PX2 | ||
| Mar 45 | C 3 | P 3 | |
| CX3 | PX3 | ||
| Jun 45 | C 4 | P 4 | |
| CX4 | PX4 | ||
| 45 46 | Sep 45 | K 1 | Z 1 |
| KX1 | ZX1 | ||
| Dec 45 | K 2 | Z 2 | |
| KX2 | ZX2 | ||
| Mar 46 | K 3 | Z 3 | |
| KX3 | ZX3 | ||
| Jun 46 | K 4 | Z 4 | |
| KX4 | ZX4 | ||
| Sep 46 | C 1 | P 1 | |
| CX1 | PX1 | ||
| Dec 46 | C 2 | P 2 | |
| CX2 | PX2 | ||
| Mar 47 | C 3 | P 3 | |
| CX3 | PX3 | ||
| Jun 47 | C 4 | P 4 | |
| CX4 | PX4 |
1947-1954:
| Base | Quarter | C/K | CX/KX | P/Z | PX/ZX |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 48 | Sep 47 | 1 K | 1KX | 1 Z | 1ZX |
| Dec 47 | 2 K | 2KX | 2 Z | 2ZX | |
| Mar 48 | 3 K | 3KX | 3 Z | 3ZX | |
| Jun 48 | 4 K | 4KX | 4 Z | 4ZX | |
| 48 49 | Sep 48 | 1 C | 1CX | 1 P | 1PX |
| Dec 48 | 2 C | 2CX | 2 P | 2PX | |
| Mar 49 | 3 C | 3CX | 3 P | 3PX | |
| Jun 49 | 4 C | 4CX | 4 P | 4PX | |
| 49 50 | Sep 49 | 1 K | 1KX | 1 Z | 1ZX |
| Dec 49 | 2 K | 2KX | 2 Z | 2ZX | |
| Mar 50 | 3 K | 3KX | 3 Z | 3ZX | |
| Jun 50 | 4 K | 4KX | 4 Z | 4ZX | |
| 50 51 | Sep 50 | 1 C | 1CX | 1 P | 1PX |
| Dec 50 | 2 C | 2CX | 2 P | 2PX | |
| Mar 51 | 3 C | 3CX | 3 P | 3PX | |
| Jun 51 | 4 C | 4CX | 4 P | 4PX | |
| 51 52 | Sep 51 | 1 K | 1KX | 1 Z | 1ZX |
| Dec 51 | 2 K | 2KX | 2 Z | 2ZX | |
| Mar 52 | 3 K | 3KX | 3 Z | 3ZX | |
| Jun 52 | 4 K | 4KX | 4 Z | 4ZX | |
| 53 | Sep 52 | 1 C | 1CX | 1 P | 1PX |
| Dec 52 | 2 C | 2CX | 2 P | 2PX | |
| Mar 53 | 3 C | 3CX | 3 P | 3PX | |
| Jun 53 | 4 C | 4CX | 4 P | 4PX | |
| 54 | Sep 53 | 1 K | 1KX | 1 Z | 1ZX |
| Dec 53 | 2 K | 2KX | 2 Z | 2ZX | |
| Mar 54 | 3 K | 3KX | 3 Z | 3ZX | |
| Jun 54 | 4 K | 4KX | 4 Z | 4ZX |
1954-1962:
| Base | Quarter | C/K | P/Z | T | XT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | Sep 54 | 1 C | 1 P | 1 T | |
| 1CX | 1PX | ||||
| Dec 54 | 2 C | 2 P | 2 T | ||
| 2CX | 2PX | ||||
| Mar 55 | 3 C | 3 P | 3 T | ||
| 3CX | 3PX | ||||
| Jun 55 | 4 C | 4 P | 4 T | ||
| 4CX | 4PX | ||||
| 56 | Sep 55 | 1 K | 1 Z | 1 T | |
| 1KX | 1ZX | ||||
| Dec 55 | 2 K | 2 Z | 2 T | ||
| 2KX | 2ZX | ||||
| Mar 56 | 3 K | 3 Z | 3 T | ||
| 3KX | 3ZX | ||||
| Jun 56 | 4 K | 4 Z | 4 T | ||
| 4KX | 4ZX | ||||
| 57 | Sep 56 | 1 C | 1 P | 1 T | |
| 1CX | 1PX | ||||
| Dec 56 | 2 C | 2 P | 2 T | ||
| 2CX | 2PX | ||||
| Mar 57 | 3 C | 3 P | 3 T | ||
| 3CX | 3PX | ||||
| Jun 57 | 4 C | 4 P | 4 T | ||
| 4CX | 4PX | ||||
| 58 | Sep 57 | 1 K | 1 Z | 1 T | 1XT |
| 1KX | 1ZX | ||||
| Dec 57 | 2 K | 2 Z | 2 T | 2XT | |
| 2KX | 2ZX | ||||
| Mar 58 | 3 K | 3 Z | 3 T | 3XT | |
| 3KX | 3ZX | ||||
| Jun 58 | 4 K | 4 Z | 4 T | 4XT | |
| 4KX | 4ZX | ||||
| 59 | Sep 58 | 1 C | 1 P | 1 T | 1XT |
| 1CX | 1PX | ||||
| Dec 58 | 2 C | 2 P | 2 T | 2XT | |
| 2CX | 2PX | ||||
| Mar 59 | 3 C | 3 P | 3 T | 3XT | |
| 3CX | 3PX | ||||
| Jun 59 | 4 C | 4 P | 4 T | 4XT | |
| 4CX | 4PX | ||||
| 60 | Sep 59 | 1 K | 1 Z | 1 T | 1XT |
| 1KX | 1ZX | ||||
| Dec 59 | 2 K | 2 Z | 2 T | 2XT | |
| 2KX | 2ZX | ||||
| Mar 60 | 3 K | 3 Z | 3 T | 3XT | |
| 3KX | 3ZX | ||||
| Jun 60 | 4 K | 4 Z | 4 T | 4XT | |
| 4KX | 4ZX | ||||
| 61 | Sep 60 | 1 C | 1 P | 1 T | 1XT |
| 1CX | 1PX | ||||
| Dec 60 | 2 C | 2 P | 2 T | 2XT | |
| 2CX | 2PX | ||||
| Mar 61 | 3 C | 3 P | 3 T | 3XT | |
| 3CX | 3PX | ||||
| Jun 61 | 4 C | 4 P | 4 T | 4XT | |
| 4CX | 4PX | ||||
| 62 | Sep 61 | 1 K | 1 Z | 1 T | 1XT |
| 1KX | 1ZX | ||||
| Dec 61 | 2 K | 2 Z | 2 T | 2XT | |
| 2KX | 2ZX | ||||
| Mar 62 | 3 K | 3 Z | 3 T | 3XT | |
| 3KX | 3ZX | ||||
| Jun 62 | 4 K | 4 Z | 4 T | 4XT | |
| 4KX | 4ZX | ||||
| Sep 62 | 1 C | 1 P | 1 T | 1XT | |
| 1CX | 1PX | ||||
| Dec 62 | 2 C | 2 P | 2 T | 2XT | |
| 2CX | 2PX |
In addition to the cryptic alphanumeric codes and the wildly varied colors, there also are several minor variations with the formats of the tabs themselves. 1940-1947 format tabs had two fonts for the tab text, which included one font that was slightly thicker than the other font. So far the font has been observed on June 1942, September 1946, and June 1947 tabs, while all other known tabs use a thinner font.
1950-1956 format tabs had variations with slots used on the tabs themselves. September 1950 to June 1952 tabs used no slots, while tabs from September 1952 onward used slots. The slots were located in various corners of the tabs.
1956-1962 tabs used a whole new format for the tabs, and had two variations to track. In addition to the slots being in seemingly random corners of the tabs like the previous tabs, some tabs also were in mirror format, such as December 1959 and December 1960 tabs.
This is an example of the normal tab format:
And this is an example of the mirrored tab format:
Out of all the tabs I've seen, Wisconsin heavy truck tabs have been by far the most complicated. They had as many as three separate codes on a single tab indicating various information, minor variations that seemingly changed at random, and around 100 different color cycles to track. Decoding these tabs has been an adventure to say the least, and there is still many massive gaps in my knowledge of these tabs and variations I still have yet to research fully.
One of the most varied sticker types in Wisconsin is heavy truck stickers, with their many colors, font variations, and even format variations. Initially, the sticker formats/fonts were relatively consistent, but beginning in the late 70s the stickers started to undergo several format and font changes on a semi-regular basis.
The first change in the stickers came with the 1964 stickers. The 1963 stickers used a very stretched out font, which was changed to a much narrower font. From 1964 to 1966, the stickers stayed the same, aside from the addition of a monthly sticker series which followed their own formats and colors.
In the late 60s, heavy truck stickers underwent multiple major format changes. 1967 stickers were slightly narrower than previous stickers, and in 1968 a completely new format of sticker was issued:
Througout most of the 1970s, the formats for stickers barely changed at all, with the only changes being minor spacing variations for the year code on two letter stickers, such as 4PX and 4CX stickers.
In 1978, heavy truck stickers adopted a new square shape rather than a large vertical sticker on the plate. With this change came a complete redesign of the stickers, and on top of the complete redesign there also was a year font change.
In 1980, carrier information was dropped from heavy truck stickers, and so a new format was used for stickers. From 1980 to 1981, the stickers also had a year font change again, and throughout the early 80s stickers would also switch the ordering of the DOT logo, "WIS" and year in an unknown pattern.
From 1982 to 1983, "foil" stickers were issued. Again, year fonts changed each year, and the ordering of the DOT logo, "WIS" and year changed in a seemingly random fashion.
In 1984, heavy truck stickers printed out a three letter month code, with "MAR," "JUN," "SEP," and "DEC" being used for quarterly stickers, while monthly stickers continued using numbers 1-9 and a few letters for month identifiers. From 1984 to 1991 stickers changed from having a vertical month code to a horizontal month code several times; fonts for the year, month, and even state identifiers changed frequently.
From 1992 onward, heavy truck stickers used a format with a horizontal month identifier, a state shape, and a year code, with the only format changes being the positioning of each of these elements, with the position of the state identifier changing yearly, with the order being top left, bottom left, top right, and bottom right from 1994 to 2002. As before, several font variations are known from year to year.
From 2003 to 2006, the positioning of the state identifier was seemingly random, with no known pattern for the state identifier position. Fonts for the year and month continued to change frequently.
In 2006, two different variations of Dec 06 stickers were issued; one being produced on reflective sheeting, and the other being produced on nonreflective vinyl similar to the material used on DNR boat stickers. The reasoning for this is unknown.
From 2007 onward the position of the state identifier changed in a normal pattern, with the pattern being the same as the one used from 1994 to 2002. This format change was consistent for all stickers, with a few exceptions on a couple specific quarters and months. Fonts for the year changed frequently until 2011, and the month font changed one last time in 2008.
From 2008 onward the month font has been the same, with the exception of March 2010 stickers. From 2011 onward, there only has been a few variations in the font of the year, changing from a thicker font to a thinner font occasionally. March 2011, March 2021, and March 2024 stickers use this thinner font, in addition to all quarterly stickers for 2016 and 2020, and April-December 2022 stickers which also used a thinner font. Other stickers use a thicker font for the year.
October and November 2016 stickers had the state identifier in the bottom left as opposed to the bottom right like all other known 2016 stickers, and both months of sticker using a thick year font as opposed to a thin year font. The format is similar to 2014 stickers, and the reasoning for this variation is unknown.
March 2021 stickers use the same format and font as 2020 stickers.
As to why there are so many format changes on the font and whatnot for heavy truck stickers, some of it I can explain with improvement on the design of the sticker for readability and material savings, however many changes, like the subtle variations on the font that change back and forth, I don't have an explanation for. All I really know is I have a million format variations to track and photograph, and when I thought I figured out the pattern for the formats another odd format like the November 2016 stickers gets found and throws away everything I know about sticker formats.
Update May 16, 2023: As I was categorizing my Wisconsin heavy truck license plates in my collection, I found that the 2022 stickers used the narrow date font and updated the article accordingly.
For a few years, I've been aware of the existence of an odd type of plate called "limited trailer."
My first time hearing of such a plate type was in the 1942-1943 Wisconsin Plate Guide, and it's described as a plate for trailers with operations "limited to 2 miles from premises to loading platform or freight station." Since I found out about the plate type in the plate guide, I've found that a 40 41 base plate was allegedly found, and they're only confirmed to exist for 42-43, 1947, and 1950. Strangely, the colors for the 42-43 base are a reverse of normal trailer plates, using orange text on a black background. The only known number for these plates so far is the number on the 1947 Wisconsin registration figures, which was LTD 108. With just 108 plates issued for a whole base, I figured that it'd be near impossible to find a single plate for any of my ranges.
That is, until I discussed those plates with another collector who told me that a 1953 plate was found many years ago.
According to story, around 2013 two plates popped up on eBay; one was a 1953 Wisconsin "Lessor" plate, while the other was a 1953 limited trailer plate. As you'd expect, many collectors bid on those plates, all of the ones I know being outbid on the limited trailer plate.
Sadly, I wasn't able to find any archives of this eBay listing, either on Worthpoint or the internet archive. And the collector that told me about this plate didn't know any details about the plate other than it was a 1953 limited trailer plate. No color schemes or numbers were known. The only lead I had for this plate was the collector telling me one other collector that saw the plate and bidded on it.
And so, the next time I went to a license plate meet, which was on April 22, I asked the collector about that plate. Not only was he able to tell me what color the plate was (it was black on orange like I expected), he also apparently has an image of the plate somewhere.
He didn't have the image on him as far as I was aware, so I'll have to probably wait for the next meet in September to find out more about that plate. Until then, I'll continue researching other plates and running on other wild goose chases for mystical plates that are only rumored to exist...
Since my first plate meet in October 2020, I have gone to every plate meet I can, which has totaled to about 11 meets so far. The Spring 2023 DLPCC meet was no exception, as I had tentatively planned to go to it in 2022 and arranged the carpool and motel about a month prior.
Like the Spring 2022 DLPCC meet, I had done most of my planning the night before I had left for the meet on April 21st. My preparation consisted of getting plates for trades/sales, pricing plates that were for sale, getting materials for my small display, printing off materials for the display, and of course listing off everything I needed and packing everything. The last thing I did was set an obscene amount of alarms, because knowing me I'd accidentally fall back asleep so I wanted to make sure I wouldn't do that. By the time I was done it was about 2am so I went to sleep.
The next morning, I was notified there was an extra license plate deal in Oshkosh set up last minute, so we were leaving half an hour early. I was running ahead of schedule so that wasn't a problem. When we got there, we picked up the plates, which was a box of snowmobile and atv dealer plates, totaling around 80 plates. We laid them out on the hood of the SUV and started categorizing them, and I took pictures of them for my website.
Unfortunately it was very windy outside and it kept blowing the plates away, so we packed everything up and headed to Burlington to go to our motel room.
Once we arrived at the motel, we started sorting all of the plates by year, base, and such. New baseplates and sticker formats were discovered, particularly the unknown "1988" base which was made on 85 base blanks, still stamped in the old 1967-1980 style, minus the slot at the top corner, an unusual nonreflective plate from 2005, and a 1992 plate with a long sticker style as opposed to the usual rectangular sticker dimensions.
We later went to the pre-meet dinner, then did our setup the night before the meet, which is something I had never seen before. Apparently it's a thing that the plate guys do at the Burlington meets in particular, and since it was the first time I had gone to Burlington I hadn't known about it. Anyway I assembled my display of two whole plates and set up my box of plates for sale. Then went through a bunch of plates for my website research, which included a three digit 1999 apportioned plate, various heavy truck and trailer plate types, and hours upon hours of going through junk plate boxes, taking note of the holograms on the plates, which I have been working on a side project detailing Wisconsin license plate holograms since May 2021 which I have yet to release.
After that we went back to the motel, and I went through a junk plate box one of the collectors lended me to research for my website. I only got through about half of it before I went to sleep, but I did get some images of plates I didn't have on my site yet.
I woke up on April 22nd and took a few more pictures, then gathered my things and left for the meet.
At the meet, I had planned on almost exclusively doing plate research and doing predetermined trades and deals, since I was low on money and had a budget of about $75.
The first thing I did was I did the trade that was the best trade of the meet, which was a trade of my 1946 heavy truck tab for a 1959 one. The 1959 tab I had been searching for since September 2020, and was to go with my favorite plate:
After that I went around and started photographing plates, until I found a box of Wisconsin trailer license plates.
In that box, there were trailer plates back to 1935, so I quickly got to looking through the box, photographing most plates as my trailer page is pretty sparse. In that box I found a 1982 base trailer plate with a 1984 sticker, which the plates weren't supposed to be validated beyond 1983. I picked that plate up and made an exception for my tight budget.
I continued photographing plates at the meet. Some of the better plates were a couple 1905-1911 series plates and a pair of 1911 dated plates, which both were holes in my plate images and I was happy to get photos of them.
After that plate table, I got a 1972 tax only plate, which I had made a deal with prior and arranged to buy it at the meet.
I continued going through boxes and tables for my plate images. The more notable plates were some native american tribal plates, several duplicate plates, and a few manufacturer plates.
While going through the boxes, I found a 1986 trailer plate with shorter letters. The short letter variation on 1986 base heavy truck/trailer plates is relatively rare, so I picked that plate up as well.
I then started photographing many other plates, the highlights being a 1933 municipal plate, a 1912 dealer plate, a 1953 lessor plate, and many 40s Wisconsin dealer and municipal plates.
While going through some boxes, I realized it was the boxes of someone else I had a plate deal with, so I got those plates.
I had also traded a few Wisconsin plates with one of my online friends who came to the meet from Illinois. I got a small pile of out-of-state trailer plates for my three Wisconsin plates, with the best being a new base Iowa small trailer plate with my initials on it (the person who had the plates confirmed that the plates came from some trailers).
After that I kept going through many, many more boxes of plates for my plate photos. Most of the plates were common Wisconsin plates I haven't photographed yet, though there were a massive amount of tribal plates there and some older motorcycle plates, with the oldest being from 1942. I was also given a pile of Wisconsin trailer plates to photograph quickly, which the plates came from the trailer box from before. I also photographed the prototype for Wisconsin's new plate sheeting.
After I finished the tribal plate photographs, I went to my table to sort/categorize the plates I got, and check over my photos from the day, when someone came up to my table. He ended up buying one of my heavy truck extras I had in there, and I took that $3 and spent it on a 1997 apportioned plate.
After that, the meet was pretty much over and we started packing up and cleaning up after the meet.
After the meet, we went to an antique shop by Kenosha then headed home.
I ended up taking so many photos that I had about 20GB less space on my SD card, and photographed my first fleet plate on the road. I also photographed a bus plate, which turned out to be numbered over 30000B, and got some photos of a few other plates.
All in all, I brought home 22 plates and 1 tab.
While doing my research for farm trailer license plates, one thing I've noticed is that a lot of farm trailer plates have different kinds of stickers.
From the earliest one I've found from 1965 to around the mid-1980s, farm trailer plates have only been known to use regular, passenger-sized stickers. After all, there's no room on older baseplates for a large vertical insert sticker to be placed, so I'd think that there aren't any farm trailer plates from that time period with insert stickers on them. However, starting with the 1988 base, some farm trailer plates began receiving insert stickers as opposed to regular, passenger-sized stickers.
From the 1988 base onward these farm trailer plates with insert stickers appear to have become more and more common. The reasoning for these plates having insert stickers is unknown; the only constant throughout these plates is that all but one of the plates with insert stickers I've found so far has been the D weight class or higher, so I'm suspecting the sticker type could be correlated with the weight class. It's possible that they are a common sticker error with people mistakenly giving them insert stickers due to them being a heavy trailer class rather than a light trailer class, but that's only speculation and there's really not any documentation of this phenomenon anywhere that I'm aware of.
One odd thing about these plates is that a lot of these plates are issued insert stickers at some points then later issued regular passenger stickers, with some even alternating between passenger and insert stickers.
These are all of the insert sticker validated farm trailer plates I have images of:
A couple weeks ago, I found out the spring mini meet was on April 1. As I've attended all mini meets since my first one in 2020, I came to this meet also, though with a very tight budget I went more for research purposes than anything else, expecting to spend my $50 budget on pending deals.
When I got to the meet, my old 4th grade teacher, who sometimes attends the meets, happened to be leaving as I was arriving. I took a quick look at his plates for sale, and picked out a September 2017 apportioned plate. When I brought in my usual small box of pending trade plates and insert truck extras, the last table which had just been freed up by Mr. Johnson was given to me to set my box down.
After that I started looking around the meet for any plates that specifically stood out to me, and started photographing some plates for my website that I obviously could not afford yet aren't on my website yet. One plate that stuck out to me was this one:
The reason why is because this is a farm truck plate with a passenger sticker. Farm truck stickers are green, not blue. So I was happy with that plate for a couple bucks.
My next area I checked was a couple piles of apportioned plates, most of which were March 2022 dated. However, there were multiple other years there, and various weight stickers ranging from H to T, including the N weight class I've probably seen once if ever. I set those aside in a pile and continued taking pictures for my website.
After that I brought out my three plates I had a pending trade deal on, and traded a 1981 ZA trailer, 1986 disabled truck, and 1981 apportioned trailer for these four plates:
The 81 ZA trailer was a trade for the 83 ZA trailer, and the apportioned trailer and disabled truck were traded so I could get the tractor plate, with the disabled truck to be an upgrade to his collection and him trading his downgrade so it was somewhat of an equal trade.
Now, you may be asking, Why would I go to such great lengths to get this seemingly normal tractor plate? Well, this tractor has my ALPCA number on it, and since the TS series is the only tractor serires to break into five digits ever, and only doing so once, this is the only tractor plate ever issued in the state of Wisconsin with my ALPCA number. Moreover, it's a natural September 2001 expiration and the sticker color is the same as the quarterly sticker color used when I was born. So obviously with such a unique plate, I had to try what I could to get it, and I'm happy with how it worked out.
The 86 ZA trailer was also a part of the ZA trailer trade, however we both forgot it was a separate deal and he was fine with me taking it home today and paying for it next time. He also threw in a N weight class 2009 insert truck plate that I had set aside before.
After those three plates were traded, I went down to another collector I had pending deals on, which he had both the plates that he had set aside for me:
Both plates were 30 dollars and both of us forgot the 62 trailer I had asked about 2 years ago, so he brought it in and I happily bought it. The truck plate is a filler which for a truck plate that old, even if it's a mediocre repaint, I can't really turn down when I've got a good run going for 1928-1934.
After I exhausted most of where I expected to buy plates, I got my phone out and started going through many, MANY boxes photographing plates I'm doubtful I have images of and I don't have in my own collection. Since it was cold outside and the meet was in a shed, my hands froze many times and I had to defrost my hands for a couple minutes by the heater that the host kindly brought out.
While doing my plate photography, I found this plate:
I pointed it out and the guy told me he'd let me have it for a couple of bucks. So I gladly grabbed that plate. The reason why is that it's an odd variation of 1983-1986 moped plates that used a debossed border. Most other motorcycle and moped plates of the time used an embossed border or used a step border like current plates, however it appears that only for the Y series the older style gutter border was used. Since snowmobile dealer plates used a gutter border at the time and all used a Y prefix I'm theorizing there could be a connection between the two, however it's unconfirmed and mostly a mystery as to why this series exists.
After going through many more boxes, I finally started to go through a box of motorcycle plates since I had the motorcycle page on my list of things I was going to work on in the near future and figured it'd be a good idea to start photographing it given how lacking my motorcycle page currently is. I ended up finding a 1972 motorcycle plate in the pile for 3 bucks so I grabbed that one without hesitation, sure it's got condition problems but it's still a solid example and since my oldest motorcycle plate is from 1980 I'm more than happy with my purchase. While going through that same pile I found this plate:
What I noticed is that where the sticker was scratched off, there's evidence of an orange sticker once being there, rather than the proper blue sticker that was supposed to be there. I pointed that out, and the guy who had the plate offered it to me for 5 bucks. Seeing as it was a sticker error I figured I'd grab it and so I did.
What followed after that was about an hour of photography. Not the most exciting job, especially when there's not anything particularly groundbreaking about these plates, but I felt it was important enough to spend time on.
Once I finished the last of the plates for sale, I started going through the host's pile of buys, with his permission of course. I found a lot of great finds, which I will be adding to the respective pages in the near future. Of those plates, the most notable were a 2024 disabled plate with a disabled sticker instead of a passenger sticker, a trailer dealer plate, and a pile of moped plates that I needed images of for my motorcycle page.
I then remembered I had the apportioned plates in a pile and he said he'd save them for me and he wanted me to save my 8 dollars I had left. So I did and I took a few last photos before heading inside the house with the host and one other meet attendee who was still there.
In the house I was shown a lot of insert truck plates and tabs, which I took pictures of all of them, naturally since they're my favorite type. I went through and sorted all the tabs according to my year tables I have (no, I don't have tab colors committed to memory yet, sadly), and noticed that he had a 45 46 insert truck plate without a tab on it. And I noticed that he had an extra 1959 tab that would go great with my 1959 insert truck plate, which is my favorite license plate in my collection. So I worked out a future trade for the next time I go to a plate meet in a few weeks, since I have a 45 46 tab, and I went home.
All in all, I traded three plates and spent $42 to get 12 plates. For how small my budget was, I did pretty good for a meet primarily for research.
One thing that I had been searching for for many years was a Wisconsin C weight class tractor plate. For years, the exact lightest weight class for Wisconsin tractor license plates has been a mystery. And I searched for any evidence of tractor weight classes below the D weight class of 12,000lbs... and only seen leads, such as listings of weight classes in DMV plate guides, plate searching trying to find plates in the XS, CS, BS, and AS series, and a single 1980 tractor sample which had been numbered CA0000. Surely if there's a sample of it it must exist, right?
Well, on September 17, the day that I had gone to my second DLPCC meet, I saw someone who worked for the DOT and gave updates about Wisconsin license plates each DLPCC meet. I figured that if he knew why insert truck plates were nonreflective, surely he had to know what the lightest weight class of tractor plates, right?
I asked him that question, and he said that the lightest weight class was D to the best of his knowledge. However, this was inconsistent with plate searches I've done on the DOT inquiry tool, which showed evidence of plates BS 51 to BS 62, CS 64 to CS 93, and XS 51 to XS 100, multiple being issued to primarily truck brands like Freightliner and such. Either they're sequential plates, or someone is massively obsessed with BS, CS, and XS to get over 100 vanity plates issued in those blocks, all in sequential order of seemingly meaningless numbers. After I had mentioned what I had found, he told me that it was possible they were issued at one point but they were pretty much for sure discontinued by now.
While that conversation did solve one mystery of what happened to XS tractor plates, it didn't solve the mystery of just how low these tractor plate weight classes have gone, and if weight classes below D ever actually existed for sure.
From what I gathered, these plates stopped somewhere around 2015, which was the earliest expiration of one of the last CS plates or XS plates issued, though it's entirely possible they stopped around 2013 or earlier. However, what wasn't known is if C weight class tractor plates ever existed, let alone X, B, or A weight class tractor plates. While I found evidence of weight classes down to "B", it doesn't confirm their existence.
Given how rare these plates are that they weren't even known at first to the people who work with these plates, I never once thought I would ever find one of these plates, let alone in someone's collection. It was one of my "needle in a haystack" license plates I needed for my research.
That is, until last month.
Last month Cody James Corbett posted some images from an online auction in La Crosse... and in it, was a 1980 Wisconsin tractor plate numbered CA 12! Moreover, it was dated 1980, so there's more than 12 of them in existence.
And so concludes a three year search. Now to find those pesky B weight class tractor plates...
See blog posts from: 2023-2024 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018
