Vintage license plates in CA?

[cuyeda]

I have a 1947 trailer. I have an opportunity to acquire a vintage 1947 CA trailer plate. It is the yellow, with black letters, and has the letters TLR. It would be a really nice addition to the trailer to have a correct year plate on it.

If I purchased this plate, is there any difficulties in registering my trailer with this plate? Even though it was not originally on the trailer.

[Lumatic]

About 35 states have a YOM law (year of manufacture) that says if the plate number is not currently in use you can have the plate assigned to your trailer. See my current whatchamacallit photo with this post.

Alas, New Mexico does not as I also have an original plate and can's officially use it. NM also does not issue any special or vanity plates for trailers, Alack.

I also found out there are professional liscense plate restorers, historians and an association out there

[S C Streamer]

I don't know how to provide a link to a previous thread, but do a search for "licence plate" and in the thread "1963 California trailer licence plate ?" you will find my tale.

The '47 plate would look cool , best of luck.

[cuyeda]

Thanks for the replies. I did a little research on other web pages related to license plates. The seller of the plate is asking $100. Do you think this is a decent price?

[Fyrzowt]

It would depend on what I could do with it. As a wall decoration, no. As a one of a kind vintage plate for my A/S, possibly.
Dave

[moosetags]

Originally Posted by cuyeda

Thanks for the replies. I did a little research on other web pages related to license plates. The seller of the plate is asking $100. Do you think this is a decent price?

I am an avid license plate collector, and to answer your question, generally speaking, no. To a license plate collector, a '47 California trailer tag in mint condition is probably worth about $20.00. In this case, if the tag is in really nice condition and the tag number is clear (not already in use, and registerable on your Airstream), it would be worth the $100 asking price. To give you an example, several years ago I sold a mint pair of clear 1956 California tags for $450.00

The YOM tag would be a really neat addition to your vintage Airstream.

[str8strm]

You should probably check with the CA DMV. In my experience, with the pre '56 plates (yellow with black numbers) they have to have been unused for at least 10 years. I'm not familiar with the trailer plates. But if you take the number to DMV, they can tell you. As usual with our DMV, if you don't get the answer you want, try the next window. No kidding.

[Goin camping]

Originally Posted by str8strm

You should probably check with the CA DMV. In my experience, with the pre '56 plates (yellow with black numbers) they have to have been unused for at least 10 years. I'm not familiar with the trailer plates. But if you take the number to DMV, they can tell you. As usual with our DMV, if you don't get the answer you want, try the next window. No kidding.

Or the AAA.

Ron is absolutely right about the next window thing and if that fails go to a small town DMV. They are not as busy and a lot more fexible.

PM sent.

[SteSpot]

Originally Posted by Goin camping

Or the AAA.

Ron is absolutely right about the next window thing and if that fails go to a small town DMV. They are not as busy and a lot more fexible.

PM sent.

Don't go to the Culver City DMV....they had a hard time figuring out how to register our Airstream travel trailer.....a clerk told me to weigh it and have it inspected, and when I returned with the inspection and weight the clerk kept trying to enter the weight and they could not get the computer to register it....finally (after asking 3 different clerks) they took the weight out and it worked....I can't imagine how they would deal with old plates.....they also told me to get personalized plates on line.......I did, and 3 months later we have our "Stespot" for Suite Spot. pj