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ARIZONA LICENSE PLATE TRIVIA:

Arizona Firsts

1912 -- First year Arizona residents were required to register their vehicles.

1914 -- First state-issued plates.

1915 -- First plates marked Dealer.

1916 -- First passenger plates to come in different lengths. 1916 thru 1922 varied in size according to how many digits were present. Most of these years had just 2 sizes but the 1922 plates came in 5 sizes with the 6-digit being the longest at 16.15.

1917 -- First graphic, the steerhead. Some consider this the first graphic ever to appear on any plate in America although Pennsylvania had a keystone graphic in 1916. It certainly is one of the first.

1922 -- First year of county-coding.

1929 -- First year vehicle registrations surpassed 100,000.

1929 -- First commercial plates. Commercial vehicles from previous years used regular passenger plates.

1932 -- First year of the copper plates. Arizona is the only state to ever use this material.

1939 -- First person ever honored on any license plate in America , Marcos de Niza.

1940 -- First time the slogan Grand Canyon State appeared. Except for 1945, it still remains.

1943 -- First year passenger plates were not produced. Windshield stickers used for the '42 base. Windshield stickers also used in 1944 and 1946 since passenger plates were also not made in those years.

1947 -- First prison-made plates. Plates are currently made at the Florence , Az. prison.

1947 -- First aluminum plates.

1952 -- First year pairs were not issued. Pairs also not issued in '66-'68 and '89 to the-present.

1956 -- First plates standardized in size. All current passenger plates must be 6"x 12" for all states.

1957 -- First renewal sticker to appear on a plate.

1966 -- First fully reflectorized plates.

1973 -- First year vehicle registrations surpassed 1,000,000.

1975 -- First year of handicapped plates.

1980 -- First undated passenger plates. The maroon cactus base only has stickers that are dated.

 c)2005, Autohobbies.com. This site is owned by Jim & Nancy Schaut and edited by Stan Cowan.  Our mission is to preserve the rich history of automobile racing in the American West. This is a pre-1980 site.  We have done our best to credit the proper people for information contained on this site.  It is sometimes impossible to find the original source.  If you would like to submit items to the site, please send  them  to Stan or Nancy.  This is a pre-1980 site.