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Missouri Archive
TOTAL KNOWN PORCELAIN VARIETIES: 45
I: PRE-STATES / CITY & COUNTY PLATES
CHILLICOTHE
Incorporated in 1855, Chillicothe lies in the heart of a rich agricultural section of
the state and is the largest community in north central Missouri. As we know from
the "Chillicothe Morning Constitution," the city council first stipulated that cars
had to be licensed and carry a single plate on the front of their vehicles
beginning in 1913, but no mention is made as to the material these plates would
be made of, and prior to 2006, no collector I had met in my 20 years of collecting
had ever so much as heard of license plates from Chillicothe. Surely a few
people within Missouri were aware of their existence, but they were essentially
unknown in the hobby. Then collector Larry Niederschulte caught wind of their
existence and decided to do some advertising. When all was said and done, he
had located 2 1915 plates and 3 1916s, both years of which are porcelain.
FARMINGTON
Farmington is a city in St. Francois County located 60 miles south of St. Louis in
Missouri's Lead Belt region. Farmington was established in 1822, a year after
Missouri gained statehood. No license plates were known from the city until 2014
when a small porcelain disc from 1912 was unearthed. This plate is strikingly
similar to the St. Louis porcelains of the same year. Farmington becomes the 8th
different jurisdiction in Missouri from which porcelain license plates are known.
Around the time these plates were issued, Farmington's population was
somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 residents.
NDEPENDENCE
Originally named Big Spring by Native American settlers, the town became
Independence in the early 19th century. The city lies on the south bank of the
Missouri River, near the western edge of the state and a few miles east of Kansas
City. Trade soon flourished because of the accessibility of the Missouri River
which was only three miles to the north. Although the prosperity of the city
diminished with the development of more communities on the Western frontier
and the coming Civil War, it continued to be a prominent city in the state and a
center for Mormon settlement. When Independence first began issuing license
plates in 1912, it was a city of fewer than 10,000 residents. Like Kansas City and
St. Joseph, Independence first began issuing large plates with a distinctive
scalloped appearance at top and bottom, before later switching to smaller and
simpler porcelain plates. Independence used large plates from 1912 through
1914, switched to an engraved aluminum plate in 1915, and then back to porcelain
in 1916 with a small plate. No further porcelain examples are known after 1916. In
1914, oddly enough, there is a plate that doesn't follow the normal pattern. It is
the highest known number for that year, and perhaps indicates a late issue that
was manufactured with different machinery or by a different enamelling firm. In
general, Independence plates are very rare, with only a few surviving examples
from each year.
KANSAS CITY
Situated at the junction of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, Kansas City lies along
the boundary between Missouri and Kansas, directly opposite of Kansas City,
Kansas. The City of Kansas, as it was originally called when it was founded in
1853, flourished after the Civil War when railroad bridges over the Missouri were
built in the area. In 1889, the name was changed to Kansas City. At the turn of
the century, guided by architect George Kessler, Kansas City became a forefront
example of the City Beautiful movement, developing a network of boulevards and
parks around the city. In 1900, the city’s population had nearly reached 165,000,
and had hit 250,000 by 1911, when the city first began issuing porcelain license
plates. These came as singles only and went on the front of the vehicle. For two
years this system went just fine. In 1911, known numbers extend into the 3,000s,
while in 1912, plates are known to exceed 4,000. 1912 is also the first year from
which non-passenger Kansas City porcelains are known, with both Dealer and
Motorcycle varieties existing in collectors' hands.
But in 1913, the Missouri State Legislature passed a new motor vehicle law
mandating that only the state plate could be displayed on vehicles and that local
issues could no longer be carried. City officials in Kansas City complained and
challenged the law. In February, the "Kansas City Star" reported that the issue
would soon be decided, and that the city license inspector would continue
issuing plates as planned. Four months later, a judge ruled that the city had no
jurisdiction to require plates on cars in the city. And yet, city officials were
adamant, and the same paper warned its readers "if you fail to carry a city license
tag on your motor car you will be arrested, notwithstanding the decision in the
criminal court yesterday that only a state tag may be displayed. For that case is
not ended and is on the way to the supreme court." In spite of the city's warning,
many residents figured this was their opportunity to skirt the local ordinance.
Even though the city's appeal was ultimately upheld and all vehicle owners were
required to register their automobiles, many still did not.
Surviving plates show that registrations reached into the mid-4,000s and just as
in 1912, both dealer and motorcycle versions were made as well. Interestingly,
there are two different 1913 cycle plates in collectors' hands, both of which are
identical in layout but different in color scheme. Just like the blue & white 1912
cycle mimicked the colors of the rest of the Kansas City porcelains that year, one
1913 version is green and white, in keeping with the passenger and dealer
plates. However, in 2013, a second version showed up - this one black & yellow.
I really cannot provide any logical explanation for this difference, other than to
speculate that perhaps the yellow one was either an early prototype or possibly
that it was an issued variety designed for use on a different class of motorcycle -
maybe police cycles or motorcycle dealers. For now, these two plates present an
intriguing mystery! There is also one example of a 1913 plate - #88898 - which
does not follow the pattern at all and remains a complete anomaly. This plate is
probably some sort of prototype or replacement issue. The 1911-1913 Kansas
City passenger plates are among the more attainable city-issued porcelains from
the U.S. with somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-25 known examples of each
in collectors' hands.
Registration fees for 1914 were due by
January 3, but toward the end of March, it
was announced that some 2,500 motorists
in the city had still not paid. As for the
3,500 who had paid, they were initially
given small aluminum tags due to a delay in
receiving the regular plates from the
manufacturer. Once the shipment of 6,000
plates finally arrived at City Hall on March
27th, 1914, it was announced that
registrants could now exchange their
aluminum tags for the regular plates at no
further cost. In the end, 6,700 plates were issued in 1914, indicating that at some
point a small batch of additional plates had to be ordered since the initial order
only mandated 6,000. Interestingly, 1914 brought about a significant change in
Kansas City porcelains as the elaborate large plates of the prior three years now
gave way to much simpler and smaller plates. Again, dealer plates have been
verified for 1914, but cycles remain unknown.
In 1915, black & white plates were issued. It
is unclear exactly how many were issued, but
in October of 1915, it was reported that 9,387
car plates and 800 motorcycle plates had
already been issued. No non-passenger
varieties have been seen from 1915. When
the license inspector placed orders for the
1916 plates, he estimated that at least 13,000
automobile tags and 1,000 motorcycle plates
would be needed. His estimate for
automobile plates seems to have been right
on target, as the highest surviving example is
#12,843. As for motorcycle plates, there is
only one known 1916 in collectors' hands.
There are probably 50 known examples of the
passenger plates for each year - 1915 and
1916.
For some reason, the city chose to abandon its use of porcelain after 1916, and
from 1917 through 1919, flat painted metal plates were issued in the same size
and format as that first adopted by the city beginning in 1914. Then in a highly
unusual move, Kansas City re-visited its use of porcelain for one additional year -
1920 - before finally giving up on porcelain once and for all in 1921. There are no
known dealers from 1920, and only one surviving cycle plate. As for the
passenger plates, 1920 is the most common Kansas City porcelain, with numbers
reaching nearly 32,000 and an estimated 50-75 surviving examples today.
ST. JOSEPH
St. Joseph is the largest city in Northwest Missouri, serving as the county seat for
Buchanan County. In its early days, it was a bustling outpost and rough frontier
town, serving as a last supply point and jumping off point over the Missouri River
toward the "Wild West” where thousands of settlers were hoping to strike it rich
in the California goldfields. In 1886, the Chicago Times reported that "St. Joseph
is a modern wonder - a city of 60,000 inhabitants, eleven railroads, 70 passenger
trains each day, 170 factories, thirteen miles of the best paved streets, the
largest stockyards west of Chicago, a wholesale trade as large as that of Kansas
City and Omaha combined..." Saint Joseph peaked as an expansionist city in 1900,
when the population surpassed 100,000. St. Joseph was also an important meat
packing center at the turn of the 20th century, and continued to be dominant in
this area when city planners first chose to license vehicles there in 1913.
Passenger plates are known to have reached nearly 700 in 1913 and surpassed
1,000 in 1914. Dealer plates were also issued in these first two years as well.
Following Kansas City's lead, the city switched to smaller porcelains in 1915 and
1916. Plate numbers near the 1,200 mark in 1915 and surpass 1,600 the following
year. Although the early years are quite tough, the 1915 and 1916 plates are
slightly more common, with about 8-10 examples of each known. There is one
very odd St. Joseph plate known from 1915. It is manufactured in exactly the
same format as the passenger plates and gives every indication of being an
official city issue, but it begins with an "L" prefix. There is no precedent in the
history of Missouri city plates to explain this, but it could conceivably refer to a
livery plate. 1916 was the final year of St. Joseph porcelains, as porcelain was
abandoned in favor of flat painted metal plates beginning in 1917.
ST. LOUIS CITY
The city of St. Louis issued a run of ten different porcelains between 1904 and
1912, tying it with Alexandria, Louisiana’s run of porcelains from 1911 through
1920 for the city issuing the most separate annual issues by any city or county in
the U.S. The city of Jacksonville, Florida had 20 separate porcelain issues, but
these consist of numerous non-passenger issues covering a total of only 4 years
of plates. The next closest city to St. Louis and Alexandria in terms of the total
number of annual issues is Tulsa, Oklahoma which issued plates each year from
1910 through 1915.
The predominance of porcelains from St. Louis is not all that surprising,
considering that the city had become America’s fourth largest city by 1900. As St.
Louis historian Steve Raiche notes, although the city was now on its downward
arc, losing its regional economic dominance in the fields of manufacturing and
shipping to Chicago, it was still powerful enough to command a World’s Fair in
1904, the same year the city began issuing uniform plates, although not without
staunch criticism and resistance from the city’s motorists. The 1904 plates are
the second oldest dated porcelain plates of any kind behind only Philadelphia's
issue of 1903. In all, there were approximately 800 registrations in St. Louis in
1904.
Interestingly, St. Louis made no distinction in its plates between passenger
issues and other types of plates such as commercial vehicles, dealers, or
motorcycles. As Raiche points out, photos from the time show the large St. Louis
plates dangling from the rear of motorcycles. 1905 is an interesting year in terms
of St. Louis license plates, because there are two entirely different varieties of
plates known. For years, the presence of these two plates with the same date
was a frustrating puzzle. However, the discovery of an article in "Motor Age"
solved the mystery once and for all. As it turns out, the manufacturer of the
plates presumed the city wanted blue plates in 1905, just like it had in 1904 - in
spite of the fact that they were instructed to make the plates red. Thus, an order
of about 1,500 blue 1905 porcelains was delivered to the city and some 500 of
them were actually issued to motorists. However, city officials decided to recall
these incorrectly colored plates - in part because some motorists were painting a
"5" over the "4" on their plate from the prior year and thus avoiding a re-
registration fee. In their place, automobile owners would soon receive the
correct red plates. The recalled blue plates (together with the un-issued balance
of the incorrect order) were consigned to the landfill. At some point many years
later, a very few surviving examples were dug up and made their way into the
hobby. This explains why all known blue 1905 St. Louis plates show evidence of
having been buried. Again, there were approximately 800 registrations in the city
in 1905.
Plates from 1906 through 1908 all followed the same general pattern, bearing both
the city name as well as the date. There were about 1200 registrations in 1906,
1900 in 1907, and another 1900 in 1908. The only notable point here is that the
1907 plates come in two slight variations, one with rounded characters
reminiscent of the 1906 and the other with the block style characters that would
prevail in 1908. 1906 was also the first year the county began issuing plates (see
below), so that motorists had to carry both a city and a county porcelain. When
the state mandated the display of a prestate plate in mid-1907, cars now had to
carry a state plate, a county plate, and a city plate!
Although the county had ceased the
issuance of plates in 1907, the city had not.
Beginning in 1909, the city offered up
some of the most unique city plates known.
The 1909 issue had clipped corners on the
bottom edge, creating a six-sided plate.
The following year, all four corners were
clipped, perhaps, as Raiche theorizes, in
an effort to keep people from painting
over 1909 plates and using them again
illegally without registering their vehicles.
By 1909, there was a two-fold increase in
the number of registrations, as 2,819 plates
were issued. In 1910, the number of
registrations had jumped to 4,200.
The final year of the large St. Louis porcelains was 1911, with a simple white and
red-orange issue. These plates became obsolete half way through the year when
Missouri finally began issuing standardized license plates. Once the state issue
was affixed to the car, the city allowed the motorist to remove the city issue.
Approximately 4,800 registrations were issued in 1911. Although the era of the
large annual issues was over, the city of St. Louis continued to tax automobiles
after 1911, and began issuing a series of circular discs from 1912 through 1932.
All of these were embossed steel, except the very first issue which was
porcelain. Notably, there are wafer thin versions of these 1912 porcelain discs,
as well as much thicker and stronger versions. The numbers on these plates
reach into the 6300s.
ST. LOUIS COUNTY
The county was organized in 1812 and was originally a Spanish colonial district. In
1876, the City of St. Louis separated itself from the county, creating an
independent city. At the time, the separation was strongly advocated by city
leaders who felt the non-urban parts of the County were an undue burden on the
urbanized and prosperous City of St. Louis. There was great resentment of the
County’s taxation policies at a time when the City had large expenses in
extending urban infrastructure to its rapidly growing population. At the time of
separation, the newly separated County had a population of 31,888, the third
largest in Missouri. It had a few small urban centers but was still predominantly
rural. The county of St. Louis issued plates in both 1906 and 1907 which are
separate from the city issues. In the city of St. Louis, these plates were required
to be displayed on vehicles right alongside the city issue. There are about a half-
dozen of each year known in collectors' hands. Based on these survivors,
numbers are known to have neared 650 in 1906 and at least 500 in 1907. After two
years, the county ceased its issuance of porcelain plates.
UNIVERSITY CITY
Located in St. Louis County, the area that is now University City was primarily
farms and small farming communities in the late 1800s. The city itself was
founded by publisher Edward Gardner Lewis, who began developing the location
in 1903 around his rapidly expanding publishing complex. In 1906 the city was
incorporated and Lewis served as its first mayor. The main campus of
Washington University is located at the southeast corner of University City, and
has had a profound effect on the development of the community. Late in 1910,
University City obtained the first motorized fire truck in the St. Louis area. The
following year, the only known license plate from the city was issued. Could it
have adorned this state of the art vehicle?
II: STATE-ISSUED PASSENGER PLATES
None issued.
III: STATE-ISSUED NON-PASSENGER PLATES
None issued.
IV: ODDBALL PORCELAINS
There is one example of a porcelain plate that doesn’t fit into the known universe
of Missouri plates. This is a simple white/green plate dated 1915. It is in the same
format as the normal embossed 1915 Missouri plate except that the characters
are white instead of black. Why a porcelain variety of this plate exists is a
mystery, but perhaps it is a replacement plate an owner had made for a lost
regular plate.
.
FURTHER READING
Steve Raiche, “Meet Me in St. Louis: My Journey to Collect Prestate Porcelains.”
Plates, 51, 1 (February, 2005), pp. 14-17.
"Automobile Review" (Chicago), April 29, 1905
"Chillicothe Morning Constitution," May 5, 1913
"Chillicothe Daily Constitution," August 10, 1915
"The Horseless Age," Vol. 21, No. 12 (March 18, 1908), p. 333
"The Kansas City Star," February 12, 1913; June 7, 1913; March 27, 1914; March 30,
1914; October 5, 1915
"Motor Age," Vol. 7, No. 17 (April 27, 1905), p. 12.
"Western Field: The Sportsman's Magazine of the West (San Francisco, CA)," Vol. 4,
No. 6 (July, 1904), p. 487.
I: PRE-STATES / CITY & COUNTY PLATES
CHILLICOTHE
Incorporated in 1855, Chillicothe lies in the heart of a rich agricultural section of
the state and is the largest community in north central Missouri. As we know from
the "Chillicothe Morning Constitution," the city council first stipulated that cars
had to be licensed and carry a single plate on the front of their vehicles
beginning in 1913, but no mention is made as to the material these plates would
be made of, and prior to 2006, no collector I had met in my 20 years of collecting
had ever so much as heard of license plates from Chillicothe. Surely a few
people within Missouri were aware of their existence, but they were essentially
unknown in the hobby. Then collector Larry Niederschulte caught wind of their
existence and decided to do some advertising. When all was said and done, he
had located 2 1915 plates and 3 1916s, both years of which are porcelain.
FARMINGTON
Farmington is a city in St. Francois County located 60 miles south of St. Louis in
Missouri's Lead Belt region. Farmington was established in 1822, a year after
Missouri gained statehood. No license plates were known from the city until 2014
when a small porcelain disc from 1912 was unearthed. This plate is strikingly
similar to the St. Louis porcelains of the same year. Farmington becomes the 8th
different jurisdiction in Missouri from which porcelain license plates are known.
Around the time these plates were issued, Farmington's population was
somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 residents.
NDEPENDENCE
Originally named Big Spring by Native American settlers, the town became
Independence in the early 19th century. The city lies on the south bank of the
Missouri River, near the western edge of the state and a few miles east of Kansas
City. Trade soon flourished because of the accessibility of the Missouri River
which was only three miles to the north. Although the prosperity of the city
diminished with the development of more communities on the Western frontier
and the coming Civil War, it continued to be a prominent city in the state and a
center for Mormon settlement. When Independence first began issuing license
plates in 1912, it was a city of fewer than 10,000 residents. Like Kansas City and
St. Joseph, Independence first began issuing large plates with a distinctive
scalloped appearance at top and bottom, before later switching to smaller and
simpler porcelain plates. Independence used large plates from 1912 through
1914, switched to an engraved aluminum plate in 1915, and then back to porcelain
in 1916 with a small plate. No further porcelain examples are known after 1916. In
1914, oddly enough, there is a plate that doesn't follow the normal pattern. It is
the highest known number for that year, and perhaps indicates a late issue that
was manufactured with different machinery or by a different enamelling firm. In
general, Independence plates are very rare, with only a few surviving examples
from each year.
KANSAS CITY
Situated at the junction of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers, Kansas City lies along
the boundary between Missouri and Kansas, directly opposite of Kansas City,
Kansas. The City of Kansas, as it was originally called when it was founded in
1853, flourished after the Civil War when railroad bridges over the Missouri were
built in the area. In 1889, the name was changed to Kansas City. At the turn of
the century, guided by architect George Kessler, Kansas City became a forefront
example of the City Beautiful movement, developing a network of boulevards and
parks around the city. In 1900, the city’s population had nearly reached 165,000,
and had hit 250,000 by 1911, when the city first began issuing porcelain license
plates. These came as singles only and went on the front of the vehicle. For two
years this system went just fine. In 1911, known numbers extend into the 3,000s,
while in 1912, plates are known to exceed 4,000. 1912 is also the first year from
which non-passenger Kansas City porcelains are known, with both Dealer and
Motorcycle varieties existing in collectors' hands.
But in 1913, the Missouri State Legislature passed a new motor vehicle law
mandating that only the state plate could be displayed on vehicles and that local
issues could no longer be carried. City officials in Kansas City complained and
challenged the law. In February, the "Kansas City Star" reported that the issue
would soon be decided, and that the city license inspector would continue
issuing plates as planned. Four months later, a judge ruled that the city had no
jurisdiction to require plates on cars in the city. And yet, city officials were
adamant, and the same paper warned its readers "if you fail to carry a city license
tag on your motor car you will be arrested, notwithstanding the decision in the
criminal court yesterday that only a state tag may be displayed. For that case is
not ended and is on the way to the supreme court." In spite of the city's warning,
many residents figured this was their opportunity to skirt the local ordinance.
Even though the city's appeal was ultimately upheld and all vehicle owners were
required to register their automobiles, many still did not.
Surviving plates show that registrations reached into the mid-4,000s and just as
in 1912, both dealer and motorcycle versions were made as well. Interestingly,
there are two different 1913 cycle plates in collectors' hands, both of which are
identical in layout but different in color scheme. Just like the blue & white 1912
cycle mimicked the colors of the rest of the Kansas City porcelains that year, one
1913 version is green and white, in keeping with the passenger and dealer
plates. However, in 2013, a second version showed up - this one black & yellow.
I really cannot provide any logical explanation for this difference, other than to
speculate that perhaps the yellow one was either an early prototype or possibly
that it was an issued variety designed for use on a different class of motorcycle -
maybe police cycles or motorcycle dealers. For now, these two plates present an
intriguing mystery! There is also one example of a 1913 plate - #88898 - which
does not follow the pattern at all and remains a complete anomaly. This plate is
probably some sort of prototype or replacement issue. The 1911-1913 Kansas
City passenger plates are among the more attainable city-issued porcelains from
the U.S. with somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-25 known examples of each
in collectors' hands.
Registration fees for 1914 were due by
January 3, but toward the end of March, it
was announced that some 2,500 motorists
in the city had still not paid. As for the
3,500 who had paid, they were initially
given small aluminum tags due to a delay in
receiving the regular plates from the
manufacturer. Once the shipment of 6,000
plates finally arrived at City Hall on March
27th, 1914, it was announced that
registrants could now exchange their
aluminum tags for the regular plates at no
further cost. In the end, 6,700 plates were issued in 1914, indicating that at some
point a small batch of additional plates had to be ordered since the initial order
only mandated 6,000. Interestingly, 1914 brought about a significant change in
Kansas City porcelains as the elaborate large plates of the prior three years now
gave way to much simpler and smaller plates. Again, dealer plates have been
verified for 1914, but cycles remain unknown.
In 1915, black & white plates were issued. It
is unclear exactly how many were issued, but
in October of 1915, it was reported that 9,387
car plates and 800 motorcycle plates had
already been issued. No non-passenger
varieties have been seen from 1915. When
the license inspector placed orders for the
1916 plates, he estimated that at least 13,000
automobile tags and 1,000 motorcycle plates
would be needed. His estimate for
automobile plates seems to have been right
on target, as the highest surviving example is
#12,843. As for motorcycle plates, there is
only one known 1916 in collectors' hands.
There are probably 50 known examples of the
passenger plates for each year - 1915 and
1916.
For some reason, the city chose to abandon its use of porcelain after 1916, and
from 1917 through 1919, flat painted metal plates were issued in the same size
and format as that first adopted by the city beginning in 1914. Then in a highly
unusual move, Kansas City re-visited its use of porcelain for one additional year -
1920 - before finally giving up on porcelain once and for all in 1921. There are no
known dealers from 1920, and only one surviving cycle plate. As for the
passenger plates, 1920 is the most common Kansas City porcelain, with numbers
reaching nearly 32,000 and an estimated 50-75 surviving examples today.
ST. JOSEPH
St. Joseph is the largest city in Northwest Missouri, serving as the county seat for
Buchanan County. In its early days, it was a bustling outpost and rough frontier
town, serving as a last supply point and jumping off point over the Missouri River
toward the "Wild West” where thousands of settlers were hoping to strike it rich
in the California goldfields. In 1886, the Chicago Times reported that "St. Joseph
is a modern wonder - a city of 60,000 inhabitants, eleven railroads, 70 passenger
trains each day, 170 factories, thirteen miles of the best paved streets, the
largest stockyards west of Chicago, a wholesale trade as large as that of Kansas
City and Omaha combined..." Saint Joseph peaked as an expansionist city in 1900,
when the population surpassed 100,000. St. Joseph was also an important meat
packing center at the turn of the 20th century, and continued to be dominant in
this area when city planners first chose to license vehicles there in 1913.
Passenger plates are known to have reached nearly 700 in 1913 and surpassed
1,000 in 1914. Dealer plates were also issued in these first two years as well.
Following Kansas City's lead, the city switched to smaller porcelains in 1915 and
1916. Plate numbers near the 1,200 mark in 1915 and surpass 1,600 the following
year. Although the early years are quite tough, the 1915 and 1916 plates are
slightly more common, with about 8-10 examples of each known. There is one
very odd St. Joseph plate known from 1915. It is manufactured in exactly the
same format as the passenger plates and gives every indication of being an
official city issue, but it begins with an "L" prefix. There is no precedent in the
history of Missouri city plates to explain this, but it could conceivably refer to a
livery plate. 1916 was the final year of St. Joseph porcelains, as porcelain was
abandoned in favor of flat painted metal plates beginning in 1917.
ST. LOUIS CITY
The city of St. Louis issued a run of ten different porcelains between 1904 and
1912, tying it with Alexandria, Louisiana’s run of porcelains from 1911 through
1920 for the city issuing the most separate annual issues by any city or county in
the U.S. The city of Jacksonville, Florida had 20 separate porcelain issues, but
these consist of numerous non-passenger issues covering a total of only 4 years
of plates. The next closest city to St. Louis and Alexandria in terms of the total
number of annual issues is Tulsa, Oklahoma which issued plates each year from
1910 through 1915.
The predominance of porcelains from St. Louis is not all that surprising,
considering that the city had become America’s fourth largest city by 1900. As St.
Louis historian Steve Raiche notes, although the city was now on its downward
arc, losing its regional economic dominance in the fields of manufacturing and
shipping to Chicago, it was still powerful enough to command a World’s Fair in
1904, the same year the city began issuing uniform plates, although not without
staunch criticism and resistance from the city’s motorists. The 1904 plates are
the second oldest dated porcelain plates of any kind behind only Philadelphia's
issue of 1903. In all, there were approximately 800 registrations in St. Louis in
1904.
Interestingly, St. Louis made no distinction in its plates between passenger
issues and other types of plates such as commercial vehicles, dealers, or
motorcycles. As Raiche points out, photos from the time show the large St. Louis
plates dangling from the rear of motorcycles. 1905 is an interesting year in terms
of St. Louis license plates, because there are two entirely different varieties of
plates known. For years, the presence of these two plates with the same date
was a frustrating puzzle. However, the discovery of an article in "Motor Age"
solved the mystery once and for all. As it turns out, the manufacturer of the
plates presumed the city wanted blue plates in 1905, just like it had in 1904 - in
spite of the fact that they were instructed to make the plates red. Thus, an order
of about 1,500 blue 1905 porcelains was delivered to the city and some 500 of
them were actually issued to motorists. However, city officials decided to recall
these incorrectly colored plates - in part because some motorists were painting a
"5" over the "4" on their plate from the prior year and thus avoiding a re-
registration fee. In their place, automobile owners would soon receive the
correct red plates. The recalled blue plates (together with the un-issued balance
of the incorrect order) were consigned to the landfill. At some point many years
later, a very few surviving examples were dug up and made their way into the
hobby. This explains why all known blue 1905 St. Louis plates show evidence of
having been buried. Again, there were approximately 800 registrations in the city
in 1905.
Plates from 1906 through 1908 all followed the same general pattern, bearing both
the city name as well as the date. There were about 1200 registrations in 1906,
1900 in 1907, and another 1900 in 1908. The only notable point here is that the
1907 plates come in two slight variations, one with rounded characters
reminiscent of the 1906 and the other with the block style characters that would
prevail in 1908. 1906 was also the first year the county began issuing plates (see
below), so that motorists had to carry both a city and a county porcelain. When
the state mandated the display of a prestate plate in mid-1907, cars now had to
carry a state plate, a county plate, and a city plate!
Although the county had ceased the
issuance of plates in 1907, the city had not.
Beginning in 1909, the city offered up
some of the most unique city plates known.
The 1909 issue had clipped corners on the
bottom edge, creating a six-sided plate.
The following year, all four corners were
clipped, perhaps, as Raiche theorizes, in
an effort to keep people from painting
over 1909 plates and using them again
illegally without registering their vehicles.
By 1909, there was a two-fold increase in
the number of registrations, as 2,819 plates
were issued. In 1910, the number of
registrations had jumped to 4,200.
The final year of the large St. Louis porcelains was 1911, with a simple white and
red-orange issue. These plates became obsolete half way through the year when
Missouri finally began issuing standardized license plates. Once the state issue
was affixed to the car, the city allowed the motorist to remove the city issue.
Approximately 4,800 registrations were issued in 1911. Although the era of the
large annual issues was over, the city of St. Louis continued to tax automobiles
after 1911, and began issuing a series of circular discs from 1912 through 1932.
All of these were embossed steel, except the very first issue which was
porcelain. Notably, there are wafer thin versions of these 1912 porcelain discs,
as well as much thicker and stronger versions. The numbers on these plates
reach into the 6300s.
ST. LOUIS COUNTY
The county was organized in 1812 and was originally a Spanish colonial district. In
1876, the City of St. Louis separated itself from the county, creating an
independent city. At the time, the separation was strongly advocated by city
leaders who felt the non-urban parts of the County were an undue burden on the
urbanized and prosperous City of St. Louis. There was great resentment of the
County’s taxation policies at a time when the City had large expenses in
extending urban infrastructure to its rapidly growing population. At the time of
separation, the newly separated County had a population of 31,888, the third
largest in Missouri. It had a few small urban centers but was still predominantly
rural. The county of St. Louis issued plates in both 1906 and 1907 which are
separate from the city issues. In the city of St. Louis, these plates were required
to be displayed on vehicles right alongside the city issue. There are about a half-
dozen of each year known in collectors' hands. Based on these survivors,
numbers are known to have neared 650 in 1906 and at least 500 in 1907. After two
years, the county ceased its issuance of porcelain plates.
UNIVERSITY CITY
Located in St. Louis County, the area that is now University City was primarily
farms and small farming communities in the late 1800s. The city itself was
founded by publisher Edward Gardner Lewis, who began developing the location
in 1903 around his rapidly expanding publishing complex. In 1906 the city was
incorporated and Lewis served as its first mayor. The main campus of
Washington University is located at the southeast corner of University City, and
has had a profound effect on the development of the community. Late in 1910,
University City obtained the first motorized fire truck in the St. Louis area. The
following year, the only known license plate from the city was issued. Could it
have adorned this state of the art vehicle?
II: STATE-ISSUED PASSENGER PLATES
None issued.
III: STATE-ISSUED NON-PASSENGER PLATES
None issued.
IV: ODDBALL PORCELAINS
There is one example of a porcelain plate that doesn’t fit into the known universe
of Missouri plates. This is a simple white/green plate dated 1915. It is in the same
format as the normal embossed 1915 Missouri plate except that the characters
are white instead of black. Why a porcelain variety of this plate exists is a
mystery, but perhaps it is a replacement plate an owner had made for a lost
regular plate.
.
FURTHER READING
Steve Raiche, “Meet Me in St. Louis: My Journey to Collect Prestate Porcelains.”
Plates, 51, 1 (February, 2005), pp. 14-17.
"Automobile Review" (Chicago), April 29, 1905
"Chillicothe Morning Constitution," May 5, 1913
"Chillicothe Daily Constitution," August 10, 1915
"The Horseless Age," Vol. 21, No. 12 (March 18, 1908), p. 333
"The Kansas City Star," February 12, 1913; June 7, 1913; March 27, 1914; March 30,
1914; October 5, 1915
"Motor Age," Vol. 7, No. 17 (April 27, 1905), p. 12.
"Western Field: The Sportsman's Magazine of the West (San Francisco, CA)," Vol. 4,
No. 6 (July, 1904), p. 487.
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| Kansas City, MO 1914 |
| Kansas City, MO 1915 |
Article warning drivers to put 1913 city plates on their cars, despite the fact that the legality of the city ordinance was in dispute The Kansas City Star, June 7, 1913 |
Announcement that the much delayed 1914 city plates were now available to be picked up at City Hall The Kansas City Star, March 27, 1914 |
| St. Louis 1910 Courtesy of Mike Duff |
| Motorists who didn't live in St. Louis could drive the city's streets by obtaining an embossed metal Visitor plate. These cost a fee of $5.50, all but .50 cents of which was reimbursed when the visitor left the city and surrendered the plate |
| Western Field: The Sportsman's Magazine of the West, July, 1904 |
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