Any plate collectors here?

Would love to learn/catalog what states had similar offerings and in what years.

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I have a pair of 1986 ILLINOIS funeral home plates to go along with my 86 Lincoln hearse. Patrick Martin gave me the name of a collector that he had met and Patrick seems to have some knowledge of these plates.
 
Illinois has had separate ambulance, funeral home, and livery license plates for a couple decades now. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure how far back they go, but I know that I have them dating back to 1975 in my own collection.

You used to get a new plate each year with the year stamped into the metal. Starting in 1992, you kept the plate and starting putting a renewal sticker on it each year.

The ambulance license plates in the 1970s had the letters AMB stacked vertically along the plate's left side. The 1980s and newer plates have the word AMBULANCE stamped along the bottom.

The funeral home plate, which was good on any vehicle owned by a funeral home, not just the hearse, had the letters FH stacked vertically along the left side thru 1988. Starting in 1989, the letters FH became the same size as the plate number and followed the number in a single line.

The livery plate, which was used on for-hire cars including limousines but not taxis (privately owned limousines are issued a standard passenger car plate), had the word LIVERY stamped vertically along the left side. In the very late 1980s, though I'm not sure what year exactly, the livery plates received the letters LY in the same size as the plate number and following the number in a single line in addition to the word LIVERY along the left side. In the very early 1990s, the word LIVERY was dropped from the plate. A little known fact is that there are two separate livery plates in Illinois. For hire cars registered in the City of Chicago have a unique livery plate compared to for hire cars in the rest of the state.

Additionally, in 1975 and 1976 only, there was also a plate with the word LIMO stacked vertically along the left side. This plate was in addition to the livery plate. This plate was discontinued after only two years because it caused confusion as to what constituted a livery car vs a livery limousine vs a funeral home limousine vs a privately owned limousine. I have spoken to license plate collectors about the Illinois LIMO plate, and even they are not clear on just what exactly Illinois was thinking with that plate. One collector even told me that he thinks the LIMO plate may have never actually been issued to the public even though the state did have them made due to the confusion it was causing.

I have often wondered myself what states had special funeral and/or ambulance designations. Also in my collection, I have a Massachusetts plate with a very large HEARSE stamped on it followed by a three digit number. My plate has a 1981 renewal sticker on it, but I have no knowledge about Massachusetts plates to be able to tell you any more.

A story I have heard, and I have often wondered if its true or not, is someone told me once that New Hampshire, whose state motto of LIVE FREE OR DIE is stamped into their plates, does not issue a specific hearse plate, but that on plates that go to hearses, the OR DIE part is left off. Can anyone here confirm or deny that story?
 
Of course I also notice the green cross on either side of the number, and the lack of the "Old Man in the Mountain" decoration. It would seem that perhaps New Hampshire does have a special plate for such vehicles. Now I have to wonder how long such a plate existed, and if the story I heard may have been true at some time in the past.

Thanks for finding that picture!
 
The + on the plate is/was one of the symbols that NH allows for use on the plates. I had a freind who's name was BAT and his wife was BEE... the plate read BAT+B..
Here is a page of NH license plates, but no funeral or ambulance plate.

The State motto went all the way to the US Supreme Court ...From Wikipedial
In 1971, the New Hampshire state legislature mandated that the phrase appear on all non-commercial license plates, replacing "Scenic."
In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705, that the State of New Hampshire could not prosecute motorists who chose to hide part or all of the motto. That ruling came about because George Maynard, a Jehovah's Witness, covered up "or die" from his plate. "By religious training and belief, I believe my 'government' - Jehovah's Kingdom - offers everlasting life. It would be contrary to that belief to give up my life for the state, even if it meant living in bondage." [2] Pursuant to these beliefs, the Maynards began early in 1974 to cover up the motto on their license plates.
He was convicted of breaking a state law against altering license plates.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in his favor and likened Maynard's refusal to accept the state motto with the Jehovah’s Witness children refusing to salute the American flag in public school in the 1943 decision West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.
"We begin with the proposition that the right of freedom of thought protected by the First Amendment against state action includes both the right to speak freely and the right to refrain from speaking at all,” Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote for the majority in Maynard.
"Here, as in Barnette, we are faced with a state measure which forces an individual, as part of his daily life indeed constantly while his automobile is in public view to be an instrument for fostering public adherence to an ideological point of view he finds unacceptable.
"The fact that most individuals agree with the thrust of New Hampshire’s motto is not the test; most Americans also find the flag salute acceptable," Burger wrote.
The Supreme Court concluded that the state’s interests paled in comparison to individuals’ free-expression rights.
 
Connecticut has separate Hearse and Ambulance plates.

Originally the Hearse plates just had a single letter U prefix for Undertaker.
Then they added the word HEARSE.

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that 56 SD tag is the first I have seen. it maybe a one or two year thing. I have most of the other SD tags. currently all ambulances in SD use a commercial tag
 
To my knowledge I don't think that Tennessee had or has a separate ambulance or hearse license plate. At least I've never seen one if they do or ever did have.
 
Because I lived in New Hampshire, between the fall of 1961 & the fall of 1966, and it was common to see both the "+", "-" the "&" symbols used on vanity plates. If the + symbol was used in 1956 for ambulances, I doubt that they would have started using it as a vanity plate symbol 5 years later.
 
I really dig these plates.

I remember seeing a few in Chatham in 1993 at my first PCS meet on cars in attendance.

I do not know if Canada has ever had a hearse or ambulance plate but I will check into it.


I bought a few plates at the meet in Flint from Patrick. Just hung them up in the barn where my cars are stored.


I have personal plates on all 10 of my cars right now.
Most are Halloween related

GRIZELDA - 60 S/S
GRUSOMES - 62 MM
CREEPELA - 62 MM
R U NEXT - 72 Superior
JUGGLER - 76 MM

CREEPY - 63 Corvette
GRUSIM - 64 Falcon
GHOUL - 67 Falcon
BEDFORD - 90 Mustang
UNICYCLE - Pontiac

BWHC - not on a vehicle currently
YA EH - not on a vehicle currently


There are historic plates here in ON but I would rather have
personal plates.


Darren
 
Spoke to a representative of the NH DMV this morning, and got the information about the above 1956 NH license plate. It is indeed a ambulance license plate, however, the only thing that makes it an ambulance plate is the fact that it has only numbers with the plus sign (+123), and ambulance plates it cannot have any letters.
The hearse plate has the plus sign and 3 digits and another plus sign (+123+), however, like the ambulance plate, it can only have numbers.
A vanity passenger plate can have the plus (+) however, it must also have 2 letter with it (+AB) or it can have the (+) and be an alpha numerical plate (+AB123) or (+AB12+) with a maximum of 7 total characters. (+ab123+).
The plus that is used on both the ambulance and hearse license plates is exactly the same as the plus symbol that is used on the vanity plate.
The "Live Free or Die" motto is not used on the Antique, Hearse, or Ambulance license plates because of lack of room for placement. The are still using the white letters on the green background for the the Ambulance and Hearse plates, so in theory, the person that had registered the 1956 ambulance plate could get a 2012 plate with the same numbers and it would look just like the 1956 plate.
 
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