Alaska 50th Anniversary of Statehood Camper Art - KL7JR

Now that's just cool - this ham operator made a sign for the camp of his camper that's an Alaska 50th Anniversary of Statehood plate with his callsign - KL7JR - on it.

Source: https://www.qrz.com/db/KL7JR

Alaskan license plate guitar

They're playing my tune.

Patriotic Alaskan plate modification

I'd honestly never seen an Alaskan plate with alternate colors for any letters/numbers.

(This is the front plate; the back plate has stickers that match the hand labeling on the front plate) Thank you for your service!

Odd Man Rush Brewing has Alaskan license plates on the wall

Some great Alaskan license plates at Odd Man Rush Brewing, a new brew pub opening in Eagle River, Alaska.

Via: https://twitter.com/OMR_Brewing/status/644392452866990080

Alaska permanent registrations for older vehicles starting Jan 1 2015

Starting in January, the Alaska DMV is going to allow permanent registrations for passenger vehicles and non-commercial trailers eight years or older. This is part of House Bill 19.

For collectors, this will mean a general reduction in the number of plates issued. For local governments, it also means a reduction of funding, so it's an opt-in program on a city-by-city basis and the city can also impose a separate tax.

Subtle item in the law not mentioned in the article: It would also bring back emissions inspection for these vehicles.

An interesting statistic from the article: the average age of a car in Alaska is 13 years!

Source: KTUU

, via Dirk Starck

Alaska vanity BABY T license plate, in context

In case you were curious why I'd been posting less often. Been a little busy!

Six new Alaska license plates await Governor's approval

Alaska House Bill 19, authorizing the Alaska DMV to create six new license plates, has headed to the Governor for approval.

The proposed new Alaskan license plates are all "special request" plates, and include:

* United States flag "In God We Trust" plates.
* Lao veteran plates (for US military service in Laos from February 28, 1961, and May 15, 1975).
* Plates commemorating the National Rifle Association.
* Breast cancer awareness plates.
* "Choose Life" plates.
* "Pro-Family, Pro-Choice" plates.

(via Alaska Business Monthly)

Howard Pollock swapping his plates

In this photo, then state Legislator Howard Pollack, who passed away Sunday, is shown getting ready to swap his 1966 Alaska state Legislator plate for a 1966 Alaska US Representative plate.

For plate buffs, a terrific shot!

Coming soon: Alaskan Firefighter/EMT license plates

Coming soon: Alaskan Firefighter/EMT license plates.

I'll update with a photo of the artwork when I get it.

August 2010 ADN vanity plate article

Yes, I saw that today, the Anchorage Daily News ran a piece about vetting Alaskan vanity plates.

No real surprises, though I was pleased to see that there is a variety of people who review submissions.

Always good to see Alaskan plates in the press.

Plate of the week: SOLDIT

This is Charles Blalock, an Alaskan real estate agent.

I don't know him personally; I spotted this shot in the local newspaper. But anybody who includes their license plate in their professional portrait photo is OK in my book. :-)

Plate of the week: HOTH

Thinkgeek has posted what they believe to be the best Alaskan license plate ever. I did get a chuckle out of it when it clicked.

For those of you not acquainted with Star Wars lore: Hoth (Wikipedia).

Come along now - my joints are freezing up.

The Last Statehood Plate

This plate (FUW 999) is the very last of Alaska's 50th Anniversary of Statehood license plates.


I'll be running with this plate until a new style becomes available (or until I break down and get another vanity style!)

The word from the DMV is that they'll be skipping the rest of the F series entirely, and going back to the fully-embossed blue-on-gold plates starting with GAA.

Plate of the Week: Alaskan Iditarod Finisher Plates

This will be a tough one to get for sure.



Full details on The Alaska DMV Iditarod Finisher plate page. Also covered by The Juneau Empire article about Alaskan Iditarod Finisher plates.

Some prototypes that included the Iditarod crest (which didn't make it to the final design) have also been floating around:



Trivia item: That's Alaska collector Fred Agree's dog, Blackie.

Plate of the week: unusual 1952 CTR sample

This unusual 1952 Commercial Truck sample plate was offered briefly on eBay yesterday (from seller tigerprawn78 ... but then it mysteriously vanished.



Most of these samples have a different color scheme:


Never seen one like it before!

Alaska Veteran Cemetary bill goes into law

Senate Bill 45 has been signed by Governor Palin, and goes into effect 8/23/09.

An Act relating to state employment preferences for veterans, former prisoners of war, and members of the Alaska National Guard; authorizing the Department of Military and Veterans' Affairs to establish and maintain Alaska veterans' cemeteries; establishing the Alaska veterans' cemetery fund in the general fund; and authorizing the legislature to appropriate income from fees collected for commemorative veterans' plates to the Alaska veterans' cemetery fund.

No word yet on what the license plates will be like, but they'll certainly be for a good cause.

Kotzebue to require current tags

The few cars in Kotzebue have been rolling with whatever plates they happened to have on - but that's changing now.

(via the Anchorage Daily News

WAR: Wayne Anthony Ross' interesting license plates

photo from the now-defunct and much-missed Insurgent49

On March 26th, 2009, Governor Sarah Palin appointed Wayne Anthony Ross to be the Attorney General for Alaska. The print version and the original version of the ADN article yesterday refers to Ross' personalized license plate:

Wayne Anthony Ross, a gun rights advocate who blazes around town in a red Hummer with the personalized tag WAR, will step into the position vacated last month by Talis Colberg.

The clever initials-as-actual-word usage is clever and eye-catching - especially on a Hummer.

But for license plate geeks, what's interesting here is that this plate has gone through a number of incarnations. Ross has had the same plate for so long (apparently, for at least 35 years) that he has a number of bases to choose from - and he does. In the photo above, he's running a 1974 vanity:



A year later, I just happened to run across Ross' vehicle at random, and in the intervening time, he had put on his 1976 plate (the red-on-white clearly identifies is as the 'standing bear' vintage, sans bear):



Most folks would never notice - but the plate people appreciate seeing a little bit of history on the road!

Alaskan Veterans cemetary approved by State Senate

Commemorative veterans' license plates will be part of the funding of an Alaskan Veterans Cemetary. The State House and State Senate are working on similar bills - more details to follow.

Via the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Alaska HB116 - Iditarod Registration Plates

The Alaska bill to create Iditarod finisher license plates is back up for consideration as HB116.


AS 28.10.181 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:

(y) Special request Iditarod race finisher plates. Upon application by the owner of a motor vehicle, the department may design and issue Iditarod race finisher registration plates to a person who has finished the Iditarod race. The owner shall supply written proof, verified by the Iditarod Trail Committee, that the owner has successfully finished the race. The department may disapprove the issuance of registration plates under this subsection when the requested plates are a duplication of an existing registration.


Here is a very early prototype:



... and here is a revised prototype (probably to improve legibility of the number):



The artwork may end up being different from the prototypes. This will be determined later in the approval process.

The dog in this prototype is Fred Agree's dog, Blackie.

If you could put any artwork or theme you wanted on you license plates, what would it be?