Washington State License Plates

Before 1963

 

Before 1963, a new plate was issued every year, with a different color each year.  They tended to be green or blue on white or silver or grey, or the lighter color on green or blue.   Prewar plates tended to be collected for scrap metal so they are quite rare.  During the war they didn't issue plates, only window stickers.

1947

1958

Starting in 1958 they went to three letters and three numbers.  During 1963, they issued permanent plates in 1963's color--green on white, which served for the life of the car.  A sticker was added each year.  Prior to 1965, the word "WASHINGTON" was abbreviated "WASH", which apparently annoyed some folks, so a bill was passed in the state legislature banning that abbreviation for license plates.

 1963-87

Vanity plates began being issued in 1975. In the 1980s they were green on yellow

In the leadup to the state centennial in 1989, they began issuing plates with a picture of Mount Rainier in the background with the state name in a curly font in upper and lower case, and the position of the numbers and letters were switched.  This is a  1987-1989 "Centennial" Plate

 In 1990, they dropped the "Centennial Celebration" motto.   The single "A" here means commercial vehicle.

1990-present. After 1990 they switched to uppercase letters in a Swiss font for the state name, and added a motto at the bottom.  They ran out of numbers and had to add an extra digit in the mid-2000s.

And this one is a state trooper. (WSP for Washington State Patrol).  They like to mix it up: some unmarked vehicles do this, and some have completely ordinary plates, while others use the XMT (exempt) logo. Marked vehicles always either have these WSP plates or the exempt logo.

At around the same time (mid 2000s), they decided that license plates needed to be replaced every 7 years.  The justification was that the paint and reflective material that the plate is coated with sometimes wears out.  As far as I can tell, the only plates that this actually happens to are on vehicles that are very frequently subjected to high pressure washing, such as municipal buses.  Ordinary weathering and car washes don't seem to hurt it much.  This was found very annoying to most Washingtonians--rating #5 in a poll of the laws they'd like to see changed.  Not only was it obviously a waste of resources, it forced you to learn a new license plate number every few years.   It turned out you could get the old number back (for a few dollars and about a month's delay), but you had to know to ask.   In 2014 this law was overturned.

Special interest plates.  There are quite a few more, not shown here.  The one in the upper right is for an antique vehicle. The "Year" is the year of the vehicle, not of the plate.

references:
http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/sphistory.html
http://staff.washington.edu/bbirt/wahist~1.htm
Wikipedia's article on this subject

An absolutely astonishing collection of license plate photos can be found here: He has 5 pages on Washington State alone!  1976 y2k y2k2 y2k3 y2k4