Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Non-Petro Discussions Non-petro Discussion and Showcase License Plate Collections

I thought all you wonderful people on here would like to see my dad, brother, and I's 3 complete collections of Kansas license plates from the first mandatory issue to present day (1913-2014). Along with our old leather license plate that we believe is from Kansas; and our favorite year and most abundant year we have of KAN plates, 1916! And a couple others as well. We have many boxes and a shed full of other random plates also. This is what I started to collect with before gas and oil.

Hope you all enjoy them! Feel free to post any other license plates from Kansas or any other state, country, territory.

Some more pictures...

Looking good except it is hard to see a couple of those plates with the pumps in the way. Haha
May our lives glorify God,
Michael

Plate display looks great !

Thats quite a collection Brandon. What year would the leather one have been from? 1913? Maybe multiple years? Man ,to be able to acquire that it had to be a good day for your collection -# 198?-there were probably very few cars registered in these early years- especially in Kansas.Do you have any idea how many autos would have been around in Kansas during this era?

Looks great

I am eyeing that Skelly sign on the ceiling!

I will be out that way all next week. Might take some time and ride up to meet and see your collection

That is a really nice display. I started collecting license plates too before petro.

Brian

Wow that is a lot of collecting!!
Well done!!
What state is next?

Thank you everyone! Yes, they are hard to see sometimes, too many pumps! And we believe the leather plate to be 1911 or 1912. It is very hard to tell exactly what state it even came from, it came before 1913 when plates were issued statewide. In 1913, there were 39,000 plates issued in Kansas. Of those roughly only 1-2% survive. They are the white plate with black letters, and the first ones in our collections. Kansas had 5 digit plates from 1913-mid 1916. Then in late 1916, they issued the six digit plate due to more automobiles in the state. No county numbers where issued until 1930 and those were the first numbers on the plate before the dash, with 1 county being the most populated at the time and then every county after in order based on population AT THAT TIME. So those county numbers changed in the years to come, but they kept the same numbers to not cause confusion. Than in 1951 they put the county abbreviation instead of numbers.

Probably will stick to Kansas plates!! Almost have enough to make a 4th complete collection.

that can be fixed, I'm a phone call or email away!

Heres a few new mexico plates from Colfax County (9) I have a
few old nm plates and was told by a collector that the color schemes were reversed depending on passenger car plate or truck plate and it seems in the case of the bottom right plate (58 trailer) that was a different scheme all together. your Kansas collection is stunning you guys should really be proud of that!

What year did they start putting dates on them?

Very nice collection!! J

Great collection even the wife likes it.

Braden, great collection. I also started with license plates. and it morphed into gasoline and petro.I have two complete sets of Illinois plates from pre state 1907 to 2014, so I understand why you will stick to Kansas only.Thanks for shareing.

Huskerscott, they began to put years on them in 1921. I appreciate it y'all! We really love what we collect, whether it be pumps, signs, plates, or cars!

Lets see some more license plates and collections . Here's some of mine

All 50 U.S. states (& D. C.) - so 51. Lol

All used in 1956 (my year of birth).

All feature the numbers '69' in order as our street address is 2369.

A couple even have the entire street number.

Later . . .

Jim

And the ceiling above . . .

And the border of my shop . . .

Very Impressive Collections of plates !!

After my first set of Michigan license plates, I decided I needed a few with my initials on them. Replaced the first set with this second set.

I just started mine in June of 2021. Here are a few of my favorites.

Great thread. I have had some fun pairing toppers with period license plates.

I haven't hung them all up yet

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