New York Plates

Physician (OP)

 

First issue/Last issue: 1939 / 1986? • Created from: Passenger • Size: Passenger • Colors: Standard

Simultaneous to the MD plates, a parallel series of plates were issued to physicians from as early as 1939. They all feature the prefix OP.But what distinguised a physician from a medical doctor? Medical doctors are certified by the New York State Department of Education; could this be the distinction? How then would a physician become eligible for OP plates. The answer may come from a New York Times article, "MD, DA, HE-11, Etc.: These and other special auto licenses are adding up to $$$ for N. Y. in '55," by Peter White (Mar. 13, 1955). In it OP is identified as "osteopath".

In a similar vein, the Manlius (N.Y.) Thrift-News published this short piece on the front page of it's Feb. 2, 1939 issue:

OP ON LICENSE PLATES DOES NOT MEAN ONONDAGA “PEN”

Jamesville—If you see a car with license plates with the letters OP on them, remember that these letters are carried by Osteopathic Physicians, not by employees of the Ononodaga Penitentiary. The motor vehicle bureau has given notice of this new series.

For most years the plates are indistinguishable from other passenger plates. The Distribution list from 1939 lists OP-1 through OP-200 issued out of Albany. The allotment remained at 200 until 1950, when it was increased to 300. It remained at 300 through 1963.

 

The design changed in 1966 with the multi-year blue base plate, when the legend PHYSICIAN first appeared where NEW YORK appears on passenger plates. The highest registration probably was higher than 300 given the turnover of multi-year plates.

The design was carried forward onto the orange base plate in 1973. The OP-1 plate with the uniform height dies suggests the series was still in effect by the late 1970s. When the Liberty plates first appeared in 1986, there was no sign of the OP series, neither with a PHYSICIAN caption or, as would be expected, a stacked OP prefix or suffix.

Rural Letter Carrier

First issue: 1957 (known) • Created from: Passenger? • Size: Passenger • Colors: Standard

Registration Type and Baseplate History

License plates for mail carriers in rural areas are known as early as 1957, even though the RLC designation does not appear in the Distribution lists until 1962.

Examples are known for all the two-year plates through 1964, and for the multi-year blue base issued in 1966. (A DAV keychain tag for 1958 appears at the left, a 1960 issue at the right.)

Presumably it continued the same design during the orange base plates of 1973-1986, though I don't have an example to share. A typeset listing from the DMV dated June 1991 lists the type, numbered from RLC-1 through RLC-9999 (though it's unlikely that many were issued.) It is listed on the DMV web site as one of the many SRF special passenger registration types.

U.S. Customs Court / Court of International Trade (JCC / JUS)

Updated, August 2012!

First issue: 1954 •  Size: Passenger• Colors: Standard

Prior to 1954 U.S. Customs Court judges were not issued distinctive plates. It was only when Governor Thomas E. Dewey proposed in late 1952 that Federal District Court judges receive special recognition that their fellow judges asked to be included. The issue was first raised by Chief Judge Webster Oliver in July 1952 in a letter to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles requesting USJ plates for Customs Court judges. His request was denied.

The matter was taken up by fellow Judge Paul Rao in a letter to Governor Dewey in December 1952. In it he makes the case that Customs Court judges are Federal judges, citing Title 28, Section 451 of the U.S. Code. If U.S.J. wasn't acceptable, the judge writes,

It seems to me that a way out of this difference of opinion suggests itself in the substitution of an alternative designation to wit, "U.S.C." (representing U.S. Court or U.S. Customs) ...

Governor Dewey wrote Judge Oliver in January 1953 offering to arrange for a JCC series. In Judge Oliver's lengthy reply, he reviews other judicial plates issued by New York State (USJ, JSC, JSS) and renews his case for inclusion with other Federal court judges. In June he renewed his appeal, offering to accept plates with a USCC or USC designation if USJ plates weren't available. He argued that those sporting JCC plates might be confused with city court, county court, court of claims or children's court judges.

That June Judge Oliver renewed his original request. Plates with the JCC designation, he argued, were too easily mistaken for those of other courts (County Court, City Court, Court of Claims, Children's Court).

The reply from the governor's executive assistant was unyielding. After having consulted with the Justice Department and the District Court, the governor was advised to keep the two series distinct.

In a November 1953 letter Judge Oliver agrees to the JCC series for himself and his three fellow Customs Court judges, beginning in 1954.

JCC-1    Webster Oliver (was CJ-3)
JCC-2    Jed Johnson
JCC-3    Paul Rao
JCC-4    Morgan Ford

One confusing aspect of the JCC assignment comes in 1954. In August of that year Governor Dewey wrote to at least one county judge offering the use of the same JCC series for county court judges. His offer was enthusiastically accepted. A typed list entitled "Issuance of 'JCC' plates for 1955 (JCC-1 thru JCC-120)" attests to this. The list does not give numerical assignments.

What happened to the Customs Court judges? Did they still get JCC plates after all? One other possibility is that they got their original wish for USJ plates. Yet there is no change in the number of USJ plates issued between 1953 and 1956. No other series are recorded through 1963 that suggest a Customs Court assignment.

In fact we don't have any evidence for Customs Court plates until 1973. Blue-on-orange plates with the prefix JUS and a registration number, like the one at left, were issued annually from at least 1973. Perhaps as early as 1980 the new uniform height dies first appears on these annual plates.

During the early 1980s most judge plate designs were replaced with a mixed silkscreened-embossed design. As far as we can tell, Customs Court plates continued to use the previous design, as the 1984 and 1985 plates suggest. The existence of a 1985 plate with the words U.S CUSTOMS / COURT at the left, followed by a diagonal JUS, all silkscreened, and the embossed registration, is a bit of a mystery: were both types produced for 1985? Which came first? Were both plates actually issued? I haven't seen a 1986 plate that would prove or disprove any of these conjectures.

In 1986 the Liberty base replaced the orange base and the design reverted to the previous JUS designation, without the separating hyphen. The embossed dates remained in the bottom corners. Beginning in 1990 plates were issued every two years. The embossed dates 90 and 91 appear in the bottom corners.

I have yet to see the Customs Court plates for either the Empire white or Empire gold base.

Photo credits: JUS-10, JUS-7, JUS-6, JUS 17 (Jim Schaller)

Legislative Correspondents Association (LC/LCA)

Updated August 2012!

First issued: 1939? •   Colors: Passenger • Size: Standard

Since at least 1939 members of the Legislative Correspondents Association, Albany-based newspaper reporters covering the state capitol, have been entitled to a distinctive series of license plates. They may be the first non-veterans organization to achieve this.

A New York Times article on 1940 plates entitled "69,000 'Distinctive' Auto Plates Issued; Fee May Be Asked for Privilege in Future" (Dec. 31, 1939) notes that "as in past years" plates issued with an LC went to newspaper legislative correspondents in Albany. How long before 1939 this extends is unclear.

What is clear is that the number of plates issued has always been extremely small. Distibution Lists between 1939 and 1952 list registrations from LC-1 through LC-40. In 1952 (or sometime during the 1951 base plate) LC was replaced by LCA, and registrations rose to LCA-50. The LC sequence reverted to Albany with 200 registrations.

The last mention of the LCA series comes in 1963. As the plate in this post attests, the sequence carried forward into the 1964 base and most likely into the 1966-1973 blue base as well.

Beyond 1973 the survival of the series is only speculative. As a prefix LCA may well have been issued as a special registration, since the LCA suffix was assigned to Lewis County. Later issues would have looked much like other special registrations. Lists of special registrations in the possession of Jim Schaller suggest this may have been phased out as a type in the early 1990s. A list from 1987 cites LCA with a range of 1 through 50. A later list dated June 1991 notes that the series was no longer issued, and only registrations LCA 1, LCA 2 and LCA 11 were in force at that time. It would seem that the LCA 3 plate above was already off the road by 1991.

The LCA configuration may still survive, and plates with that prefix might be in the hands of member of the Legislative Correspondents Association. But in this case it would be strictly a vanity plate.

 The Association continues to this day, it's number even smaller than the 40 originally assigned.

The 1964 plate above was registered to Douglas S. Dales, a reporter for the New York Times from 1946 until 1966, according to his son. Dales was president of the association for 1965-1966. Dales was later director of public relations for the New York State Police.

 Photo credit: LCA 3 (Jim Schaller)

Semi-trailer

First issue: 1995 • Created from: Trailer • Size: Passenger • Colors: Standard

Registration Type and Baseplate History

While semi-trailers had long been registered as trailers, it was only in the mid-nineties that a long-term registration period for semi-trailers was proposed. A semitrailer is defined as "any trailer which is so designed that when operated the forward end of the its body or chassis rests upon the body or chassis of the towing vehicle."

Sect. 401, 7, L.8.

However,  upon  the request of  the applicant upon the registration or renewal  of  a registration of a nineteen  hundred  eighty-nine  or  later  model year semitrailer, such semitrailer may be registered for a period of not less than five and one-half nor more than six and one-half years for a fee of eighty-six  dollars  and twenty-five cents.

In 1995 New York State began to register 'permanent' semi-trailers for six-year registration periods. The first six-year semi-trailer plates, which expired in 2001, had a a four-digit and one-letter registration, followed by a coded digit for the last digit of the year of expiration. Plates issued in 1996 for 2002 ended with a '2', and continued through the ??? plate.

 

Beginning in 2001 (with plates expiring in 2006) semi-trailer plates were issued on the Empire white base. The last digit continued to represent the year of expiration. Idon't know whether this series of plates always used a 'B' before the code digit.

Empire gold base plates are identical in all respects to the Liberty base plates as far as dies, registration and embossing. The example above, 4680B1, while issued in 2010 or 2011, is clearly a reissue of a Empire white base registration.

 

Supreme Court (JSC)

Judges: An Overview

The earliest known plates issued specifically for a judge were for Supreme Court justices, verified as far back as 1934. Plates featured a JSC prefix, the earliest known three-letter designation in New York. Since there are Supreme Courts in all 62 counties, it's no surprise that this would be the first statewide judicial plate issued.

The design remained unchanged through the 1964 base plates, apart from the change to 6 x 12 inch plates in 1957.

 

The first base issued in 1966 (see JSC-170 above) featured a sticker box, and since all plates expired in December included a 12-66 sticker. Beginning in 1967 plates were issued annually, even though justices are elected to fourteen-year terms. Annual plates feature a 12 (for December) and the two-digit year of issue in the lower corners on either side of the NEW YORK.

The same basic design was carried over to the orange base plates, beginning with those expiring in December 1974.

In 1980 on the orange base plate, the JSC prefix was replaced with the two-line legend SUPREME COURT to the left of the registration, with the month and year still in opposing corners. The thinner number dies began with the expires 1981 plate.

 

  This remained in effect into the Liberty base plate years. On the Liberty base the graphic of the Statue of Liberty was on the far left of the plate. Beginning in 1991 justices were issued two-year plates, with the years 91 and 92 in opposite bottom corners. Beginning with the 1995-96 base plate the registration was entirely silkscreened. {Check] The last plate issued on the Liberty base was for the biennium 2001-2002. {Check}

Supreme Court plates were first issued on the Empire base plate in 2001 for the biennium 2001-2002, with the years 01 and 02 in the bottom corners but without a slogan banner. In 2003 the banner was added with the two years in white on the blue bar. This design remained in force through [2011?], when it was replaced with the Unified Court base plate.