MTFCA Forum

Very nice pair of original porcelain matching California license plates. Nice bright and shiny red porcelain. Stored for countless years. 550 includes shipping.

Very nice original porcelain plates.

Still available

Nice matching original plates

Hard to find as a pair

First year of plates.

Have they been cleared by Calif DMV for use as YOM plates? The guy that sold my set of '14 CAL plates to me did that for most of his inventory. That info would make them more than just wall art.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_r ... California
The U.S. state of California first required its residents to register their motor vehicles in 1905. Registrants provided their own license plates for display until 1914, when the state began to issue plates. Plates are currently issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

Click on the above link to see more years & Registration tags by year

ewdysar wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 27, 2025 7:39 pm

Have they been cleared by Calif DMV for use as YOM plates? The guy that sold my set of '14 CAL plates to me did that for most of his inventory. That info would make them more than just wall art.

In California today, you can use Year of Manufacture (YOM) plates as your legal license plate (you need both matching plates and the same year as stated on your car’s title) rather than a modern license plate or a historical vehicle license plate issued now by the DMV. But only if that license plate number is not already in use by another currently registered vehicle, like a motorcycle, moped, trailer, etc. or another antique car. You can see in Frank’s post that the state started each new year’s series of plates with the number 1 during the early years, so your number might already be in use by another YOM plated car with original plates from a different year. The DMV can tell you in advance if the license number is “clear”, i.e. not currently in use, so that these plates could be used on your vehicle. Original plates that have been cleared are worth more since they can be used for registering your Model T, I paid $500 for a cleared pair from a license plate collector/seller when I first registered my ‘14 touring in California.

Keep crankin’,
Eric

These plates are not in use, they have been stored for well over 60 years.

What you don't understand is that they reused numbers year after year after year. So someone may have a 1917 plate with those numbers. If so yours can't be used. Have DMV check to see if they are clear or not.