The Idle Pen - The Andrew Turnbull License Plate Gallery

8-31-2009: Demystifying Wisconsin: Crude dies

Once in a while, you might come across a 1973-base Wisconsin plate that looks a little "off." It's not your imagination: The state was using two different die sets during this period.

Plates using the "normal" die set were produced using a matched male and female pair, resulting in crisp stamping. This is the fashion in which most 1973-base plates were made; as well as all plates on bases since. The alternate die set (or "crude" die set) had a slightly different production method: Only a single male set of serial dies was used; impressed into a block of rubber or similar material. With no female die to maintain the shape of the character on the opposite side, a gradual tapering is present to the metal surrounding the imprinted characters. In addition, these plates invariably feature a somewhat messier and globbier paint job on the letters and numbers.

The alternate dies contain a few differences in form as well. While the "normal" dies of the period used a curved "7" and short bowl for the "5," the alternate dies employed a straight-line "7" and somewhat longer bowl in the "5." These design features would later reappear in the normal die set during the 1980s.

Normal dies

Crude dies

In assessing these "crude die" plates, I've made a few observations. They appear to have been primarily made and issued early in the 1973 base's run; as 73 and 74 naturals. And, they may not have been produced for all months. These are the various combinations I've confirmed so far:

	Jan	Jun	Jul	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Normal	B35-039	LB 9231	P52-505			W11-606
Crude	B54-718 B73-315	LC 8674 LC 9142 LE 8066	ND 4280	S46-624	U38-923 U42-777 U53-868 V12-151 V25-904 V30-464	W30-045 W35-827 W41-959 W60-676 X27-042 X37-026 X49-442	Y29-716 Y38-651 Y51-401
Normal	AB 3531	LG 4251	NH 4014	S86-625	V77-641	WD 7880	Z77-717
Crude				T32-486 T52-446 T65-599 T67-854	V96-524
Normal				SF 1127	UC 1746

[70 truck plate] [70 farm plate] [74 truck plate]

The crude dies made appearances on a few non-passenger plates as well. So far, I've noticed them on late-period 1970-base light truck and farm truck plates, and on literally every 1974-base light truck plate I've seen not in a stacked-alpha overflow format. Oddly enough, I haven't seen any 1974-base farm truck plates with the crude dies; although that's not to say that they couldn't be out there.

If any readers happen to have a "crude die" Wisconsin plate on hand, I'd be curious to hear about it...so feel free to leave a comment below! Accurate deductions come from research, and more often than not license plate collecting research comes from observing and collecting information about a whole bunch of plates...