Type 1: 1956 dated

Issued: To all vehicles in 1955, and probably a little while beyond.

Earliest validation seen: Jan. '56.

The original gold-on-blue style of the fifties, theoretically still in use today but understandably few and far between on the roads. Slots and holes were provided in the upper right corner for annual metal validation tabs. The design presented a bit of a challenge for validation placement when stickers replaced tabs after 1960, but most motorists managed nevertheless to squeeze them in the gap between "Oregon" and "56."

These plates were physically manufactured by the Irwin-Hodson company of Portland, as have most others from decades ago through the present day. Each month of expiration had its own quasi-coded serial series. "A" indicated January, "B" indicated February, and so on; skipping "I" so that December was "M."

Type 2: 1956-type undated

Issued: 1956 to circa 1959.

Earliest validation seen: Jan. '57. (Though with tabs, it's hard to tell...)

Pretty much the same story as before, minus the date. Many months began to deplete their original code allocations in this time, so each series gradually shifted to a letter in the second half of the alphabet.

Type 3: "Pacific Wonderland" with tab slots

Issued: Late 1959 to circa 1961.

Earliest validation seen: Nov. '60.

The "Pacific Wonderland" issue marked the only time a slogan ever appeared on a standard-issue Oregon plate. New, shorter dies were used to accomodate the slogan. The earliest issues of the plate carried tab slots in the upper right corner (and sure enough, some examples of the plates carry 1960 tabs, suggesting that the plates were first issued in 1959). The state name was offset slightly to the left nevertheless, in anticipation of opening up space for stickers.

Type 4: "Pacific Wonderland" with no slots

Issued: 1961 to 1963.

Earliest validation seen: Feb. '62.

Oregon switched to plate stickers for the 1961 expiration year, and the newly-redundant tab slots were removed from their license plates soon afterward. This version of the "Pacific Wonderland" base is much more common.

Type 5: Gold/blue with sticker box; narrow serial spacing

Issued: January 1964.

Earliest validation seen: Jan. '65.

According to legend, the "Pacific Wonderland" base wasn't too popular east of the Cascades. Whether or not that's true, that design fell by the wayside in favor of a functional new issue carrying several developments: A sticker box (designed to accomodate the horizontally-opposed stickers issued from the 1965 expiration year on), larger serial dies (identical to those used from 1955-59), and a new, three letter/three number serial format (which would offer far more capacity than the one letter/five number formats used before). The first letter of the serial continued to be keyed to the month of expiry, and the original code letters from "A" to "M" were reinstated.

The earliest January plates manufactured (making up the entire "AAx" series, more or less) featured narrow spacing between the letters and numbers.

Type 6: Gold/blue with sticker box; wide serial spacing

Issued: 1964 to 1973.

Earliest validation seen: Oct. '64.

The vast majority of these plates, issued for nearly a decade, feature a wider space between the letters and numbers.

As an additional, rare sub-variation early in the series, the first hundred plates for each month in 1964 (i.e., xAA 0xx) were treated with glass-bead reflectorization.

Some early examples of these plates appear with 1964 stickers; though it's unclear whether this indicates motorists received the plates in late 1963 or whether these specimens were simply issued in 1964 as replacements for pre-existing registrations.

Types 7 & 8: Blue/gold with sticker box; Irwin-Hodson dies

Issued: 1973 to circa 1982.

Earliest validation seen: Oct. '74.

In 1973, the color scheme was reversed and reflective sheeting was adopted. Roughly around the same time, Oregon switched from one-year to two-year validations. 1975 stickers are scarce, since most registrants skipped from 1974 to 1976 as a consequence.

Several different die variations exist with these plates; including two distinct styles of lettering for the state name, depicted above. The two state name dies appeared concurrently, and seem to have shifted back and forth several times over.

Type 9: Blue/gold with sticker box; Polyvend dies

Issued: 1981 to 1982/83.

Earliest validation seen: Jan. '83.

A good deal of Oregon plates in the 1980s were made not by Irwin-Hodson, but rather by the Polyvend Corporation of Arkansas. These plates use different, straighter-lined serial dies (also used on some Hawaii and Massachusetts plates) and tend to be sloppier and less durable in quality.

Oregon appears to have shifted its contract back and forth between suppliers on a yearly or semiyearly basis, as three separate runs of Polyvend plates exist.

Types 7a & 8a: Blue/gold with sticker box; Irwin-Hodson dies

Issued: 1982 to 1983/84.

Earliest validation seen: Jan. '84.

Type 9a: Blue/gold with sticker box; Polyvend dies

Issued: 1983 to 1984/85.

Earliest validation seen: Mar. '85.

Types 7b & 8b: Blue/gold with sticker box; Irwin-Hodson dies

Issued: 1984 to 1985/86.

Earliest validation seen: Jun. '86.

Type 10: Blue/gold with no coding or sticker box; Polyvend dies

Issued: Late 1985 to 1986.

Earliest validation seen: Oct. '87.

In the mid '80s, ABC 123-format serial combinations in the "A" through "M" series were inching dangerously close to running out. Rather than switching the individual month codes over to the second half of the alphabet again, the state instead chose to switch to a non-coded single series of numbers used in conjunction with a month sticker. Early examples of these plates were made again by Polyvend, using their less-rounded, lesser-quality dies.

Type 11: Blue/gold with no coding or sticker box; Irwin-Hodson dies

Issued: Late 1986 to 1988.

Earliest validation seen: Dec. '88 (with exceptions).

By the time later examples of these plates were made, the state was back to Irwin-Hodson again; making the plates with "traditional" Oregon dies and crisper stamping once more.

Type 12: "Dead tree" graphic

Issued: 1988 to 1989.

Earliest validation seen: May '90 (with exceptions).

Oregon's first graphic issue came about in 1988, featuring an image of a tall, spindly fir backed by mountains and an orange sky. It wasn't a very popular design, if the nickname commonly attributed to it is any indication. (Reportedly, what debuted was actually an improvement over a prototype that featured a brown tree.)

Type 13: "Live tree" graphic

Issued: Late 1989 to date.

Earliest validation seen: Nov. '91.

A year or so later to address criticisms of the design, the colors of the plate were changed and darkened up. I personally like both versions of the base, although the dark tree on this one adversely affects serial legibility at a distance. Nevertheless, the design has remained unchanged ever since...outlasting both the blue-on-gold and gold-on-blue designs for the title of Oregon's longest-lived color scheme.

This period has not been free of variation, however: In 2004, numbers in the ABC 123 series were finally exhausted after four decades, and the numbering system thus flipped over to a 123 ABC format starting at BAA. In addition, from 2003 to 2005 (coinciding with "ZPN" to "BMZ" in the suffix format) a run of these plates was produced by Waldale Manufacturing of Nova Scotia. Waldale imitated Irwin-Hodson's dies and level of quality almost perfectly, so the plates are very hard to pick out.