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License Plate Gallery

The Wisconsin Pages:

Heavy Farm Truck

Through 1966, heavy farm trucks bore plates identical to those of their lighter counterparts; aside from the addition of a weight class code letter to the serial. Light and heavy farm trucks continued to wear similar plates from 1967 to 1978, although Heavy Farm Truck plates retained a non-reflective background. Since 1978, however, Heavy Farm Truck plates have instead adhered to the formats, colors, and replacement cycles of Insert Truck plates. These later issues also expire the following February of the contemporary insert truck and trailer plates they correspond to.

Farm Trailer

A scarce type; Farm Trailer plates have been issued since at least 1967.

Apportioned

In 1978, Wisconsin entered the International Registration Plan (IRP); a regulatory agreement concerning the apportionment of tax fees between member jurisdictions. By apportioning fees under the agreement, road taxes were proportionally split between states and provinces a given vehicle traveled through; eliminating the need for multiple license plates and reciprocity permits on trucks used for interstate commerce.

Apportioned license plates were issued annually between 1981 and 1998. A fair number of these issues feature unique color schemes.

Apportioned Trailer

Originally Apportioned license plates were issued to both truck tractors and trailers, with the latter bearing six-digit, all-numeric serials. Long-term issues later appeared. The issuance of these plates evidently ceased in 2001 when the last state requiring apportioning for trailers, California, dropped the requirement.

Semi Trailer

Semi Trailer plates have followed a number of different formats over the years. "P" series plates were issued to private carriers, while "C" plates were issued to contract carriers and "R" plates (or plates with no prefix at all, such as the stickered 1971 example below) were issued to rentals.

A permanent issue was introduced in late 1987; starting at serial 200001. Narrow dies were introduced somewhere between the 343 and 346 series, while reflectorization appears to have been inconspicuously added in the 400000s.

Camping Trailer

The Camping Trailer plate was a relatively short-lived class, issued from 1978 to 1997. Although more similar to passenger plates in format than anything else, these plates respected the same colors and replacement cycles as Insert Truck plates.

"A"/"ZA" Trailer

"ZA" represents a deceptively uncommon class: Only the lightest trailers of 3000 lbs or less qualify for the plates, and since registration of such vehicles is strictly optional, these plates tend to be few and far between on the roads. These plates are also reportedly issued to fleets of light rental trailers, typically in conjunction with long-term six-year validations.

Prior to 1978 these plates represented the "A" class of the Insert Trailer variety, and in fact it's a bit unclear when exactly "A" Trailer and Insert Trailer plates started to have slightly different designs. Because of this, some early non-"A" Trailer plates are included in the partial run below.

Mobile Home/RV Trailer

I assume that the "Cabin" type was a precursor to Mobile Home plates.

Mobile Home plates (not to be confused with Motor Home plates) were first issued in 1955 and bore an "MH" prefix from 1958 to 2008. The colors and replacement cycles sometimes correlate with other truck and trailer plates, but just as often are unique.

In 2008, a graphic base design was introduced and the type caption was changed to "RV Trailer." These plates are only issued to new registrations, and earlier "Mobile Home" plates remain in concurrent use.

Permit Reciprocity

Permit Reciprocity plates (sometimes misidentified as Pro Rate plates, per the PR prefix) were actually supplemental permits issued to out-of-state commercial vehicles. Such plates were discontinued in the 1970s in favor of other means of identification, which were eventually obsolesced altogether with the advent of Apportioned plates. "Canadian Reciprocity" plates, with a CR prefix, were also issued once upon a time.

Tax Only

Tax Only plates represented yet another form of supplemental permit for out-of-state trucks; chronologically overlapping with Permit Reciprocity plates and issued primarily in the 1970s. Many baseplates were undated and relied on insert stickers for validation, making unissued examples difficult to date.

Special-UX

This scarce type was reportedly issued to trucks and trailers with specific types of permanently-mounted special equipment, qualifying for reduced-fee registrations.

Special-Z

Like Special-UX license plates, the only-slightly-more-common Special-Z class encompasses special equipment. According to the dusty pages of the Wisconsin statutes database, this confusing class is (or was) intended for "grading, ditching, excavating, or hauling vehicles" that are "operated empty, or used exclusively in transporting the equipment of the owner to or from a certain location over the highways, when such operation at the location is exclusively for grading ditching or excavating or when such equipment is used exclusively for seasonal hauling of carnival rides and equipment." Although the statute is presumably still on the books, issuance of both Special-UX and Special-Z plates appears to have ceased in 2004.

Special-X

Special-X isn't specifically a truck or trailer class, but due to convenience and ambiguity I'm filing it here. Special-X plates are (or have been) issued to a wide variety of "specific use" vehicles, qualifying for five-year registrations at a reduced fee. So far I've spotted them on blood donation vehicles and volunteer fire department equipment, to name a few.

Low Speed

Low Speed plates are issued to "neighborhood" electric cars and other four-wheeled vehicles having a top speed around 25 mph. Fees and expiration intervals for these are identical to those of motorcycle plates.