BC Licence Plate Run

Bill's British Columbia Licence Plate Run
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As stated elslewhere I live in Nova Scotia but grew up in BC. While I have been interested in licence plates "forever", and had some of my father's collection in storage, I did not begin to actively collect until around 2020. My biggest regret in this is that I did not build a complete BC passenger run from 1913 to present. I did have the 1913 but have passed it along to other family members, as I realized I was not going to be going for a complete run. I have settled on an abbreviated run that commences with the first short plates, introduced in 1936. I have confined myself to passsenger plates and for uniformity, only those with all-numerical serials. In more recent years, with multi-year base plates used with stickers I am not concerned with having the different year stickers, and the one base platewill be good enough for me to cover the several years that type of plate was in use.

For a very comprehensive and interesting full description
of the many types and varieties of BC plates, go to https://www.bcpl8s.ca/
I highly recommnend that you visit there as it is a wonderful storehouse of knowledge.

At the bcpl8s site it is stated that the period from 1931 to 1976 can be referred to as "The Prison Era" as the plates were manufactured at Oakalla prison in Greater Vancouver, and replacing the previous "Patronage Era" in which plates were manufactured by various compnnies favoured by the government in power. Plates from 1924 to 1935 were of a uniform longer length and used Tacey dies which varied between slanted style and upright style. As I have no plates prior to 1936 I will not go into this in detail. Suffice to say that the slanted Tacey dies were uniformly used from 1936 to 1954, but with some non-passenger use beyond that.

From 1936 to 1951 all passenger plates were standardized at 5 1/2 by 11 1/4 inches. therefore shorter than the preceding series. This was most likely a cost-cutting change, and was enabled by the introduction of C prefix commercial plates. This eliminated the requirement for six digit plates and therefore with five digits as a maximum the plates could be shorter. The font did not change, and the plates continued to be made at Oakalla Prison. Office of issuance is shown if known, based on records linked at the bcpl8s site. Note that plates with one to three digits were issued to applicants directly from Victoria, and were ongoing. Plates with four digits and the lowest end of the five digits were normal issues in the Victoria area.
Nanaimo issue. In 1936 the year was in a smaller font than in previous and subsequent years.	Vancouver issue

Nanaimo issue. Beginning in 1940, passenger plate issues exceeded 99,999 and therefore a prefix letter was used with up to four digits for issues beyond 99,999,. The prefix letters used varied from year to year and were tied to specific regions of the province. This situation continued to 1948.	Vernon issue
Greenwood issue	Chilliwack issued
Vancouver issue	Victoria issue
Nanaimo issue	Vancouver issue
Vancouver issue	Victoria issue. For the 1949 and 1950 passenger plate issues beyond the five digit limit, longer plates with six digits were issued. Prefix letters were not used for passenger plates in these two years.
Nanaimo issue
For 1952 British Columbia produced longer plates, contrary to the wider trend in North America. In this era there were a number of jurisdictions that produced aluminum plates, and opted for annual tabs to indicate revalidations and later issues. Note that in this three year period, passenger plates were not "all-numerical" and various letters were also added at the end of 4 digits, depending on the office of issue. Low numbers of 1 to 4 digits continued to be issued. Note that non-passenger plates with more than five characters in the serial had a smaller year and totem, and correspondingly smaller tabs in 1953 and 1954 Note that base plates, normally seen with 52 over the totem, were supplemented by later issues with a blank at the right, as that section was covered by a tab.
Nanaimo issue

Nanaimo issue
FOR 1956, BRITISH COLUMBIA BEGAN PRODUCING 6 x 12 PLATES TO FIT THE NORTH AMERICAN STANDARD. Passenger plates were numerical only, ranging from single digits (by reservation and special request) through to six digits. Five and six digit plates were distributed according to a regional plan. Because there was room for six digits there was no need for prefix/suffix letters for passenger plates. This type continued from 1955 to 1969, with annual replacement. The plates were manufactured at Oakalla Prison in the suburbs of Vancouver. Note the new blockier font, a favourite of mine, that replaced the more graceful type used for many years to that point. Some non-passenger plates did continue to use the old smooth style, at least in 1955.


Unofficial booster plate widely distributed throughout the province






As is detailed in my family historical page, my father began obtaining the special request 896 plate annually, starting in 1958. He disposed of most of these in the 1970's so that I only received from him the 1967 edition. I was lucky enough to see this 1963 edition advertised, and despite its poor condition I just had to have it back in the family. It was particularly precious to me as this is the plate that was on our car when I first drove it in 1963, prior to getting my licence. In 1964, 1965 and 1966 I regularly drove our family vehicle bearing the 896 plate, but, alas, I have not been able to repatriate those plates, nor those from 1962 and earlier.
	Qualicum Beach issue
Qualicum Beach issue
Qualicum Beach issue
Qualicum Beach issue

This Dealer pair does not really fit into my passenger run but I have them and I think they look good here
Victoria issue
Victoria issue
END OF NUMERIC PASSENGER PLATES IN BRITISH COLUMBIA Commencing with the 1970 issue, British Columbia began issuing multi-year plates revalidated with a sticker. This also marked a change from numerical serials for passenger plates to an AAA123 format. I do not plan to go into the complicated issuance of the three letter sequences, but let me just say that it did not simply start at AAA and go to ZZZ. It has been much more complicated than that, and I advise you to do some research if you are interested. As well, as the years went on there was an everchanging variety of fonts and manufacturers, all too complicated for this simple page of mine.
1970 Base This plate is off my own 1967 Vauxhall Viva. KHH-411 was a Trail issue that I obtained just to be different while living in Victoria, where practically everyone else had plates starting with A or B. I picked Trail, partly because K was the "highest" first letter at the time, but more so because I had a"connection" in Trail to facilitate.	1973 Base. Vancouver issue
1979 Base	1985 Base This base has continued to be used to the present, with some variations. In 2001 the serial order was reversed from AAA123 to 123AAA. In 2015 this serial type was superseded by more complex serials with letters and numbers interspersed.
In December 1979 personalized ("vanity") plates were introduced in British Columbia. Dad was one of the early partakers of this modern phenomenon, He and my mother were the two Scots, and they had this plate on their vehicles for the remainder of their driving lives. This example is from the back of the car. The front one shows many years of weathering.

End of British Columbia Page