Starting in 1970, ALPCA instituted its Plate of the Year award. Members are asked each year to vote among a selection of new plates issued over the past calendar year to determine which is to be judged the "best." An award presentation is held each year to recognize the DMV in the winning jurisdiction.
The award is subjective at best, essentially a yearly "beauty contest" among new-issue plates. Up until 1995, only general-issue plates were eligible for voting. From 1995 through 1998, separate categories were maintained for general issues and optional plates. Starting in 1999, both categories were merged into one, with general issues fighting it out with extra-cost optionals. I happen to think this is a horrible idea (perhaps partly due to my home state's chickadee plate being narrowly beaten out by Virginia's optional "George Washington Bicentennial" plate in 1999), but it is likely to stay this way for the forseeable future.
In any case, with no further ado, here are the winners of the award from 1970 to present:

1970: Northwest Territories	1971: Pennsylvania	1972: Wyoming	1973: Prince Edward Island
1974: South Dakota	1975: Colorado	1976: Michigan	1977: Mississippi
1978: Wyoming	1979: Indiana	1980: Kansas	1981: South Dakota

1982: North Carolina

1983: California

1984: Maryland

1985: (tie) Nevada and North Dakota		1986: Utah	1987: Idaho
1988: Oregon	1989: (tie) Nova Scotia and Oklahoma		1990: South Carolina
1991: Idaho	1992: Mississippi	1993: North Dakota	1994: Kansas
1995: Texas (general), Pennsylvania (special)		1996: Arizona (general), no entries (special)
1997: Manitoba (general), Wisconsin (special)		1998: Alaska (general), Idaho (special)
1999: Virginia	2000: Wyoming	2001: Arkansas*	2002: Oregon**
2003: Kentucky	2004: Oklahoma***	2005: Kansas	2006: South Dakota
2007: Mississippi	2008: Delaware	2009: Oklahoma	2010: New Mexico

* - Arkansas image courtesy Bill Sproull, from the Arkansas gallery of pl8ster.net.
** - Oregon Crater Lake plate from Jeff Fortier collection.
*** - Oklahoma State Park Pavillion plate - Gus Oliver Photo.

Return to Main Page