For nearly twenty years motorists from the state of West Virginia could be identified by their blue, gold, and white license plates, which had the distinctive outline of the state silkscreened on them. On a personal note I remember these a lot from my childhood and have always liked the design, so it's no wonder I like to collect them today.
First, a little background information: In mid-1970, West Virginia began to stagger passenger car registrations throughout the year to reduce the risk of long lineups at DMV offices caused by everyone renewing at the same time. Rather than indicating the month of expiration by a sticker or stamped abbreviation, a fairly unique code (still used today) was devised instead consisting of the first character of the plate number. License plates expired on the first day of any given month:
A multi-year base was issued from 1970 to 1975 that was blue on gold and had the slogan "Mountain State" (introduced back in 1964 following the state's centennial) embossed at top. It was validated by stickers through 1976.
The map base (or "bicentennial" license plate, in wake of the U.S. bicentennial celebration that year) was introduced in an unusual and very complicated way. New registrants began to be issued the new base in December 1975, and existing registrants were issued it as their gold plates expired. The earliest recipients of the map base (coinciding with "1" through "7" expirations that year) received plates like those at the top of this page. These plates were manufactured at the West Virginia State Prison in Moundsville, and carried the same serial dies as most West Virginia license plates before and since.
This is where things begin to get complicated. Partway through the year, then-Governor Arch Moore requested for all remaining blue-on-gold plates to be replaced before the bicentennial observance in July. Therefore, all existing registrants in expiration months from "8" through "D" received their new plates by mail in one bunch in June, before their existing plates had expired. To accomodate this the new plates people received carried the same serials as the old ones, and one's existing registration card carried over to the new plates until its expiration later in the year.
The number of license plates that needed to be produced in a very short time was more than the West Virginia State Prison could accomodate, so the state elected to have these plates for "8" through "D" expirations instead be manufactured by the Polyvend Corporation, a metal-stamping company in Arkansas (best known for vending machines) that made license plates under contract for other states as well. The resulting plates (such as the one below) carried dies substantially different from those used on other West Virginia plates (with features such as open 6s and 9s), and the rectangular surface upon which the serial was embossed was raised slightly in relation to the rest of the plate as well. The serial dies and stamping on these plates were absolutely identical to those on the license plates of Illinois from the same year. All new plate production reverted to in-state by the next year, although leftover Polyvend plates were given out to some new registrants for a little while beyond that.
I was recently fortunate enough to obtain an unused example of one of these license plates, still in its original DMV envelope. Here are scans of the envelope and literature enclosed with the plate (click to enlarge):
Since a motorist's existing registration card carried over until its expiration in (in this case) August 1976, the card pocket on the envelope is empty. The "License Plate Manufactured at the West Virginia State Prison" statement printed near the bottom edge happened to be erroneous in this case.
![[Message from governor]](wv76insert.jpg)
![[Letter from DMV commissioner]](wv76letter.jpg)
Messages from the governor and DMV commissioner, respectively, containing interesting information on the new license plate and the way it was being introduced. Note how the $1.00 plate replacement fee is implied as being optional. I wonder how many people paid it when they got their new license plates in June 1976!
Things get even more complicated when consideration is given to the way the plates were dated and renewed. All the plates were prominently dated "76" even though 1976 was in many cases the issue year and not the expiration year. There's a bit of contradictory information on this issue online: The plates actually expiring in 1976, of course, were the previous blue-on-gold plates with yellow and green "1976" stickers. It is my theory that the early map license plates for months 1-7 were initially used until 1977 with no validation stickers. The Polyvend-made plates for the remainder of the year, meanwhile, were only valid without stickers a short time until the indicated month later in 1976, upon which they received a red, white, and blue sticker (also dated 1976, and containing the same logo printed on the payment envelope for the unused license plate above) that carried forth as the validation for 1977. Some sources claim that this sticker was used on earlier, West Virginia-made plates as well; however, I dispute this since the state wouldn't have known at the time the earliest plates were being given out that an additional sticker would be necessary; I have yet to see one of these stickers on a non-Polyvend plate, and I have seen far more unstickered early-1976 plates than would otherwise seem explainable.
Therefore, an unstickered "76" plate would expire in 1977 for "1" to "7" expirations, and 1976 for "8" through "D." Confusing? You bet!
A number of other changes to the license plate design occured in the years following the initial issue in 1976. Perhaps the most notable came around 1981, when a new map graphic with a slightly more detailed and geographically accurate border was adopted and the blue line outlining the state on earlier plates was removed to improve legibility. At the same time, the serial format was changed from a configuration of one letter and four numbers following the month code (i.e., 1A-1234) to two letters and three numbers (1AB-123). The number of alphanumeric combinations in the 1A-1234 format was nearing depletion, although since all month series switched to the new format simultaneously it is possible that the highest 1A-1234 format combinations for some months went unused.
Other changes through the end of the base's run in 1995 were minor, but do exist. Early examples of the 1AB-123 format, blue border-less map plates carry a large block "82" designation in the lower-right corner, similar to the "76" in the same location on the earliest plates. On later plates, however, this was changed to "85." Since the vast majority of the time this year is covered by a validation sticker, it is difficult to easily determine whether a given plate is of the 1982- or 1985-dated variety (short of the presence of a 1983-85 sticker, in which case it must be a 1982 version). However, there are other clues that can be consulted as well: On every 1982-type plate I've seen the fine strokes of the "Wild, Wonderful" slogan along the top are very clear and distinct, while on 1985-type plates they are comparably blurry with the finer strokes and tips of letters being almost obliterated:
In addition, it pays to note the presence or absence of "ensure images" in the reflective sheeting; hologram-like devices running down the center of the plate that are visible when viewed at an angle. On all 1982-type and the earliest 1985-type bases, these elements will be absent. The ensure images originally consisted of the year of manufacture enclosed within an outline of the state (the earliest year I've personally seen is "85"), which was changed in 1991 to a small state outline, cryptic alphanumeric code, and abbreviation "WV" all within a circle.
Serials proceeded in a fashion that was not always alphabetically chronological or easy to follow, with each coded month having its own series. Numbering began at xA-1000 (or was it 1001?) and proceeded through the end of the run of blue-bordered map plates in 1981. The subsequent blue border-less plates began at xAA-100 (or was it 101?). After xAM-999, however, the numbering would skip over to xBA-100. Serials with third characters higher in the alphabet than M did not begin to be issued until a given month series had reached xZM-999 at which point it would roll over to xAN-100, proceeding from there alphabetically but only using the letters N to Z in the third position. (I ought to thank fellow collector Joe Sallmen of Fairmont for explaining this to me.) This places West Virginia in the same ranks as jurisdictions like Utah and British Columbia known for using "split" alphabet systems, although West Virginia's system is neither as obvious nor as often discussed. This explains the "low" serial blocks found on many plates of the early-to-mid '90s, and also explains why a seemingly higher plate number like 6GL-385 was issued ten years before 6FS-462.
From the 1978 expiration year on, all map bases were validated with annual stickers expiring in the year indicated; the primary exceptions being early examples of the 1982- and 1985-dated varieties, which were presumably valid through the appropriate month in the year indicated without stickers. The 1979-expiring sticker, however, was erroneously dated 1978 by mistake. As a result, there were two different "1978" stickers in West Virginia, and no 1979 sticker. The red, white, and blue sticker used to renew Polyvend-made plates in late 1976 also carried a year other than that of expiration.
| 1976 | 1978 | 1978 | 1980 | 1981 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 |
| 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 |
| 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 |
All map bases for passenger cars and most non-passenger classes issued between 1976 and 1994 (with the exception, once again, of "B"-prefixed truck plates originally issued to light trucks) remained valid until their expirations between January and December 1995, when they were replaced with the style of plate used today. There were exceptions, however: Personalized and handicapped plates on the map base were routinely validated through 1996 before being replaced, and a few personalized plates sneaked by after that as well (I still occasionally see them with current stickers to this day). Other classes of plates on the map base that survived beyond 1995 are Disabled Veteran plates with red-painted serials (still valid, in fact, today) and Antique Car plates, both of which were given long-term "July 2005" expirations shortly before passenger map bases were replaced. Allegedly, some older National Guard plates were until recently still valid as well. These license plates are also starting to reappear on classic cars, thanks to "year-of-manufacture" registrations for vehicles 25 or more years old.
By the time they were replaced, many of the older map bases in use had deteriorated badly in condition, and I recall that a few of the oldest plates had weathered to the point of having blue characters on a plain aluminum background by the early '90s, with no reflectivity or even indication to what state they were from! While I find the design of the current issue a bit dull by comparison, to the credit of the state these newer license plates are very legible and have held up longer to the elements than many of the map bases made through the late '80s did.
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