ILLINOIS

By some accounts, the earliest known motorcycle licensing was by the city of Chicago when an ordinance of October 26, 1903, added motorcycles to the license requirements already in force for automobiles.  No identifiable unique motorcycle plates are known, however, in the 1903-07 period.

State motorcycle registration began on July 1, 1911, with annual state-issued motorcycle plates, at the same time as passenger plates were first issued.  (The 1907 and 1909 laws excluded motorcycles.)  No city motorcycle licensing before 1911 is known except for an ordinance in Elgin that was passed some time after the city's last automobile ordinance on March 23, 1907.  We don't know whether this ordinance was an add-on to the automobile ordinance, and therefore killed off by the state law which took effect on July 1, 1907, or was a new ordinance to fill the void left by the lack of state motorcycle registration after July 1, 1907.

The 1911 state law provided for an annual $2 fee, an annual state-issued disc and a single annual motorcycle plate.  The discs were dated each year from 1911 to their final year, 1917, and 1911-13 discs had the words "MOTOR BICYCLE" stamped above the serial number.  1914-17 discs were identical to passenger discs.  Motorcycle plates were undated in 1911, 1912 and 1913 only, but were in the same colors as passenger plates:  1911 Black on White, 1912 White on Black, 1913 White on Blue.  The registration year was to be January 1 to December 31, and new registrations for less than a full year during 1911 and subsequent years were prorated monthly.  The highest known 1911 motorcycle plate is #2117.

Interestingly, a 1912 Motorcycle Dealer disc #869 is known with the word "DEALER" stamped, leading us to wonder if a 1911 existed as well.  #869 seems much higher than the number of motorcycle dealers expected in the state, and in fact, almost exceeds the Dealer registration total of 874, which probably includes motorcycle dealers.  We theorize that Motorcycle Dealers were assigned numbers out of the regular Dealer sequence, and issued discs with that number stamped.