TENNESSEE

The earliest city ordinance in Tennessee requiring motor vehicles to display number plates was passed by Memphis on September 23, 1903.  This ordinance included "Horseless Vehicles of all kinds" so it appears that motorcycles were registered from the start.  Motorcycles were first required to be registered by the state in 1905 at the same time as automobiles.  It would be difficult to discern whether a pre-state plate from the 1905-15 era would have been used on an automobile or a motorcycle because the same number sequence and size was used for both.  It is known that out of about 490 registrations issued in 1905, 25 of them were for motorcycles.

Motorcycle plates for the first year of state issue in 1915 present a mystery, although recently-located documentary evidence has mostly cleared up the situation.  A small-sized white-on-red horizontal porcelain plate #147 is known from 1915.  It has what appears to be a "TEN" monogram with a large "T" flanked by a smaller "E" and "N" above the 1915 date at left.  In addition to the two top mounting slots, the plate has two vertically aligned center holes which are consistent with early motorcycle plate mounting practices.  Thought to be the Tennessee 1915 motorcycle issue, this plate is more likely to be a city or county-issued plate perhaps not even from Tennessee!  Possible locales of issue of this unusual plate are listed on the Tennessee Pre-state State page.

Several different passenger numbers ranging from #24055 (issued July 7, 1915) to #25167 (issued August 17, 1915) were assigned to motorcycles, according to registration records.  This means that large 6" x 15" 1915 state-issued passenger plates must have been used on motorcycles as well as all other motor vehicles during the second half of 1915.  The cumbersome size of the 1915 tags probably drew some complaints, and it is quite possible that this led to the issuance of special, smaller vertical motorcycle plates in 1916 using a separate numeric series.  The lowest and highest known 1916 motorcycle plates are #297 and #930, but registration records show #181 issued January 12, 1916, and #927 issued September 13, 1916, expanding the range further.

No city or county motorcycle issues are known.  The state passed a law in 1915 allowing Davidson County to collect a privilege tax on automobiles and motorcycles, and another law in 1919 to allow the same in Lincoln County, but neither is known to have issued any kind of plate or tag.