ALABAMA

The earliest state automobile law was 1903 Act 541, passed October 9, 1903, requiring all automobile and motorcycle owners to register their vehicles with the Probate Judge of their county of residence and pay a 25c fee for each registration.  Dealers were exempted from registration.  A certificate was issued but there was no mention of numbers or plates to be displayed, nor are any known.  Certificate numbers were to start at #1 in each of the 67 counties of the state.

Cities had the authority to pass ordinances providing for automobile licensing, and several issued plates prior to the new state law in late 1911.  Mobile and Birmingham both passed auto ordinances in early 1905 and were issuing annual plates by 1909.

1911 Act 452, passed on April 22, 1911, and effective October 1, 1911, required all motor vehicle owners and dealers to register with the Secretary of State, pay an annual fee and display annual state-issued plates.  Fees were $7.50, $12.50, $17.50 or $20 depending upon horsepower for gasoline vehicles, $12.50 for electric vehicles, $15 for steam vehicles, $3 for motorcycles, $25 for vehicles for hire, and $100 for dealers, plus $1 for each additional dealer plate needed.

The registration year was October 1 to September 30, so the first few years of plates were undated (the date of expiration was not added until 1917).  Section 4 states that plates will be issued in pairs, but Section 10 only requires a rear plate to be displayed.  The first plates were issued in pairs on September 1, 1911.  Non-residents were exempted as long as they complied with the registration laws of their home jurisdiction and displayed their license number.  Only states that extended reciprocal exemption to Alabama were exempted.  Local ordinances were prohibited, thus ending the city registration era, and no other plates could be displayed.

There were 4,534 total registrations during the 1912 license year.  The highest known 1912 plates are as follows:

      Passenger   #3937

      Dealer     #4501D - 4562D

      Motorcycle (none known)

A 1913 plate #4156 appears to have been refired over a leftover 1912 #4191, indicating that numbers actually issued in 1912 may not have gotten that high.