ILLINOIS

Registration of automobiles was accomplished by city ordinances prior to the successful passage of the first state law in mid-1907.  Chicago passed the nation's first ordinance to license automobile operators on July 6, 1899.  Badges were issued starting in 1900, but plates were not required until mid-1903.  Many other cities joined the registration game until the 1907 law took effect on July 1, 1907, ending the city pre-state era in Illinois.

The first state law regulating automobiles was passed on May 13, 1903, effective July 1, 1903, and provided for speed limits only.  A Fort Wayne (IN) Journal-Gazette news article on May 6, 1905, has the headline "Illinois To Have New Automobile Law" and describes the "Chicago Automobile club bill," providing for state automobile registration, which passed the House on May 5.  This bill failed to gain final passage, however.

1907 Senate Bill 5, approved on May 28, 1907, and effective July 1, 1907, required automobile owners to register with the Secretary of State, pay a one-time $2 fee and display an undated state-issued disc, which was to be round and 2 inches in diameter.  Automobiles were also to display a pair of black-on-white owner-provided plates with 4-inch-tall numbers and 1-inch-tall "ILL" letters, as well as 1-inch-tall headlight numbers and "ILL" abbreviation.  This law repealed the 1903 speed limit law.  Dealers were to register one vehicle for each class of motive power dealt in, and were issued regular passenger numbers.  Non-residents were exempted from registration as long as they were in compliance with their home state registration law, and motorcycles were excluded completely from the law.  City ordinances licensing automobiles were now prohibited, but it is unknown if motorcycles could be licensed under city ordinances from 1907 to 1911.  None are currently known.

In addition to all-numeric plate numbers starting at #1, 349 letter/number combinations were issued by the Secretary of State to satisfy the intense demand for additional low-number plates.  All letters except "I" were used on alpha/numeric plates. Despite the 225 combinations of single-digit plates not being exhausted, the state began issuing more popular initials with numbers 10 and higher in 1908.  Pre-state plate #O 14 is known.  Registration numbers issued by the state's reporting periods (and quantities) are listed below:

                      ALL-NUMERIC             A1 - Z9   A10 - Z20

 7/1/07 - 11/30/07       1 - 10799 (10,799)    (145)        (0)

12/1/07 - 11/30/08   10800 - 17169  (6,370)     (43)       (93)

12/1/08 -  6/30/09   17170 - 22334  (5,165)      (6)       (62)

      TOTAL                        (22,334)    (194)      (155)

1909 House Bill 666, passed on June 10, 1909, and effective July 1, 1909, amended the 1907 law by making registration annual instead of permanent; the fee remained at $2.  All registrations, including those issued previously, were now to expire one year from the date of issue, which meant that all discs issued prior to July 1, 1908, now expired on July 1, 1909.  A new series of undated discs was issued in an octagon shape, some in 2 1/8" diameter, despite the law stipulating seals "which shall be circular in form and not to exceed two inches in diameter."  The shape was undoubtedly changed to differentiate them from the expiring round ones.

The same 1907-09 plates continued to be used, as well as the headlight numbers.  New numbers issued in the July 1, 1909, to June 30, 1910, period were assigned in the following sequence (numbers were issued out of order on purpose to avoid duplicating older valid numbers):  #1 - 19505, 23001 - 30000, 20001 - 21493.  The missing numbers were still in force as of early 1910 and would have been overlapped had they not been skipped.  The alphabetical plates were discontinued upon their expiration during 1909-10.

For the July 1, 1910, to June 30, 1911, period, new discs were issued.  These were back to a round shape with a 2-inch diameter, and the numerals were 1/4" high unlike the 3/8" numerals on the 1907-09 discs.  It is assumed that number blocks being issued would have again skipped previously-issued numbers which were still valid, but no details are known for the 1910/11 period.  The highest known 1907-11 pre-state plate is #38207.

Exactly two years later, 1911 House Bill 593, was passed on June 10, 1911, and effective July 1, 1911, repealing all earlier laws.  Annual registration was now converted to a calendar year basis with the registration year set at January 1 to December 31.  Annual state-issued pairs of plates (singles for motorcycles) were required in addition to the state-issued disc.  The 1911 plates were undated, but plates from 1912 on were dated.  Dated discs were issued from 1911 to 1917 before being discontinued.  Annual fees were increased to $4, $6, $8 or $10 depending upon horsepower, $5 for electric vehicles, and $2 for motorcycles.  The 1911 fee was prorated monthly to expire on December 31, 1911, as were fees for new registrations in subsequent years when registered in mid-year.  It is unclear just when prestate plates were last valid.  Owners of still-valid registrations issued from January 1, 1911, to June 30, 1911, were required to re-register under the new law and were given credit for fees already paid, prorated monthly, so it would appear that all vehicles had to have the new plates by July 1, 1911.

Illinois' reserved-number tradition got an early start.  Owners were guaranteed the assignment of the same registration number as long as they re-registered 20 or more days before the expiration of their registration and requested the same number.  The headlight number requirement was dropped.  Non-residents were exempted as before but were now more clearly defined as persons remaining in the state 60 days or less.  Motorcycles were now included, and received discs just like automobiles.  The 1911-13 discs had the extra words "MOTOR BICYCLE" stamped above the serial, while the 1914-17 discs were identical to passenger ones. 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.

Dealers were registered with plates which "shall be of distinctively different form" than regular plates, which meant that different shapes other than a rectangle were used each year.  The fee was $15 for the first pair and $1 for each additional duplicate plate.  No 1911 dealer plates are known (nor are any listed in the registration statistics reported by the state), but the 1912 plates are in a hexagon shape, with no other identifying marks.  Local authorities were now allowed to tax motor vehicles under certain conditions, and city tax tags or stickers have been issued ever since in many Illinois communities.

The highest known 1911 plates are as follows: Passenger #38055, Motorcycle #2117.  Registration figures for 1911-12 are as follows:

             PASSENGER   MOTORCYCLE   DEALER

      1911    38,269       4,346        -

      1912    68,012       9,238       874