INDIANA

Automobile registration started out being regulated by cities, with Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and South Bend having ordinances in effect in 1903.  The first state law in 1905 outlawed any license plates required by local authorities but did allow cities, towns and municipalities to license and tax motor vehicles of residents only, until early 1907.

1905 Chapter 109A, passed on March 6, 1905, and effective April 15, 1905, required all motor vehicle owners to register with the Secretary of State, pay a one-time fee of $1, and display both a state-issued disc and an owner-provided rear plate with 4-inch-tall numbers and a 2-inch-tall "IND" abbreviation.  A period news article mentioned that the "Crumpacker automobile bill" was substantially a copy of the Iowa 1904 law.  Motorcycles were included.  Dealers were to register one vehicle of each class of motive power, and were allowed to apply for as many additional duplicate seals as needed for a fee of 50c each.  Non-residents were exempted as long as they complied with their home state's law and displayed their license number.  The law states in Section 10 that "no other designating mark shall be required by any city, town or other municipality, nor shall any city, town or other municipality require the payment of any license upon any motor vehicle or by the owner thereof, unless such owner reside in such city, town or municipality."

1905-07 FIRST ISSUE - BRASS ON AIR

In lieu of supplying one's own plate, owners had the option of purchasing a plate from the state for $2 extra, according to the Indianapolis Star on April 18, 1905, and the Fort Wayne News on May 10, 1905.  The state-issued plates were solid brass stencil plates with the numbers cut out against no background whatsoever, to show up against the dark body of a vehicle.  Many of these brass plates were made by the Bell Mfg. Co. of Indianapolis, but some were made by Geo J. Mayer, also of Indianapolis.  The April 12, 1905, issue of The Horseless Age also reports that "Secretary of State Storms has arranged to supply motorists with license tags required under the new law at a cost of $2 each.  These are to be made from brass, with the numbers sawed out."  Plate numbers began at #1, with #1000 being issued on April 28, 1905, #2258 on August 4, 1905 and #2675 on February 9, 1906.  By the end in April 1907, 4,213 automobile registrations had been issued under this law.  The highest known 1905-07 first-issue brass plate is #4030.

Some early registration figures published in a state report as of June 27, 1908, are listed below.  We interpret these as being snapshots of the actual number of vehicles still in use as of the reporting dates, as opposed to cumulative registration totals issued up to those points:

      As of June 30, 1905   1,828

      As of June 30, 1906   2,213

      As of June 30, 1907   3,758

      As of June 27, 1908   6,136

1907-13 SECOND ISSUE - ALUMINUM RIVETED ON BLACK

A new state law, 1907 Chapter 130, was passed on March 12, 1907, effective April 10, 1907, to amend the 1905 law by requiring re-registration with the Secretary of State and payment of a one-time $1 fee.  This time, owners were to display the new state-issued disc and a pair of owner-provided plates with a new alpha/numeric numbering system, all numbers and letters (including the "IND" abbreviation) to be 4 inches tall. Motorcycles could display a single rear plate only.  The last ten words of Section 10 of the 1905 law were stricken from the 1907 version, changing the meaning of the language to disallow all local motor vehicle licensing, even for city residents.  This wording was changed again with 1911 Chapter 264, passed March 6, 1911, by amending Section 10 to allow cities and towns to collect a license tax once again.

There was some question about how previously issued registrations would be treated under the new law.  According to a Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette news article on April 12, 1907, the Secretary of State sent out 5,000 letters to those owners, who would now be issued a new disc with a new number at no cost, as long as the same vehicle was re-registered.  As before, state-issued plates were made available for an extra cost as an option to owners who preferred not to supply their own plates.  The state issues were flat black steel bases with crimped top and bottom edges, and beveled unpainted aluminum characters riveted on.

The alpha/numeric sequence was very explicitly described in the law, with all 26 letters of the alphabet being used:

       A1 -    Z100 (A1 - A100, B1 - B100, etc.)         =  2,600

     A0-1 -  Z0-100 (A0-1 - A0-100, B0-1 - B0-100, etc.) =  2,600

     A1-1 -  Z9-100 (A1-1 - Z1-100, A2-1 - Z2-100, etc.) = 23,400

    A10-1 - Z22-100 (same sequence as A1 - Z9)           = 33,800

                                                   TOTAL = 62,400

The highest known 1907-13 second-issue black riveted plate is #J22-95 (= 60,795).  An April 29, 1913, news article about the new 1913 law states that "On the present records at the state house, under the old law, there is note of seventy thousand registrations, but they do not represent the number of machines because many are transfers."

It is not known why such a complex numbering system was chosen.  No period news articles have been found which provide any explanation for it.  We speculate that the new system would have provided more low numbers than would be available under an ordinary numeric system.  2,574 3-character plates were issued right away in 1907, far more than the original 999 numbers assigned in 1905.  The state obviously wanted a system that would be different enough from the old plates, since there had been many complaints about how illegible they were, and lettered plates would make numeric-only plates more obviously obsolete.  Indiana may also have desired to have a unique system unlike any other state, because several other jurisdictions were using silver-on-black plates.

Most numbering systems involving letters are designed to reduce the number of characters in a plate number, so the fact that this system extended to #100 in each prefix created an anomaly, resulting in at least 321 6-character plates being issued, such as #A22-100.  The logic of the 1-to-100 system goes against the structure of this sequence using prefixes A0-to-A9. Using that same logic, the serials should have progressed 0-to-99.

The presence and placement of the hyphen on these plates was in some cases crucial to identifying the correct license number.  Plates with two digits after the letter (A00 or A0-0) could have come from either the 1st or 3rd sequences from the table above. Similarly, plates with three digits following the letter, other than #100 of the 1st sequence, (A0-00, A00-0) could originate from either the 3rd or 4th sequences.  Fortunately, the vast majority of known plates are of the state issue with clearly marked hyphens, so this problem was probably not widespread.

We have no consistently-reported registration figures or breakdowns of numbers issued by year for the period 1905-13.  There are the annual end-of-June "snapshot" reports listed above for 1905-08.  We also have reports of 1,291 registrations from January 1, 1908, through June 12, 1908, giving a cumulative total of 6,421 from 1907 through that date, and 4,887 registrations from January 1, 1909, to September 10, 1909.  Additional reports are as follows, by year:

1908 - APR-MAY-JUN       1,550 or 1,559

1909 - APR-MAY-JUN       2,591

       TOTAL YEAR        5,922 or 6,961

1910 - APR               1,724

       MAY               1,840

       JUN               1,724 or 1,892

       AUG               1,266

       1/1 - 6/23        6,860

       1/1 - 8/16        9,006

       TOTAL YEAR       10,260

1911 - APR               1,623

       MAY               2,435

       MAY-JUN-JUL-AUG   7,813

       AUG               1,532

       TOTAL YEAR       13,080

1912 - MAY               3,146

Annual reports of the Secretary of State list the total fees collected for all years, mostly on a quarterly basis.  From these amounts, we have made estimates of how many registrations were issued and what plate numbers were assigned, based on certain assumptions such as what ratio of fees was collected for extra dealer discs and how many renewals occurred in April 1907.  This information is presented in the separate table.  After this table was assembled, a brief news article about the number 13 being unlucky was discovered, stating that plate #K13-13 was issued on Friday, October 13, 1911, which fits very well with our estimates.  The automobile it was assigned to caused an accident soon after!

ANNUAL PLATES START IN 1913

From 1905 to 1913, none of the money paid to the state for motor vehicle registration went toward the building and/or maintenance of roads.  And, at $1 each, the state was not collecting enough to build up a sufficient road fund anyway, even if it had one. It was time for a new, more comprehensive law.  1913 Chapter 130 was passed on March 15, 1913, and effective July 1, 1913, repealing the earlier laws.  It required owners to register with the Secretary of State, pay an annual fee, and display an annual pair of state-issued plates or a single state-issued motorcycle plate.  Fees were as follows:  $2 for motorcycles, $3 for electric vehicles, $5 for commercial vehicles, $5, $8, $15 or $20 for regular non-electric vehicles depending upon horsepower, and $25 for manufacturers/dealers.  This law was reported to be based largely on Ohio's motor vehicle law, along with some features of the New York law.

The registration year was now January 1 to December 31.  All 1913 registrations under this law were prorated monthly.  Starting in 1914 and subsequent years, half rates were in effect after August 1 of each year.  Manufacturer/Dealer plates were to have an "M" prefix, and as many extra duplicate plates as were needed could be ordered for $1 each.  Only state-issued dealer plates were allowed to be used.  Non-residents were treated in basically the same manner as previous laws but were further defined as persons being in the state for 60 days or less, and their exemption was granted only to the extent that their home state recognized registrations from Indiana.

An April 29, 1913, news article announces that Secretary of State Lew G. Ellingham "will receive bids for the construction of 35,000 of the new automobile number plates and ten thousand motorcycle plates at his office next Wednesday at noon."  As of the final day of issue, December 24, 1913, there were registered 44,735 automobiles, 6,505 motorcycles and 437 dealers.  The highest known 1913 plates are as follows:  Passenger #44431, Motorcycle #C6516, Manufacturer/Dealer #M 369.