VARIATIONS

1913-14:  Rear plate solid with 4 mounting holes and embossed edge,

          front plate perforated with no mounting holes or embossed

          edge.  Front plates #1 - 6442 have square corners, while

          #6544 - 10444 have rounded corners.  Both front and rear

          plates switched from white to gray backs at this point.

1915:     3-4-digits are brighter white, 5-digits grayer white.

1916:     Type 1 - No bottom slots   100 -  9239 (1st order 11,000)

          Type 2 - Bottom slots    14365 - 24352 (2nd order 10,000)

1917:     4-digits have dash suffix (2-3-digits have no dashes).

1918:     Early issues are brighter blue, later issues darker blue.

1921:     3-digits have dash prefix.

1928:     Orange back 66 75, olive green back 102-563.

1928:     1-447 - 2-268 at far right,

          4 13 - 9 75, 32 43 - 99 47 centered.

1929-31:  3-digit format 0 0 0, 4-digit format 00 00.

1932-33:  3-digit format 0 0 0, 4-digit format 00-00.

1934-56:  2-5-digits have long dash, 6-digits have short hyphen.

          (except 1944, 1948-49 Type 1, 1950-51)

1935:     Gray or black back.

1937:     Black, orange, or olive green back.

1938:     Full-size county code  1-99 - 1-11968, 2-468 - 2-604,

                                 4-121 - 4-7198

          Small county code      2-1186 - 2-9618, 3-753 - 3-9922,

                                 5-199 - 5-6399, 6-936 - 6-4537,

                                7-985 - 7-4141, 8-2682, 9-177 - 9-617

          Counties 10 - 56 diagonally stacked.

          No stamp along bottom edge, tiny stamped "PRISON MADE", or

          lightly embossed "PRISON MADE".

          Orange or green back.

1943:     Some tabs restamped from 1932, 1938 or 1941 plates.

1944:     Some made on reverse of leftover Illinois 1943 plates.

          1554 636 - 1597 535, 1643 092 - 1648 990 (48,799 P)

                                           (maximum 62,751 P)

1946:     White or black back.

1948:  Type 1 - S.G. Adams dies, steel, 2 lower slots, 4 corner holes,

                no slogans, painted back, issued in all counties.

       Type 2 - 1933-46 Montana dies, aluminum, 2 lower slots,

                "PRISON MADE", unpainted back, late issue 54-448.

1949:  Type 1 - Same as 1948, issued in all counties including

                3-11727, 7-7106, 17-877, 47-625.

       Type 2 - Same as 1948, late issues 3-16750, 7-8835 - 8960,

                17-2445, 44-1142, 47-653 - 658  (135 S).

       Type 3 - 1950-58 Montana dies, steel, 4 inner holes,

                "PRISON MADE" and "THE TREASURE STATE", painted back,

                late issues 54-480 - 504  (25 S).

1950:     Steel or aluminum, all with painted back and long dash.

1951:     Counties 1 - 4 aluminum, 5 - 56 steel, all with painted

          back and long dash.

1953-54:  Three different hyphen lengths.

          Dated "54" 4-14695 (dated "53" 4-12765).

1957-58:  Counties 1 - 9 in UL corner, 10 - 56 vertically stacked,

          Type 1 - Bolt slots, counties 1 - 16, 28, 30, including

                   2-26399, 3-29548, 4-10027, 4-17831, 5-10435.

          Type 2 - Bolt holes, counties 17 - 27, 29, 31 - 56, plus

                   late issues 2-27033 - 27164, 3-31458 - 31799,

                   4-16685 - 17001, 5-11750 - 11868.

                  (Verify 39,46,48,50)

1959-62:  Type 1 - "PRISON MADE", all counties, including

                   1-18488, 2-36272, 3-42618, 4-21396, 5-12520,

                   6-10824, 7-14494, 8-6936, 9-1065, 13-4827,

                   14-6383, 15-4407, 16-5052, 18-3505, 19-3857,

                   20-5751, 22-3618, 23-1394, 28-2370, 34-2468,

                   36-639, 38-2835, 43-1471, 47-1259, 49-6228,

                   56-3951  (Verify 50,51)

                   Some had "PRISON MADE" painted (by mistake?),

                   possibly leading to its removal.

(1961)    Type 2 - No slogan, late issues

                   1-22018 - 23110, 2-39136 - 42886, 3-43106 - 48409,

                   4-22345 - 25822, 5-12563, 6-12696 - 14156,

                   7-16550 - 17216, 8-7364, 9-1571, 13-5840,

                   14-6511 - 6629, 15-5692 - 6193, 16-7288,

                   18-4195 - 4565, 19-3927, 20-100A - 264A,

                   22-4758 - 5084, 23-2800, 28-3611 - 3987,

                   34-3735 - 3858, 36-2090, 38-4828, 43-1728,

                   47-1575 - 1596, 49-7271 - 7967, 56-5737,

                  and some replacement plates. (18,469 P)

1963:     In Powell Co. (#28), home of Deer Lodge, where the state

          prison is located, #28-1082 has one plate of the pair with

          beaded reflectorization added.  Both have 1965 tabs.

1967:     Type 1 - Tab slots, 1-1 - 18421, 2-1 - 27041 (45,462 P).

          Type 2 - No tab slots, 2-33556 - 36636, all counties 3 - 56.

1976:     "JAN 78" 35-4969 seen with square hyphen, not round.

1978 STICKER:  Straight "7" or curved "7".

1987 STICKER:  Blue/White also reported for Centennial Base.

1976-91 BASE

1976   "JUN 76" Type 1 - Non-serif "1", off-white background

Sep.76 "SEP 77" Type 1a - As Type 1, but serif "1"

Mar.78 "MAR 79" Type 2 - Serif "1", snow-white background

May 89  "5-90"  Type 3 - As Type 2, but hologram added

2001-06 BASE

3-1-00          Type 1 - Embossed (Error 4A-86669, normal 4-A89235)

Dec.03          Type 2 - Flat

TAB VARIATIONS   (7-digit reported 1961-62, 1965)

1954   4 00078, 17 0683

1956   4 02524, 5 01098, 11 01808, 13 00521, 15 0372, 49 3036

1958   3-00573, 5-00960, 6-08491, 14-3650, 53-00603

1960   1-09706, 4-07341, 14-4503

1961   1-06206, 10-2834, 15-1091, 19-1064, 20-2876, 26-2669

1962   4-00513, 20-1441, 47-1098, 48-0426

1964   2-09080, 14-3626, 28-2465, 37-1752, 38-2051, 55-0372

1965   5-07933, 20-4960, 26-0837, 35-2166, 41-1136, 55-0453

1966:  Type 1 - Wide serial  27-3409, 35-2682, 37-1350

       Type 2 - Thin serial  29-01997

       Type ? - 4-09207, 28-0854, 39-0916, 55-00354