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With motor vehicle registrations skyrocketing, the province began to issue annual plates for the first time in 1911. The plates were a striking cobalt blue porcelain plate from the McClary Stove Company of London, ON. This was also the only year Ontario made porcelain plates as they were prone to chipping and didn’t fare well given the state of roads back then. These plates were similar to the porcelain plates issued by Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia during this era. Three distinctive types were issued in 1911: Passenger, Dealer and Motorcycle.
All passenger and dealer plates featured a uniform size despite character length. Spacing for shorter plate numbers varied. Speculation is #150 pictured below may have been a late year replacement plate based on the 4 and 5 character machine tooling set up. There are also variations in the blue background in terms of slight shading differences. This is most likely due to a batch manufacturing process.
Passenger Plates Known: 254
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Thus far only seven 1911 dealer plates have survived, two being a matched pair (M.T.S.). According to Ministry records, a total of 81 pairs were issued to dealers that year. Letter combinations were based on the dealer/manufacturer’s choosing. The number of plate characters ranged from 1 to 4, most if not all containing a period after each initial (ie: “V.” or “H.U.P.P.”). Some special characters was also used such as the “&” and “Co.” symbols (ie: “G. & S.” or “N.A. Co.”).
Dealer Plates Known: 7
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Motorcycle plates were essentially miniature versions of the passenger/dealer plates. They were issued as singles. To date, six surviving porcelain motorcycle plates have been found.
Motorcycle Plates Known: 7
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Listed below are all the known replica porcelain plates. Most are hand-painted steel.
Replica Plates Known: 19
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