Xrthnty

Current Nebraska license plate

The U.S. state of Nebraska first required its residents to register their motor vehicles in 1905. Registrants had to provide their own license plates for display until 1915, when the state began to supply plates.^[1]

All state-issued plates were made of steel until 1947 when aluminum plates were introduced. With the exception of 1945, all plates have been issued in pairs since 1922.

Passenger baseplates

1915 to 1965

In 1956, the U.S. states and Canadian provinces came to an agreement with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the Automobile Manufacturers Association and the National Safety Council that standardized the size for license plates for vehicles (except those for motorcycles) at 6 inches (15 cm) in height by 12 inches (30 cm) in width, with standardized mounting holes.^[2] The 1955 (dated 1956) issue was the first Nebraska license plate that complied with these standards.

Image	Dates issued	Design	Slogan	Serial format	Serials issued	Notes
	1915	Black on white	none	12345	1 to approximately 70000
	1916	White on navy blue	none	123456	1 to approximately 101000
	1917	Black on cream	none	123456	1 to approximately 148000
	1918	Yellow on black	none	123456	1 to approximately 171000
	1919–20	Black on light green	none	123456	1 to approximately 273000	Revalidated for 1920 with dark blue tabs.
	1921	White on black	none	123456	1 to approximately 272000
	1922	Black on white	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	First use of county codes.
	1923	Olive green on black	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1924	White on black	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1925	Black on orange	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1926	White on green	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1927	White on maroon	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1928	White on dark blue	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1929	White on black	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1930	Yellow on dark blue	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1931	Red on gray	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1932	White on blue	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1933	Dark blue on orange	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1934	White on dark green	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	First use of the full state name.
	1935	Black on silver	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county off issuance (1 or 10)
	1936	Silver on black	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1937	Black on silver	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1938	Silver on black	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1939	Black on silver	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1940	Orange on turquoise	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1941	Dark blue on orange	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1942–44	Red on white	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Revalidated for 1943 with dark blue tabs, and for 1944 with orange tabs, due to metal conservation for World War II.
	1945	White on black	none	1-12345 10-1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1946–47	Bright white embossed lettering on red base	none	1-12345 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Revalidated for 1947 with brown tabs.
	1948	Dark blue on unpainted aluminum	none	1-12345 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1949	Crimson on unpainted aluminum	none	1-12345 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1950	Dark blue on white	none	1-12345 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1951	White on black	none	A1234A AB123A	Coded by county of issuance (A or AB)
	1952–53	Black on golden yellow	none	1-12345 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Revalidated for 1953 with black tabs.
	1954	Golden yellow on black	none	1-12345 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1955	Black on golden yellow	none	1-12345 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1956	White on black with border line	The Beef State	1-123456 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	First 6" x 12" plate.
	1957	Green on white with border line	The Beef State	1-123456 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1958–59	Black on golden yellow with border line	The Beef State	1-123456 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Revalidated for 1959 with aluminum tabs.
	1960–61	Golden yellow on black with border line	The Beef State	1-123456 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Revalidated for 1961 with stickers.
	1962–64	Green on white with border line; green sticker box in bottom right corner	The Beef State	1-123456 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Revalidated for 1963 and 1964 with stickers.
	1965	Black on white with border line	The Beef State	1-123456 10-12345	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)

1966 to present

Image	Dates issued	Design	Slogan	Serial format	Serials issued	Notes
	1966–68	Red on reflective white with state outline	Centennial	1-A1234 1-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Commemorated Nebraska's 100 years of statehood. Revalidated for 1967 and 1968 with stickers.
	1969–71	Black on reflective white with state outline	Cornhusker State	1-A1234 1-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Revalidated for 1970 and 1971 with stickers.
	1972–75	Red on reflective white with state outline	Cornhusker State	1-A1234 1-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12 5/9-A1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Revalidated for 1973, 1974 and 1975 with stickers. After reaching 59-ZZ99, Sarpy County introduced five-character serials with stacked county codes; these were used on each subsequent base until 2002.
	1976–84	Red on reflective white with sky blue banner at bottom, Conestoga wagon graphic at top left and Native American chief graphic at top right	1776 BICENTENNIAL 1976	1-A1234 1-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12 2/1-A1234 5/9-A1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Only base on which Scotts Bluff County, as well as Sarpy County, used five-character serials with stacked county codes.
	1984–87	Blue on reflective white	none	1-A1234 1-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12 5/9-A1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1987–90	Red on reflective white with yellow, orange and red sunset graphic at top	none	1-A1234 1-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12 5/9-A1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1990–93	Black on reflective white with light blue, gold and black windmill graphic at top	none	1-A1234 1-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12 5/9-A1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)	Early Lancaster County plates were manufactured in South Dakota using that state's serial dies.
	1993–96	Blue on reflective white with blue and yellow graphic at top featuring Chimney Rock and city skyline	none	1-A1234 1-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12 5/9-A1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	1996–98	Black on reflective white with black and orange graphic at top featuring Chimney Rock and city skyline	none	1-A1234 1-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12 5/9-A1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	January 1999 – December 2001	Red on reflective gradient blue and white with yellow Chimney Rock and light blue city skyline graphics	none	1-A1234 1-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12 5/9-A1234	Coded by county of issuance (1 or 10)
	January 2002 – December 2004	Black on reflective gradient yellow, orange and red with black prairie landscape graphic, three black silhouettes of sandhill cranes, and an orange sun	www.state.ne.us	ABC 123	NAA 001 to mid-'O' series	ABC 123 serial format introduced in Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy Counties, the three most populous, while the county-code system was retained in all other counties. Plates with the ABC 123 format were originally issued with stickers at the bottom displaying the county name; these were discontinued due to poor quality. Serials became screened in May 2004.[3]
				3-A1234 3-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12	Coded by county of issuance (3 or 10)
	January 2005 –December 2010	Dark blue on reflective gradient blue and white with red state outline and Conestoga wagon graphic	www.nebraska.gov	ABC 123	Mid-'O' series to late 'R' series	'Q' series omitted in Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy Counties.[4]
				3-A1234 3-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12	Coded by county of issuance (3 or 10)
	January 2011 – December 2016	Dark green on reflective gradient white and yellow with Western meadowlark and goldenrod	nebraska.gov	ABC 123	Late 'R' series to mid-'U' series
				3-A1234 3-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12	Coded by county of issuance (3 or 10)
	January 2017 – present	Black on reflective white with Sower statue from the Nebraska State Capitol; state name in gold on navy blue bar at top	"1867" and "2017"	ABC 123	Mid-'U' series to VYG 999 (as of August 16, 2018)	Commemorates Nebraska's 150 years of statehood.
				3-A1234 3-AB123 10-A123 10-AB12	Coded by county of issuance (3 or 10)

Optional plates

Image	Dates issued	Design	Slogan	Serial format	Serials issued	Notes
	2012	Yellow Union Pacific locomotive and train left, plowed wheat field and city skyline right	Union Pacific Railroad Museum	123AB	001AA to present	Awarded "Plate of the Year" for best new license plate of 2012 by the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association, the first time Nebraska was so honored.

Non-passenger plates

Image	Type	Dates issued	Design	Serial format	Notes
	Motorcycle	1999–2001	Embossed red on white; "NEB" at top left	1 M/C 12345 10 M/C 1234	Coded by county of issuance.
		2002–04	Embossed black on white; "NEB" at top left	ABC 123 3 M/C 1234 10 M/C 1234	ABC 123 serial format used in Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy Counties.
		2004	Screened black on white; "NEBRASKA" and "MC" at top left	ABC 123 3-1234 10-1234	Serials continued from where the 2002–04 plates left off.
		2005–10	Screened blue on white; "NEBRASKA" and "MC" at top left	ABC 123 3-1234 10-1234
		2011–16	Screened dark green on white; "NEBRASKA" and "MC" at top left	ABC 123 3-1234 10-1234
		2017–present	Screened black on white; "NEBRASKA" and "MOTORCYCLE" centered at top	ABC 123 3-1234 10-1234

County coding

Nebraska counties by license plate prefix

Nebraska established a county-code system for its passenger and motorcycle plates in 1922, with one- or two-digit codes assigned to each county in order of the number of registered vehicles in the county at that time.^[5] These codes remained constant through 1950.

For 1951, letter codes were used. One-letter codes were assigned to the first counties whose names began with those letters, while all other counties were assigned two-letter codes consisting of the initial letter and the next available letter in their names (the letters I, O and Q were not used). There were three exceptions: Douglas County, the most populous in the state, was assigned single-letter X to increase capacity; Otoe County was assigned Z as O was not allowed; and Dodge County was assigned DG instead of DD as double-letter codes were also not allowed.^[6]

The numeric code system was reintroduced in 1952, with the codes the same as before. It remains in use to this day, except in Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy Counties, which adopted an uncoded ABC 123 serial format in 2002.

References

External links

• Nebraska license plates 1969-present