Vanity – An Illustrated History of Connecticut License Plates

Vanity

Vanity plates are available for many of the types issued: passenger car, combination, commercial, etc.

Connecticut started the vanity plate concept with ‘Initial’ plates in 1937 – motorists with good driving records were allowed to have plates with their initials (2 or 3 letters). Later on in the late 1940’s, 4 letters were available. Since the number of letter combinations was very limited, people had to get creative if their initials had already been issued to someone else. Common ideas were repeating the intials, e.g. JWJW, and using the letter ‘X’, e.g. XJWX.

In the late 1960s vanity plates could be issued with up to three letters followed by 1 or 2 numbers. A maximum of 5 characters was permitted.

In the early/mid 1970s 6-character plates were allowed. Around this time, the governor first allowed single-letter vanity plates for his closest supporters.

Seven-character plates are now available.

ca. 1940s initial plate. An early example of this type.

ca. 1948 initial plate revalidated to ’56. This plate had reflective yellow scotchlite on the background at one time.

1956, with white scotchlite.
Perhaps for a doctor?

Another 1956.

1959

ca. 1967/68 5-character vanity plate. Plates were allowed to have up to 5 characters starting in the late 1960s. There aren’t too many 5-character plates in this large die style, as the dies changed shortly thereafter in 1969.

1970s used until 1984

1970s used until 1992

Another 1970s used until 1992. If you’re wondering why there are so many 1992 plates here; this was the year when Connecticut was in the process of replacing several types of plates with pairs of “map” plates – all-numeric plates, the Polyvend plates, and vanity plates were typically all reissued.