A Brown County
License Plate History
Starting in 1950, the state of Indiana gave each county its own alphabetical classification code. Prior to this the license plates were issued with numbers, making it almost impossible to know the county of origin.
You could tell if a driver was a Brown County resident by the letter prefix YE. From 1950 until 1954 the state issued plates in matched pairs. In 1955 a small number plate was made to bolt over the 1954 rear plate. Brown County used the YE prefix code from 1950 until the end of 1962.
Starting in 1963 Indiana switched to a number prefix code. All the counties in Indiana were then listed in alphabetical order. Brown County was the seventh county down the list and was assigned the 7A prefix.
The 7A prefix lasted many decades. The state just recently adopted a system with letters and numbers. There is still a 07 county code on the license plates from Brown County, but it is very small now and is located on the lower right corner.
You might notice some license plates from Brown County using the old number 7 prefix. These are considered“ vanity” plates and you have to pay an extra fee to purchase them. Most of the Brown County folks who own these plates had an interesting set of numbers or very low numbers when the prefix was used.
Older Brown County license plates are scarce because there were not many cars registered. Brown County’ s population was smaller than the surrounding counties.
Other Indiana license plate facts:
• Indiana’ s first license plate was issued in 1913.
• 1913 was the only year Indiana plates had a porcelaincoated finish.
Jim Connor’ s Muddy Boots palm tree. photo by Kaitlyn Spires
• Indiana’ s license plates were extra long in size from 1913-1927.
• Marion County’ s population was so large that there were 20 different letter codes.
• 1964 was the first year for reflective paint.
• In 1976, the bicentennial“ Minute Man” appeared on the plate as the first graphic. •
submitted by Paul Sachman from Plum Creek Antiques
50 Our Brown County • Jan./ Feb. 2014