Does anyone know something about this car?

[Bob Forman]

I recall my parents bought a new 53 Buick that came with yellow background/black letters plate. And the 54 plate was the same. Of course, after 60 years I could be a little foggy.

[Gary Carriveau]

As I remember, California "Black Plates" were issued circa 1964 to 1969.
The original black plates, installed by the new car owner, have been used continuously since then and are still attached to my '64 C Coupe. I am the second owner since 1966.

Gary
"64 C Coupe

[Pelias Anders]

All I wanted to say is, even if the original 50s yellow plate has changed into a black plate in the early 60s, that the 356 has been parked for a long time. It's fun to know a car's history, isn't it...

They had large black plates in the early 50s and smaller yellow ones since '56 or so. They changed to what we ususally call "California black plate" in the 60s.

[Bob Forman]

Putting a cap on this part of the conversation, it was 1957 when the gov't and manufacturers agreed to a uniform size and shape for license plates. Probably didn't take effect until the next year or year after that. I just remember Texas has having the smallest plate but some other states had odd shapes and outlines.

[Steve Swift]

The black plate first came out in 63 and had 63 stamped in the upper right corner. I used one for the YOM program here in Califorina, and had a bit of trouble because the DMV insisted that I needed a period 63 sticker in order to use the plate. It took a while to convince them that there was no year sticker in 63 because of the stamped year on the plate.

[Pelias Anders]

California Black Plate

Steve, I've got a '63 plate fitted on my '63 Chevrolet Impala, which is the first year of the so called "California Black Plate".

[Alex Mestas]

The black California plate was introduced in 63 and as stated it had no sticker. The year was embossed it the plate. My car is a 63. Notice the earlier yellow California plate on the other car. Different color same size.

[James Davies]

1951 CA plates were black with yellow lettering and rounded edges. 1953 would have had a tab affixed.

[Garry Haussler]

Hi Pelias. A friend found the car in fresno ca.sitting on 4 flat second generation recap tires. the owner had gotten into motorcycles and forgot about the 356. when my wife was cleaning the car out found a black bra and some buttons from a shirt. the owner bought the 356 at a pontiac dealer in fresno paid 700.00 bucks and had to finance for a few years. more later......

garry haussler

[Pelias Anders]

Garry, that sounds like a cool story!
I'm looking forward to hearing from you...
greetings
Pelias

[Pelias Anders]

Rare Porsche Find

The '53 was rescued in 2008 after quite a long time of storage.

[Steve Harrison]

Those black with yellow lettering CA 51 plates are really really scarce. Problems with wanting to use them for the YOM program are many....you first have to find TWO 51 plates, not one like here in GA, then you have to find the 55 tag, and then,...the biggie,...you have to prove that the number is not in use presently. Because they just made the 51 tags and issued the 52, 53, 54, and 55 little taglets, the 51 tags had to cover so much ground time wise,...they're just really scarce. Then California, because of it's astronomical number of cars, started "reusing" tag number/letter combos. This puts a lot of the 51 tags into the unuseable category.

Funny thing,...the Georgia 55 tag looks amazingly similar to the California tag, black with yellow lettering, but the lettering is a little narrower and the tag isn't as rounded. GA just started a YOM program recently and finding a tag is not hard at all,...lots of them around, and only one needed.

[Pelias Anders]

There will be a sweet little story about the '53 in the German TV soon!

[Steve Hatfield]

Please pardon me for borrowing your subject Pelias, but on the sub-subject of license plates, I recently uncovered a pair of matched near-NOS, vintage, Virginia USA, '57 plates that, as a Florida resident, I will probably never use. If one of our Commonwealth members with a '57 in need this matched pair, please email me with a PM.

[Pelias Anders]

Another nice shot from our latest Cruise Night
http://facebook.com/arealkurzurlaub