12/30/10

Tennessee

PASSENGER

Passenger:  Up to 1966, Tennessee issued passenger plates yearly or, as in the case of 1962, with yearly renewal stickers.  Starting with the 1966 base, Tennessee issued longer term multiyear bases.  From the 1976 state seal base forward, designs ran for five to seven years each before being replaced with a new design.  Tennessee either county codes the plates or places a county sticker at the bottom of the plate, therefore, these pages can get enormous to download.  I have a very nice (and large) selection of counties, so beginning with the 1976 state seal design plate, I have split the pages into the following bases, each being a link to my website page of that type:

Pre-1976 state seal base

1976 state seal base

1983 "Volunteer State" base

1988 tri-star base

1994 "BicenTENNial" base

2000 "Sounds good to me" base

2006 rolling hills base

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1976 state seal base:  This design began in late 1976 ("77" expiration stickers) and features a yellow state seal in the background.  The plate number format for single-digit county numbers was "0-A0000", but later went to a two-alpha format when the single alpha ran out.  Two-digit county codes started with a "00-A000" plate number format, but, like the single-digit counties, went to a two-alpha format.  Counties that ran out of plates towards the end of the series were issued plates with a "AAA-000" format.  Due to the state producing the plates in Illinois, then Texas, and finally Tennessee, there are various die types on this base.