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This page addresses distinct license plates issued specifically to vehicles owned by churches and charities, members of the clergy, members of specific churches and church-affilliated organizations, and for church-related special events. Latest noteworthy updates to this page
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This page is about various kinds of real, government-issued, church-related license plates. These are organized into several broad categories as indicated on the page menu above.
I'd like to state up front that I've established some boundaries on what I'm interested in and collect, and therefore also on what I'm trying to cover on this page.
Church-related plates are a fairly obscure license plate category, so the available information about such plates is often pretty sketchy. No doubt, I've gotten some of the facts wrong, and there almost certainly must be church-related plate types out there of which I'm not even aware. If you can provide any additional or clarifying information, and especially if you can provide a plate or a photo of plate, please let me know.
By far, the most common church-owned vehicle type has to be the church bus. A handful of states have issued distinct license plates specifically for church-owned buses for many decades.
Ohio church bus plates from 1971 and 1980
As far as I know, Ohio was the first state to issue plates specifically for church buses in 1949, and they still do. Although it's hard to see the year, even on the larger version of this picture, the red on white plate shown has a natural May 1980 expiration. Proper sticker placement was actually all the way in the lower corners, adjacent to the embossed border.
Indiana church bus plates from 1982, 1985, and 1995
States tend to imitate their neighbors when it comes to license plates, and so Indiana followed suit by introducing their own church bus plates in 1951. They also continue to issue them today. The embossed, painted rectangles in opposing corners of the 1982 plate were a unique feature once used to easily identify plates from Indiana, even at distances too great to read the state name or abbreviation.
1998 Arkansas church bus plate
Arkansas has issued church bus plates since 1960. The 1998 plate shown is basically a passenger car base with a "Church Bus" sticker apparently covering the legend "The Natural State" that would normally be visible. In recent years, this is how Arkansas has issued plates for low-volume non-passenger vehicle classes. Earlier Arkansas church bus plates had the words "Church Bus" embossed on the plate.
1968 Alaska Sunday school bus plate
There isn't a lot of information available about Alaska Sunday School bus plates. They're reported to have been issued as early as 1962; possibly they were also issued earler than that. Sunday School bus plates may be identified by an "SS" serial prefix, or possibly an "S" prefix, depending on the year. These plates never had any legend that identified the plate type.
My hunch is that Alaska chose the term "Sunday School bus" and the "SS" prefix, rather than the more common term "church bus" and the obvious "CB" prefix, because "CB" was already being used, or was about to be used, for commercial bus plates.
Beginning in 1976, Alaska has issued "exempt" plates to vehicles owned by churches as well as other nonprofit organizations. These seem to have replaced Sunday School bus plates, as well as possibly some additional plate types.
Mississippi church bus plates from 1977 and 1997, and both embossed and flat varieties from 2004
Neigboring Mississippi followed Arkansas' lead by introducing their own church bus plates a few years later, and they continue to do so today. Probably the first plates were issued in the fall of 1963 and indicated an October 1964 expiraiton. Church bus plates were issued annually through the October 1976 expiration plate. The plain red-on-white base plate above has the expiration year "77" lightly etched in the sticker well in the upper right corner. It was obviously intended to be overlaid with year stickers in subsequent years.
Also pictured are two different examples from the 2002 base, showing how Mississippi converted from embossed to flat serial numbers on some of their non-passenger plate types during the lifespan of this base. It looks like they also went back and re-used older plate numbers, too. The "44" sticker on the flat plate identifies the bus as having been registered in Lowndes County.
A few states have distinct license plates for vehicles owned by charitable organizations, including churches. Probably the vast majority of these plates are actually issued for church buses, hence my interest in them. However, these various plate types – charitable vehicle, no fee, tax exempt, etc. – tend to be rather obscure and are poorly documented by plate historians and spotters of current plates alike. A good number of states issue some sort of "exempt" plate, but frequently these are issued for government-owned vehicles, rather than for vehicles owned by charitable organizations.
Listed and show below are some charitable and nonprofit organization-owned vehicle plate types for which I have some pretty solid information.
New Jersey no-fee plates have been around since at least the mid-1930s. They've been consistently made with the letters "NF" as either a serial prefix or suffix. No-fee plates are issued for vehicles owned by various charitable or otherwise tax exempt orgainzations, including churches. I distinctly recall seeing one of these on a church bus in the 1980s, and without knowing exactly what it was, realized it wasn't a normal passenger plate – the serial separator was in the "wrong" place, since at the time these plates had the serial format NF-x000.
Nowadays, standard issue no-fee plates have serial format NF00000, but they're also available as vanity plates and as "courtesy" plates issued to political patrons. Regardless, they always start with the letters "NF".
Okay, I realize that although these plates may be for charitable and nonprofit organization vehicles, they have no direct connection to churches. Nevertheless, I'm including them here because, as a former Boy Scout myself, I think this is a pretty interesting plate type. What prompted Arkansas to lump Boy Scout buses and orphanage buses into a distinct and single plate category, I have no idea. From what I understand, buses owned by other youth orgnizations, including the Girl Scouts, are also issued these same plates.
In the early years, Arkansas Boy Scout & orphanage bus plates had a BSO serial prefix; later, they had the legend "B S & O" at the bottom of the plate.
Michigan issues what it calls "nonprofit" plates for certain vehicle types owned by nonprofit and charitable groups that meet very specific eligibility criteria, as well as private schools, church Sunday Schools, and the Civil Air Patrol. These plates are identified with a small "Y" as part of the serial number.
Older "Y" plates are much more confusing. Apparently, the first such plates were issued in 1966. They were undated, but had the same navy on tan color scheme as regular 1966 plates, and had a small "Y" inside a diamond. These were reported to have been used continuously through 1975. Several types of "Y" plates were reported to have been issued on the 1976 base, including one with the "Y" inside the diamond, one with a small "Y" and no diamond with the legend "Nonprofit Plate", but also another with a small "Y" and no diamond with the legend "School Bus".
There's not much information about these, but New Mexico issues some sort of bus plate with a "CB" serial prefix, and apparently has done so since at least 1966. There's contradictory information regarding whether "CB" stands for commercial bus, church bus, or charitable bus. The most reliable source describes this plate type as being for buses used exclusively for "religious or nonprofit charitable organizations", so I'll go with "charitable bus". Probably most of these are issued to church buses in actual practice.
Illinois charitable bus plates from 1976 and 1977
Illinois charitable vehicle plates from 1990-91, 1992-93, 1999, and 2009 (2009 plate in
actual use).
Illinois charitable plates are not just for church-owned vehicles, but I've spent time in Illinois, and the vast majority of these plates that I've seen in use are registered to church buses.
Both CB-suffixed "charitable bus" plates and CV-suffixed "charitable vehicle" plates were introduced in 1976. CV plates were originally used on both cars and trucks owned by charitable organizations, including but not limited to churches, while CB plates were issued to buses owned by such organizations. I don't know which plate type would have been issued to a passenger van. Anyway, both types were issued as single-year plates in 1976 and 1977, and then as biennial plates (good for two years) beginning in 1978.
The last CB-suffixed plates were dated 1982-1983. Starting in 1984, cars were no longer eligible for charitable plates, and charitable buses, trucks and passenger vans were all issued CV-suffixed plates. Biennial plates continued to be used thorough 1995. Since then, base plates with stickers have been used. I believe, but am not certain, that these stickers are also good for two years at a time, and always indicate an expiration date in December of odd-numbered years.
As near as I can tell, Alaska Sunday School bus plates were merged into this plate category. What the Alaska DMV calls "charitable exempt" plates are issued for vehicles owned by charitable and nonprofit organizations, church or religious organizations, and Alaska native tribal village councils. These plates usually have the word "Exempt" at the bottom of the plate, but regardless, can be identified based on their serial format YYx 000, with or without the space separator.
A couple of jurisictions are reported to have issued special license plates to members of the clergy; these would be somewhat akin to other "professional" license plates that some jurisdictions issue to medical doctors, press photographers, and the like.
1984 District of Columbia clergy plate (Erik Bos photo and plate)
Since 1975, Washington, D.C. has issued plates that proudly proclaim the motorist to be a member of the clergy.
It's been reported that in past decades, New York issued plates with registration numbers containing the letters "DD" to motorists who held a Doctor of Divinity degree; most such individuals would certainly have been members of the clergy. Such plates were otherwise unremarkable, and so without provenance or some sort of firsthand confirmation, it's impossible to verify this report. If New York ever did issue Doctor of Divinity plates, they apparently don't any longer.
A number of states have issued organizational plates for members of the Knights of Columbus, which is a Catholic men's organization. Maryland currently issues a multitude of graphic organizational plates (only 25 orders are needed to create plates for a new organzation), and some church denominations and even individual church congregations have obtained organizational plates that are available to their members. Other states have also issued various organizational member plates for members of churches and church-related organizations.
1980 and 1986 Maryland reserved-series passenger car plates issued to members of the Knights of Columbus
Back before graphic organizational plates became all the rage, Maryland reserved certain passenger plate prefixes for members of specific organizations. The "CC" series was reserved for members of the Knights of Columbus from 1954 to 1975; the "KCx" series was likewise reserved from 1976 to 1987. Shown above are two examples of the latter series. On the red on white base, regular, sequentially-issued passenger plates didn't get past the "HMx" series.
Graphic Knights of Columbus member plates from
North Carolina (Greg Ciesielski photo and plate) and Texas
Many states issue graphic Knights of Columbus organizational member plates, including those shown above. Maryland issues numerous different organizational plates available to members of church denominations, specific church congregations, and church-related organizations, including: Allen A.M.E. Church, The Episcopal Church, Catholic Daughters of the Americas, Church of God, Faith United Baptist Church, First Baptist Church of Highland Park, and so on.
Illinois church-related speical event plates from 1990 and 1997
Illinois issues an endless stream of special event plates promoting all kinds of events, everything from the Chicago Bulls winning the NBA championship to license plate collecting club swap meets. These are real license plates that are valid for street use for a limited period of time. Shown above are a few examples of plates that were produced for church-related events.
There aren't a lot of these that I'm aware of, but here are a few that I do know exist.
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Elsewhere on the web |
Thanks to those who have directly contributed to the information on this page: Greg Ciesielski, Erik Bos, Jim Moini.
Ciesielski and Bos photos are presumed to be copyrighted by Greg Ciesielski and Erik Bos, respectively, and are used with permission.
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