The 1914 Plates

The 1914's were the first state-issued plates in Arizona.
Measuring just 4 1/2 inches in height, they are the
shortest of all the Arizona passenger plates.

The earliest plates were manufactured with just four
mounting holes. Later, slots were added at the top.
It's unknown exactly when this change took place.
So far, plates numbered thru #3931 are unslotted
and plates from #4166 and higher have slots.
(At this time, plate #4130 is unknown.)

The 3 digit plates had that unusual hyphen filling in the
empty space. What about the 1 or 2 digit? Who knows?

With only slightly over 5000 vehicles registered in the entire
state that year, one can only wonder as to how many still exist.
These are the most sought-after of all the Arizona plates.

This 1914 plate is the actual plate
once mounted on the vehicle shown above.
Photo was taken in 1914 somewhere between
Tucson and Nogales, Az.

(Special thanks goes out to Conrad Hughson for both photos!)

AHS-CAD Photo----------

Here's another!
This 1914 photo of the overheated Ford, found at the
Arizona Historical Society, Central Az Div. , matches up yet another 1914 plate!
Note the scratches along the lower portion of the numbers
from being wedged below the windshield.

(Plate #4606 from a private collection)

Underlined #s represent pairs, most of which are split up.
Last update on 8/5/07, #1461
TOTAL of ... 55 ... (including pairs)

It's interesting to note that no plate has been spotted yet
that falls into the blocks that were issued to Dealers.
Dealers were issued the majority of the plate
numbers within the 150-200 and 1201-1300 blocks,
as well as a few that fell out of these ranges in 1914.
However, through a recent old photo discovery, it is now
confirmed that Dealers were issued regular passenger
plates in 1914 and that Arizona did not mark their plates
with DEALER until the following year.