Wyoming Plate History: 1913 to Today

Wyoming license plate history starts in 1913, when the Secretary of State began issuing numbered tags instead of leaving registration to cities and owners. The first plates carried no horse, no landscape and no county prefix. Those features arrived in stages, and each one followed a change in state law or a change in who held the registration ledger. The bucking horse and rider did not appear until 1936, and the county number that drivers still read at the left edge dates from 1930. Between those two dates sits the reason a Wyoming plate looks the way it does today.

Wyoming license plate history is also a story about continuity. The state has replaced its base artwork several times since 1975, yet the horse has stayed near the center through every redesign. Collectors sort old plates by year, county and condition, and the earliest tags survive mainly in museum drawers and private albums. The sections below follow the timeline in order and cover how to place a plate found at a swap meet or in a barn.

How to Date a Wyoming Plate by Design

Most Wyoming plates can be narrowed to a short span of years by reading three features in sequence. The prefix gives the county, the serial pattern gives the decade, and the base artwork gives the series. Working in that order prevents the frequent mistake of dating a plate by its colors alone, since colors changed more often than the layout did.

Read the Prefix, the Serial and the Base in Order

The left edge carries a number from 1 to 23. Natrona County holds 1, Laramie County holds 2, and Sublette County holds 23. A plate with no prefix at all comes from before 1930, when the state issued numbers in a single statewide run. Serial patterns shifted as counties ran out of numbers, and a letter in the middle usually marks a later issue. Match the serial against the background image before settling on a year.

• Prefix 1 to 23 for the county of registration.
• Serial pattern for the decade of issue.
• Base artwork for the design series.
• Sticker year for the last active registration.

Check Stickers and Physical Clues

Validation stickers carry a month and a year, and the newest sticker on a plate gives the last year the vehicle was registered. Bolt holes tell a story too, since plates that were never mounted keep clean corners while road plates show rust rings and stress cracks. Stickers are easy to add and easy to fake, so treat them as a hint rather than proof. WYDOT publishes the current registration rules and plate information, and that page is the reference to check when a design is unfamiliar.

The First State Plates, 1913 to 1929

Wyoming began issuing plates from the Secretary of State in 1913, and that office kept the registration ledger for the next two decades. Numbers ran in one statewide sequence rather than by county, so a low number from 1918 does not point to any particular corner of the state. More detail sits on the county prefix numbers page. Motorists registered once a year and received a new tag each time. Few of those early tags survive in good condition, which is why a genuine 1910s plate draws attention at a show.

Registration Before the State Took Over

Cities and owners handled marking duties in the years before 1913, and enforcement varied from one town to the next. The state registry in 1913 replaced that patchwork with a single register and a numbered tag issued from Cheyenne. County clerks and treasurers took over parts of the work later, and the treasurer still issues plates today. A tag that predates the state system is a local artifact rather than a Wyoming plate, and collectors treat the two categories differently.

Why So Few Early Tags Survive

Annual registration meant that last year’s plate became scrap metal as soon as a new one arrived. Thin steel rusted outdoors, and many tags ended up on shed walls or in scrap drives during the war years. Wyoming also had a small vehicle population in the 1910s, so each year produced a short run. A 1913 plate that still shows its original number is therefore a rare object, and one with clear paint is rarer still.

County Numbering Begins in 1930

The 1930 plate was the first to carry a county number at the left edge, and the system has survived every redesign since. Prefixes run from 1 for Natrona County to 23 for Sublette County, and the sequence has never been reassigned. A plate registered in Casper still starts with 1, and one from Pinedale still ends the list. That continuity makes a prefix a reliable clue for dating and for identifying where a plate was issued.

Why Natrona Holds Number 1

The order came from assessed property valuations recorded in 1930, not from population and not from geography. Counties with the largest tax base took the low numbers, which put Natrona and Laramie at the front and left Teton at 22 and Sublette at 23. The ranking has looked odd for decades, since Teton County grew into one of the wealthiest places in the country while keeping a number near the end of the list. Nobody has redrawn it, because reassignment would force every registrant in the state to buy a new plate.

What the Prefix Tells a Collector

A prefix dates a plate to 1930 or later and places it in a county, and that is all it proves. It says nothing about the driver, and it does not make an old plate more valuable on its own. Collectors do pay attention to scarce prefixes when a series is short, but condition and completeness matter more. A clean pair from a small county often sells for more than a worn single from Casper.

The Bucking Horse and Rider Arrives in 1936

The emblem that defines Wyoming plates appeared in 1936, and it has outlasted every base design since. Secretary of State Lester Hunt wanted a symbol that would be hard to copy and easy to recognize at a distance. The result was a horse and rider drawn by Denver artist Allen T. True. The image moved to the center of the plate in later series and stayed there through the landscape bases and the current flag design.

Allen T. True and the Original Drawing

Allen T. True worked in Denver and produced commercial art for calendars, posters and stock certificates. His bucking horse drawing gave the state a mark with fine lines that a counterfeiter could not reproduce on a simple press. The plate that carried it went into use in 1936, and the design proved durable enough to survive decades of reprinting. Later redrawings cleaned up the lines without changing the pose.

Steamboat and the Disputed Model

The horse is often identified as Steamboat, a bucking horse that became famous in Wyoming in the early 1900s. Historians have argued for years about whether True drew Steamboat or another animal, and no document settles the question. The debate adds interest for collectors without changing the plate. What matters for identification is the rider, the angle of the horse and the position of the emblem relative to the state name.

Timeline of Wyoming Plate Design Eras

The table below sets out the main design eras in order. Dates mark the first year of each base rather than the only year it appeared, since plates stayed in use until stocks ran out and registrations renewed.

Two things stand out when the eras sit side by side. The horse appears in every row from 1936 onward, and the state changed the base more often in the last fifty years than in the previous fifty. The specialty plates guide covers that part. The pace picked up as printing methods improved and as specialty plates multiplied around a frequent center. Read the middle column as a list of artworks rather than a list of laws, since the statute book says little about which landmark goes on the metal.

The Commemorative Bases, 1975 to 2016

Commemorative artwork turned the plate into a small poster for the state. The 1975 Spirit of 76 base marked the national bicentennial, and the 1988 centennial base followed with a statehood theme. Both kept the horse, which reassured drivers who had grown up with it. Building a new base around an anniversary or a landmark became the pattern for the next four decades.

Spirit of 76 and the Centennial

The Spirit of 76 design arrived in 1975 and tied Wyoming plates to the national anniversary. Thirteen years later the centennial base marked the statehood milestone with artwork of its own. Neither design stayed in production for long by modern standards, and both now turn up in collections more often than on the road. Plates from those years often survive as pairs because households kept a spare.

Devils Tower, the Teton Range and Green River Lakes

The 2000 base used Devils Tower, the rock formation in the northeast corner of the state. The 2008 base moved to the Teton Range, and the 2016 base paired Green River Lakes with Squaretop Mountain inside a rope border. Each design ran for roughly eight years before the next arrived, which gives collectors a clean way to group plates by decade. The 2016 base remained valid on the road well after the flag series appeared.

The State Flag Series, 2024 onward

The current base arrived in 2024 and 2025 and moved away from landscape photography. It renders the state flag in navy and gray, adds a red and white border, and prints the state name across the top. Travel information sits along the bottom edge, and the phrase That’s WY appears at the lower right. The border echoes the flag that inspired the artwork, and the gray field keeps the serial easy to read at a distance. Registrants on two-year cycles received the new base first, and the rest of the fleet followed during 2025.

What Changed on the New Base

The flag design is flatter than the landscapes it replaced, and the layout moved the state name from the bottom to the top. Character size stayed the same, so a seven-character serial still fits beside the horse. The older bases remain legal until each registration expires, which means three designs can share a parking lot for a few more years. For a collector, that overlap is the interesting part of the transition.

Specialty Plates and the Shared Emblem

Specialty plates arrived late in the story but changed what a Wyoming plate could carry. The state now offers designs for the University of Wyoming, Wildlife Conservation, Donate Life, veterans, Purple Heart recipients, Gold Star families, the National Guard, Pearl Harbor survivors, firefighters, EMTs, amateur radio operators, tribal programs, pioneers, street rods and custom vehicles. Each one adds its own artwork on the left side while the bucking horse stays near the center. The formula keeps a specialty plate recognizable as Wyoming at a distance.

Why the Horse Stays in the Middle

A specialty plate has to carry two messages at once. The sponsor artwork identifies the cause or the organization, and the horse identifies the state. Placing the emblem near the center leaves room for both without crowding the serial. The arrangement also protects the plate as a legal document, since a design that pushed the horse aside would look like a tag from another jurisdiction. Drivers who move from a standard plate to a specialty design keep the same county prefix and often keep the same serial.

Rodeo and Search and Rescue Arrive

Two designs joined the list in January. The Rodeo plate uses a historic image of Steamboat and supports rodeo programs, which ties the newest artwork back to the 1936 emblem. The Search and Rescue plate supports the volunteer teams that work across the state. Both must reach a sales threshold by 2032 to stay in production. That rule has shaped the catalog since specialty plates began, because a design that cannot find buyers eventually leaves the list.

What Makes an Old Wyoming Plate Collectible

Collectors look for the same qualities in a Wyoming plate that they look for in any other state tag. Age helps, but condition, completeness and a clear story matter more. Compare it with the plate owner rules page before filing. The list below covers the factors that decide whether a plate ends up on a wall or in a bargain bin.

• A matched pair from the same year and county.
• Original paint with no repainting or touch up.
• A legible serial and an intact county prefix.
• Stickers that match the plate year.
• Early tags issued before 1930.

Condition, Pairs and Provenance

Rust, bent corners and extra holes all reduce appeal, and a plate that was straightened after a crash is easy to spot. Pairs matter because most passenger vehicles carried two plates, and a matching front and rear set tells a fuller story than a single tag. Provenance adds value when a plate can be tied to a county, a year and a vehicle class. A tag with a documented history behind it draws more interest than a cleaner one without it.

Why Some Cars Carry Only One Plate

Wyoming has required a front and a rear plate for most of its history, which is why pairs dominate the collector market. The rule changed in 2015 for cars built without a front bracket, and antique, street rod, motorcycle, trailer and multipurpose vehicles have long carried a single rear plate. A late model tag with no matching front therefore proves nothing about its history. It may simply belong to a car that left the factory without a place to mount one.

Replacing an Older Plate

An older plate stays valid while the registration runs, and a damaged one can be swapped without losing the number. The next chapter depends on how long the flag base stays in print. Each series since 2000 has run about eight years, and the state has not announced a replacement for the current design. Collectors who want a complete run should look for clean pairs from the 2016 series while they still turn up at estate sales and county flea markets.

Frequently Asked Questions

Collectors and curious drivers ask about dates, designs and what an older plate might be worth.

When did Wyoming first issue license plates?

Wyoming issued its first state plates in 1913 through the Secretary of State. Before that year, marking was handled locally and inconsistently. The early tags carried a number in one statewide sequence, with no county prefix and no horse. County numbering arrived in 1930 and the bucking horse followed in 1936.

Why is the bucking horse on Wyoming plates?

Secretary of State Lester Hunt approved the design in 1935, and the plate appeared in 1936. Denver artist Allen T. True drew the horse and rider. The image was chosen because fine detail made counterfeiting harder and because it gave the state a mark that people recognized. It has stayed near the center of the plate through every redesign since.

What do the numbers on old Wyoming plates mean?

The number at the left edge is the county code, assigned in 1930 by assessed property valuation. Prefix 1 is Natrona County and 23 is Sublette County. A plate without a prefix predates 1930, when numbers ran statewide. The remaining characters form the serial, and their format changed as counties used up numbers.

Which Wyoming plate designs are most collected?

Tags from before 1930 draw the most attention because few survive in good condition. The 1975 Spirit of 76 and 1988 centennial bases are popular because they mark clear anniversaries and often turn up as pairs. Landscapes from 2000, 2008 and 2016 are easy to find now and likely to gain interest once the flag series takes over completely.

Can I still use an old Wyoming plate design?

Yes. A plate stays valid until its registration expires, even after the state adopts a new base. The 2016 Green River Lakes design and the 2008 Teton Range design both remain legal on vehicles registered under them. A replacement order after the change usually brings the current flag series, so keeping an older base means keeping the existing registration active.