Plate History
This marks my one month on this site, so I thought I would write something completely different today.

This is a license plate that I found a few years ago, it has a unique story and I thought it was worth sharing.
I was living above a very old hardware store at the time, one of the original buildings in town and only one of three that survived the great circus fire. ( seriously, a circus came to town and burnt the entire town to the ground)
The owner asked me to work on a safe that was in the basement, I had some locksmith knowledge and everyone he called up was going to charge him more than he thought it was worth.
The owner wanted it open because there was a possibility of their being a special fishing lure inside, one that would be historic in nature and worth a great deal itself and more so in copying it for resale. Our town loved fishing and there was something special about this lure, I never really understood it.
He offered me free rent for two months if I could get it open and six months free if I could keep it operational.
Game on.
I grabbed my stethoscope and started working.
This safe was from around 1890–1905, it was huge and thick.
I tried for about two days of listening and fiddling around with the tumblers and gears, no luck.
The basement was very large and almost untouched for the same amount of time as the safe, so I thought maybe the combination would be on some paper or written on a scrap of wood.
I started my search in what I thought was the old office, nothing but dust and really old flyers. I loved the price of good though, milk for 5 cents a gallon!
I started looking over the supports for the building, I’ve found several combinations written just out of sight in headers, support beams, and walls.
I came across this metal piece that was out of place, I thought it was an old tin duct plate, and maybe it had something on the other side. It was beaten up, full of nail holes and seemed to be used as a brace for a joint.
I finally got it off, turned it around to discover that it was a 1927 license plate.
I was disappointed, but happy at the same time. I love finding old things.
I never did find the combination.
It took me about 5 days of work, but I drilled through that safe and got it open.
No lures or hidden treasures inside, just some old paperwork and some diagrams for the original building.
Hard work, but hey, I still got a few months free rent.
After opening it, I found that the tumblers were broken and I was never going to get it open that way.
I took the plate home and cleaned it up to what you see above.
I’ve had it sitting on a shelf or on a wall ever since.
I did some research and found out that it was issued to a brand new 1927 Studebaker Commander, fresh out of South Bend, Indiana.

Back then, you got a new plate every year. They were stamped with the year, no stickers or printing in ‘27.
I don’t know for sure, but I can guess that the car was bought by someone in the town that I found the plate in, almost 80 years later.
The plate was useless after they had it on the car for the year, so they took it off, threw it in a pile and when they wanted some extra support when they built the hardware, up when the old license plate.
Now, 90 years after it was first made and traveled the road, it sits on my shelf.
I clean it once in awhile, keep the dust off, but keep the old charm.
The plates that are on my car are already showing wear after a few months, even if I took them off and put them on a shelf, I doubt they will last as long as this old one.
Cheap printing, cheap material and stupid stickers.
I like well made things, even if it is a silly old license plate.
It’s 90 years old, but I have little doubt that it will last another 90 years.

