Style #1, Porcelain Enamel: 1942-1946

The introduction of these distinctive plates overlaps the painted metal 1941 issues to some degree. To alleviate overcrowding at Motor Vehicle offices during the annual March renewal time, the new porcelain plates had a provision for dividing the renewal year into four quarters, March, June, September and December. There are two sets of slots at the top of each plate to allow for the painted metal tabs, or 'inserts' showing the expiration date. The abbreviation "DEL." appears between these tab areas. New registrations in Delaware received pairs of the porcelain plates as early as Spring 1941. Additionally there was a provision with the new plates and tabs for an optional six-month registration fee. Thus, if someone had moved into Delaware, or bought a new car, in early 1941, choosing to register for only the half-year fee, he would have received porcelain plates with 1941 tabs. A mere six of these 1941 tabs are known to have survived, making them the outstanding rarity in a Delaware passenger run. A one-year new registration in early 1941, or half-year in late '41 or early '42 would have been given 1942 tabs, which also are quite scarce, but not nearly as elusive as the impossible 1941's. For practical collecting purposes, the average collector can accept 1942, with 1943 tabs, as the 'first issue' of these porcelain baseplates, since that is the year that every registration received them, and that 43 date leaves no gaps in a state run.

There are three distinct varieties, or series, of the porcelain style. In the original issue first series, numbers began with one and ran to the end of the 75 thousands, in pairs. Higher numbers, likely above 55 or 60 thousand, were the first ones issued, to the '41 and '42 new registrants. Most continuing registrations received the same number on the porcelain plates as had been assigned to their vehicle with the previous embossed metal plates. As on the previous plates, a small diamond always precedes the last three digits of the 4 and 5-digit numbers; no diamond appears on 3-digit or lower numbers. This first series of the porcelains was produced by the Baltimore Enamel and Novelty Co., well known by collectors for their logo-marred plates from various states in the teen years. Although no identification appears on any of the passenger plates, a bold panel appears on the backs of most of the few known five-zero sample plates.

Shortly after the introduction of these plates, the U.S. entered the shortage-plagued wartime economy, and metal for license plates became a scarce commodity. As a result, Delaware discontinued issuing or requiring display of pairs of the porcelain plates, instead allowing for one, rear displayed tag. Many motorists simply removed one plate and placed it on a shelf in the garage, with original 1943 or 1944 tabs still affixed. This accounts for the fairly high survival rate, and quality condition, of many of these original series porcelain plates being rediscovered today.

The second series, or variety, of the white/black porcelain plates consists of a short run of numbers from about 76 thousand through the low 77 thousands. Plates in this series were produced as singles only, appropriate to the wartime economy, and are distinctively different from those in the first series in that there is no diamond dividing the digits. There are subtle changes in the number die, or stencil, as well, most noticeable on digits 3 and 5. Only a handful of these original 'diamondless' plates are known to have survived, most from a stash of about 20 unissued examples rescued from a motor vehicle storage shelf in the 50's or early 60's. The highest known number from this group is 77119. The manufacturer, or origin of these plates, or why they lack the diamond, is not known at the present time. Most likely they were a short run, emergency requisition due to the exhausting of the previous supply. A half-dozen well used examples are known; this collector distinctly recalls wrestling with rusted bolts to save one from a junked car in a Delaware salvage yard in the mid-Sixties. These plates are scarcer than Delaware's porcelain first- issue, 1909!

The third porcelain variety is a series of about 10 thousand numbers, also singles only, that is moderately familiar to collectors as a 'Delaware curiosity' unexplainable until recently. These plates have Pennsylvania-style numbers of the 40's era, copying exactly those slant-stroke digits. It is now known that these plates were produced by the Lansdale Porcelain Enamel Corp. of Lansdale, PA, the same factory that up until recently has produced most of the modern porcelain copies or 'remakes' seen on the roads today. This series begins at about number 77120 and extends to approximately 87000. These parameters can be determined very closely from known surviving plates of this and the second series described above. There are a few known examples of this series of plates bearing 3-digit numbers (replacement plates), but no known vintage specimens in the above-77120 number range bear 'normal' (series 1 or 2) digits; all such plates seen today are recent copies, or 'remakes'.

There is a fourth porcelain variety that has been alluded to: this is the modern copy, reproduction or 'remake' that is ever more common on Delaware highways. These plates have been legally sanctioned by the State under "Policy Regulation 79" since May 1986. Prior to that date, the growing popularity of the older black plates, combined with the active market in buying, selling and transferring low numbers, resulted in a cottage industry producing copies of varying degrees of quality and legibility. Some were porcelain, some were painted sheet metal, some were plastic produced in sign shops, a few folks even resorted to laminated Xerox photocopies! Agreeing the situation was getting out of hand, and bowing to the popularity of the black tags and a public outcry against suggestions they be done away with, the State compromised by allowing exact reproductions to be displayed on legally registered vehicles. There are now two companies besides Lansdale Porcelain actively engaged in supplying porcelain remakes to satisfy the steady demand. One is Demco, an industrial manufacturing facility that supplies the gold/blue plates for the state under contract. The other is The Delaware Historic Plate Company, a small group of entrepreneurs whose business was founded specifically to attend to the demand in Delaware for high- quality reproduction porcelain plates. Of the various examples being made by these companies, The Delaware Historic Plate Company produces a license plate that is those closest in style and quality to the original series one porcelains. Curiously, Demco incorrectly uses modern blue-plate-style serif digits on their copies, in thin silk-screened porcelain. The Delaware Historic Plate Company has even gone to the trouble to add a Baltimore Enamel style dated logo to the back of each plate, giving them a true Delaware pedigree for future historians and collectors to ponder. From a distance (except for Demco's) the old and new porcelains are hard to tell apart. Up close it is not difficult, as all the reproductions have the four bolt slots moved slightly inward to fit on modern cars. And of course, the reproductions are by now much more common than their 50 year-old almost-antique predecessors.

In 1986, when Delaware Motor Vehicle officials were in the process of deciding what to do about the reproduction situation, and lacking detailed information about their own original plates, this hobbyist was consulted and asked "how high did the original porcelain number series go". The answer was, to the best of the knowledge at the time, no higher than 87 thousand. Thus, the State picked the arbitrary number of 86,999 as the highest allowable number to be reproduced in porcelain. No question was asked about differing varieties of the original plates, nor did it occur to me to ask, not guessing their intent. The result is that series 1 reproductions overlap series 3 numbers. In all likelihood, if one were to attempt to display an original variety 3 plate on a vehicle, the State would disallow their own authentic original, much as they have with the small "c" commercial plates, which do not carry 3-inch digits. Nevertheless, the tiny State of Delaware remains the only place in the U.S. where it is perfectly legal to display a privately made plate for registration purposes - and a porcelain plate at that! At this point, there are still plenty of 5-digit and lower numbers awaiting conversion to the black porcelain style. And contrary to the song by Neil Young, when you're out of the blue, and into the black, you can always go back.

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