After 24 years of struggling under the restrictive tenets of the Antique license plate program (initiated in 1966) - which limited use only to special events - vintage car owners began to lobby the province in the late 1980s for a more flexible option that would allow them to drive their vehicles more regularly.

To achieve this, the Vintage Car Club of Canada (VCCC) and Specialty Vehicle Association of BC (SVABC) formed a committee to help develop a "Collector" licensing program and begin lobbying provincial politicians.

According to Russ Fraser, who was Solicitor General (1990-91) at the time and also a collector of old cars, Claude Richmond, MLA for Kamloops, approached him with the idea for a Collector license plate program. Fraser then raised the idea with Tommy Holmes, then CEO of ICBC, who was "dead set against it" and claimed that neither the police nor the Motor Vehicle Branch (MVB) were in favour of the idea.

Undeterred, Fraser approached local police associations who advised that they had no objections, while the Superintendent of the MVB, Keith Jackman (a classic car enthusiast)supported the introduction of the program.

In his dual roles of Solicitor General and Attorney General, Fraser was able to overrule Holmes' objections, and directed the ICBC CEO to implement the program, thus allowing owners of unique vehicles 25 years and older to obtain Collector license plates (and the the reduced insurance rates that came with them).

Left: Russ Fraser proudly displays collector plate: B00 000 which, while hard to see, is still in its original plastic sleeve. Shown with Russ is his wife Joan and her 1980 Mercedes Benz 450SL which - shock(!) - does not display Collector plates.
Above: A sample Collector plate (Astrographic dies) similar to the one being held by Fraser in the photo at left. While not common, there are a few of these sample plates in the hands of collectors (including Fraser).

At the time of its introduction in November of 1990, the press erroneously focused on the first to characters in the license plate - "B0" - and incorrectly interpreted this as "BO" (body odour) and pressed Fraser "if anybody in his department [had] noticed the letters connotations"? Fraser, not realising the press' error, responded that "we are not going to worry about that ... [but] I suppose we could have changed it."

For classic car owners, however, the new program meant they could now qualify for third-party insurance at a rate of 20% regular insurance provided they had another primary vehicle they could use and their collector vehicle is 25 years or older or at least 15 years old and of a limited production run.

More specific details on qualifying vehicles can be found at ICBC's web-site. At the time of their release, the 1st plate in the series ("B00-001") was issued to Ron Peigl, who was President of the SVABC and Chaired the Committee that helped to create the plates. According to Nigel Matthews, current President of the SVABC, BC's Collector plate is "one of the best programs in North America, if not the best".

John Les arriving at the steps of the Legislature in Victoria on May 18, 2006, to announce an expansion to the Collector license plate program.

Not quite a natural hat-trick, but impressive nonetheless! Shown here is a 1928 Chevy displaying a 1928 passenger plates (naturally), a 1928 booster plate (with what look to be Astrographic dies) as well as the 28th Collector plate issued in the series (nice!).

In 2014, the SVABC petitioned the provincial government to issue a Proclamation recognising "all the work car clubs in B.C. do to raise money for charity" - which they did on July 12th, proclaiming "Collector Car Appreciation Day and Month".
Shown above is long-time friend of this site, Keith Jackman, who was the last Superintendent of the MVB in the 1980s and 1990s (prior to its amalgamation with ICBC in 1996) and a driving force behind the Proclamation!
Below is Minister Rich Coleman who stick handled the Proclamation through the government's Executive Council.

We are assuming that this is a big deal as it warranted a press release from the province; apparently it is going to be easier to register a collector vehicle purchased out of province for restoration purposes.
Prior to this change, some individuals were purchasing such cars, sinking considerable money into restoring them without being sure that they would ever be able to register them.
At left is Minister Todd Stone (centre) along with some folks from the Vintage Car Club and Mark Francis (ICBC).
Press Release

Minister Stone announcing the change along with SVABC Director Bob Kelly in Kamloops on August 6, 2016.

One wonders sometimes about abuse of the "Multi-Vehicle" Collector plates ... well, shown at left is a possible example.

Not only have a set of plates (i.e. same number: "B6-0513") been split-up and used on two different vehicles, but if you look closely you can see that the plates are fakes!

Best we can tell, these have been printed out on a high quality card stock and while this person has obvious skill, the dies are not quite accurate representations of the Waldale dies currently used on the Collector plates.

In 2024, an interesting example of a BC "Collector" plate showed up at local car show and appeared to present a whole new design for this particular plate series.

For sharp eyed plate collectors, however, the "Collector" plate No. 1968 is nothing more than a creative work of art using a 1990s Souvenir plate issued by the State of Nevada and available to anyone willing to put down $20.

We know this by the design of the design of the plate and the use of the "CLASSIC VEHICLE" text at right.

We also strongly suspect the use of a Souvenir plate - which is always identifiable by the red text - as this is really the only way to get your desired year on a plate in order to match your car's year of manufacturer (e.g. Nevada also lest people personalize souvenir plates with their own slogan).

Full credit to this particular car owner for taking the time to modify the Nevada plate in order to resemble a BC plate, including the procurement of the "Collector" decals (we assume from the decal folks profiled above).

As of August 1, 2009, the high plate in the series was B8-7464. It is thought that the first batch manufactured ran from B8-0001 to B8-5000 utilising Astrographics dies. The first Waldale dies did not begin appearing until 2007.

The "Multi-Vehicle" Collector equivalent for motorcycle plates, this type is even more exceedingly rare than its passenger plate counterpart and it is unlikely that more than a few hundred will ever be issued under this format.

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