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The Tender for the 1924 license plate contract included all the typical information regarding number of plates required, being 45,000 pairs of passenger plates (which is up from the 40,000 required in 1923), specifications being available from various Provincial Police offices and preference being given to firms that would be manufacturing the plates in BC.

The "blue prints" for the plates revealed that the BC Automobile Club had been successful in lobbying the government to replace the "BC" acronym with the full words "BRITISH COLUMBIA" (which would appear at the bottom of the plate).

It was reported that this was done at the behest of "automobile owners" who had "complained that the initials "B.C." were misunderstood and sometimes mistaken by the uninitiated for Cape Breton", but this is actually a quote attributable to Percy Gomery in his book "motor scamper 'cross Canada" (1922) and his experiences motoring through New England.

Gomery's travels did reflect the trend occurring throughout North America of the road system becoming more extensive, and states and provinces replacing regionally understood acronyms with the proper spelling of their names in order to avoid any confusion in more distant jurisdictions.

With the acronym gone, the extra space would now be used for a letter to denote the type of vehicle (e.g. a "T" prefix for commercial trucks) and "where the license number runs into four or more figures a dash has been inserted between the figures separating hundreds and thousands." It was also reported that the colours would be yellow-on-black and that the size of the plates would be the same as those issued in 1923.

The Tender for the 1925 license plate contract was released in May of 1924 and included all the typical information seen in previous years, such as the number of plates required, being 55,000 pairs of passenger plates (which is up from the 45,000 required in 1924), specifications being available from various Provincial Police offices and preference being given to firms that would be manufacturing the plates in BC.

For the first time, additional wording regarding the quality of the materials to be used was included as was the requirement for bidders to include "sample plates" or review by the Purchasing Agent.

The value of the contract was reported to be approximately $22,000 and, as in previous years, J.R. Tacey & Son submitted the winning bid (the eighth successive year he had secured the order).

To fill the order, Tacey would require a train "carload of sheet steel blanks to be made into the" required license plates.

Finally, it was reported that the same style of letters and numbers will be used in 1925 as were adopted in 1924.

Playing the license plate game, which involves watching for and becoming familiar with the license plates of all the different provinces and states is how we here at BCpl8s.ca got into the hobby as a young kid - much like "Dick and Harry".

That said, whoever wrote the "story" at left from 1925 seems to have had either too much time on their hands or been given the assignment of presenting the numbers being issued by the different field offices of the Provincial Police in a novel and creative way.

You'll need to read it for yourself (by clicking on the image)!

In the late summer of 1925, the Provincial Purchasing Agent, James Paterson, released the annual Tender for the production of the following year's license plates.

The Tender contained the usual details regarding the number and types of plates that would be needed, such as 60,000 pairs of passenger plates, 2,000 demonstration plates and 1,500 motorcycles plates, that Blue Prints were available from the Provincial Police, bidders were to provide a sample plates and preference would be given to BC based manufacturers.

Also included was the language used the previous year stipulating that "all plates to be manufactured of full pickled cold rolled annealed steel, finished first with a primary coat and then a coat of best grade enamel, baked on at a high temperature with guaranteed permanent colors, which will not crack or peel off. [emphasis added].

Given the very prescriptive nature of the manufacturing process to be used, the limited number of companies capable of doing this in BC, we assume the 1926 Tender was tailored to ensure J.R. Tacey & Son had the best chance of winning - but that is just our opinion here at BCpl8s.ca.

In their annual questioning of the government over the awarding of the license plate contract, the Conservative opposition, through Thomas Coventry, Member for Saanich, asked the Attorney General how many firms had tendered bids, who they were and had the lowest bid been the successful one?

Attorney General Manson's response was that there had been three (3) firms who submitted bids, these being:

• St Thomas Metal Signs Limited (Ontario) at $9,934.60;
• J.R. Tacey & Son (Vancouver) at $10,795; and
• Shanks Sign Company (New York) at $12,702.50 plus duty.

What went wrong with the 1926 plates is not really a matter of much conjecture; Tacey reduced the amount of their bid by 25% from what they had bid in 1925 - despite the number of plates required for 1926 increasing by 10% (if not more).

On the face of it, this is very odd and raises a valid question as to how "sealed" the bidding process was and if there was information sharing occurring.

Regardless, the result was J.R. Tacey & Son had to cut some corners in their use of materials in order to make the numbers work, and this appears to have resulted in the use of sub-standard paints and metal.

Not surprisingly, by June of 1926, a mere 6-months after the plates began to be used by motorists, complaints were rolling in about the poor quality. The main issue was the loss of the paint and subsequent illegibility of the plates.

According to one report, "from appearances ... it would seem that the enamelling is too light to withstand the continual vibration of the motors and is splitting and chipping."

This despite the Tender specifically requiring that only best grade enamel be used in order to guarantee "permanent colors, which will not crack or peel off."

With regard to the metal, it was deemed "too light for good service" and, as a result, "the plates are fragile and tend to bend and break with very slight provocation."

As one anonymous letter writer ("Britannicus Cynicus") put it in a local newspaper:

Meandering down Granville Street ... I began taking stock of the conditions of the B.C. automobile license plates ... [and] thought back to a conservation with a fellow camper in a national park south of the border this summer, occasioned by the condition of the plates on my little car, the rear plate being so rusted two numerals were undecipherable, while the front one was an enigma, the black lettering having washed off in the early days of its existence, eliciting the query, "Hello, Stranger, guess it must be kind of wet up there in Vancouver, in more than one sense?"

More pertinent remarks have been overheard relative to said plates, even the opprobrious word 'graft' having been used ...

During the past year the writer has observed practically every license plate of Canada and the United States, but none were of such poor quality. One pays enough for a small car license in this province - five and one-half times as much as obtains in California - so we should expect a little something by way of return.

The Tender for the 1927 license plates contained the usual details regarding the number and types of plates that would be needed, such as 70,000 pairs of passenger plates, 2,200 demonstration plates and 1,200 motorcycles plates, that Blue Prints were available from the Provincial Police, bidders were to provide a sample plates and preference would be given to BC based manufacturers.

Interestingly, the language around the quality of the steel to be used and that the enamel paint be "of best grade" and the colours guaranteed to not fade or "crack or peel off" that had appeared in the 1925 & 1926 Tenders was left out of the newspaper notice this time.

We suspect that this had to do with the complaints being received at this same time about the poor quality of the 1926 plates and not wanting to draw public attention to this aspect of the contract.

The colours to be used for the 1927 would be black-on-orange, otherwise, the design of the plates were to remain unchanged from the 1926 series with the apparent exception of the dash previously used on the date being dropped.

The Tender for the 1928 license plates contained the usual details regarding the number and types of plates that would be needed, such as 90,000 pairs of passenger plates, 2,500 demonstration plates and 1,500 motorcycles plates, that Blue Prints were available from the Provincial Police, bidders were to provide a sample plates and preference would be given to BC based manufacturers.

The colours to be used for the 1928 would be orange-on-black, being the reverse of those used in 1927. While the design of the plates remained basically unchanged from the 1927 series, there was one important exception and that was the introduction of new straighter dies for the numbers.

J.R. Tacey & Son would, again, win the contract to produce the 1928 license plates, which they were able to make at a cost of $0.14/pair, or $14,000 for the contract.

In late 1927, it was reported in the local Vancouver press that "Missouri mules, Georgia oysters, California oranges and Maryland oysters are expected to follow the lead" of Massachusetts and Idaho (NOTE: none of these came to pass) and use their license plates for publicity purposes.

Given plates offered a "cheap and effective" way to promote local industries, it was suggested that British Columbia consider placing one of its many industries, such as lumber, fish, apples and poultry on license plates.

In January of 1928, the Victoria Junior Chamber of Commerce picked up the idea and asked the provincial government to have the 1929 license plates manufactured in the shape of a log or salmon as a distinctive way to promote these industry's It was reported that the Junior Chamber went so far as to have "an artist's drawing pictorially describing their ideas prepared."

Neither the log nor the salmon designs were taken up by the provincial government.

When the Tender was subsequently released on March 1, 1928, it contained the eye-catching number of 99,999 passenger plates being need for the coming year.

The Tender otherwise contained the usual details regarding the number of demonstration plates (2,500) and motorcycles plates (1,500), that Blue Prints were available from the Provincial Police, bidders were to provide a sample plates and preference would be given to BC based manufacturers.

The colours to be used for the 1929 plates were announced to be "green-on-cream", with the green further described as "Paul Revere Green".

In other news reports, the colour was described as "deep bronze blue letters on a cream background."

In looking at the plates in the present day, it is easy to mistake what looks like a very dark olive green for black (test your visual acuity with the plates pictured below and see what you think).

Otherwise, the design of the 1929 plates were to remain unchanged from the 1928 series, including the use of the new, straighter dies.

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