British Columbia Passenger License Plates 1964

British Columbia Passenger License Plates
1964 - 1969

After experimenting with some of the wildest colours ever seen on a license plate, British Columbia adopted the rather mundane and uninspired policy of rotating the colour scheme of its license plates between blue-on-white, and white-on-blue for alternating years. For four decades the province has not deviated from this pattern, except once.

1964 - Die Variation
Victoria	Victoria	Victoria	Victoria
Victoria	Victoria	Victoria	Victoria
North Vancouver	Chilliwack	Williams Lake
What is interesting about plates from 1964 is that there appears to be no rhyme-nor-reason behind the use of the die types used in the stamping of BRITISH COLUMBIA (visible at lower centre on the plates). As can be seen in the plates above, the early issues the smaller die type seems to be used fairly consistently, however, in the higher numbers this startes to vary. A great example are the pair of number 58,000 plates from the collection of Larry Mattes which display the two different types. There were approximately 573,750 plates issued in 1964. The varying colours of the plates shown above is a result of the different conditions in which they were photographed.

1965
Victoria	Victoria	Mission
630,000 plates were produced in 1969.

1966
Victoria	Victoria	Victoria	Victoria
Victoria	Victoria	Victoria	Nakusp
658,000 plates were produced in 1966.

1967 marked the Centennial Anniversary of the formation of the Canadian State. Some province’s opted to commemorate the occasion with a special issue license plate, bearing slogans not usually associated with their regular passenger plate. Quebec, for instance, replaced its La Belle Province slogan with Confederation, book-ended by 1867-1967 (on the rear plate). While other provinces such as Manitoba and Prince Edward Island issued special booster plates.

1967 - "67" vs. "1967"
Victoria	Victoria	Victoria	Victoria
Vancouver	Duncan	Over-run
For those of you who are keen students of my Registration Archive, you will know that in 1967 the province initially ordered 700,000 passenger plates. Due to increases in vehicle registration, it became necessary to place an additional order for what would seem to be another 20,000 (possibly more?) license plates. As Oakalla would have already begun producing the 1968 plates, the 1967 overrun plates were produced on the '68 base!! How can you tell???? All 1967 plates numbered over 700,000 have the "19" date stamp in the top left-hand corner.

British Columbia’s contribution proved to be a little subtler. No special slogans were adopted, nor was any reference made to 1867 as Alberta, Ontario and Quebec done. Rather, in what must now be seen as a very daring gesture with hindsight, B.C. altered its policy of alternating blue and white colour schemes for one year. In honour of the Centennial, regular issue license plates in 1967 would be the national colours of red-on-white. Otherwise, the design remained unchanged. The Beautiful British Columbia slogan was retained, as was the ‘67 date stamp in the top right corner.

1968
Victoria	Victoria	Vancouver	New West. (Stock Room)
758,000 plates were produced in 1968.

An interesting test plate displaying a green-on-white colour scheme that was never actually used. Given the MVB's past practice to do mock-ups for the following year using the current year's base, it is thought that these colours were proposed for the 1969 plates.

1969
Victoria	Victoria	Victoria	Victoria
Victoria	Vancouver
808,000 plates were produced in 1969.

Sources
Joseph Sallman, "Canada's Centennial 1867-1967," http://www.canplates.com/canada1967.html (November 1, 2001).
Vancouver Province Newspaper.

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British Columbia Passenger License Plates 1964 - 1969

British Columbia Passenger License Plates
1964 - 1969