GUEST: A collection of license plates that goes back to my grandfather. And, uh, he, for whatever reason, and the family following him have kept every license plate, uh, with the number 1583 since 1915.
APPRAISER: And do you still carry this plate today?
GUEST: I still have it on the back of my car.
APPRAISER: Massachusetts was the first state, beginning in 1903, to actually have state-issued license plates.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: So, New York technically pre-dates it, 1901. But in 1901 for New York, the owners of the vehicles themselves had to actually create their own license plate.
GUEST: (chuckling): License plate!
APPRAISER: In the world of license plates, you really can't get much better than the collection you have here today, because having consecutive license plates of the same issue...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...is unbelievable. 1915, the first four-digit, 1583. And this is a porcelain over enamel license plate, which was faded out as we get into 1920, which is right here.
GUEST: A-ha.
APPRAISER: This is a tin embossed license plate. Now, when you go through the collection, you have every single year except when we get to 1943, 1944. That's right in the heat of World War II. In order for the metal shortage, Massachusetts was only minting new plates for new registrations.
GUEST: Interesting.
APPRAISER: And now we continue down the years, as you hit 1949, but your next plate jumps to 1951.
GUEST: Yup.
APPRAISER: That's because someone had the bright idea, why do we need to mint license plates every year for someone to put on their car?
GUEST: (Laughs)
APPRAISER: So they alternate every other year of printing for the plates, and then by the time you get up through 1967, that's your last year, because after that, Massachusetts wasn't punching the date into the plate. They went to the sticker registration. In the world of auction today, conservatively for the group, we'd see this bring in the $2,000 to $3,000 range.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: In terms of registering a vehicle today, it is so hard to get a low-digit plate. It's so awesome to hear that you still have it.
GUEST: Yeah, we enjoy it. My granddaughter's in line for the next...
APPRAISER: That's awesome!
GUEST: ...set of plates.
