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OT: Blue Plates Coming Back???!!!

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HPNJRUfan

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Mar 6, 2003
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Source said:
New Jersey started issuing license plates in 1908 although they go back to around 1903. At the start, they were yearly requirements and each year the plates were the colors of the state's colleges and universities. Orange and black for Princeton in 1910; dark blue and yellow for Trenton State (i.e. The College of New Jersey) in 1911. The Rutgers colors were suppose to be in 1912 but wound up Stevens' colors of red and gray. Apparently, Rutgers used scarlet with the black a lot back then. The state required at least one color to be "light" for purposes of contrast so Rutgers school colors were bypassed.

School colors were in use for large periods of the 20th century. When Brendan Bryne (Princeton '49) became Governor, he changed the license plates back to blue and orange for his alma mater.

The January 11, 1936 Targum mentioned that Edward Simpson, Rutgers ’37, had vanity plates, “He drives proudly around the campus sporting the tags marked ‘R-1937’ … the only fly in the ointment is that although lettered as Rutgers plates, they are painted orange and black, Princeton’s colors.”
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I always figured the orange on black had something to do with Princeton, cool info regarding the other colleges as well that I was less aware of. Obviously the later and current straw/blue/buff licence plates have to do with the official state colors of buff and jersey blue.

According to the below links though (which I'd consider somewhat authoratative), besides 1911, NJ license plates were red on white in 1913, white on red in 1914, 20, 24, 31, and red on black in 1933. Were these RU related? I actually own a 1957 and a 1910 plate...

NJ licence plates 1930s-40s
20s and prior
 
A

ashokan

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L

LC-88

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dazl said:
I still have my original blue RU plate on my car. It’s one of the first 10 that were issued. Never giving it up!
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I still have mine. #1064 (my birthday). The original run i think went up to #1500. I had a 1970 BMW 2002 at the time, and wanted to get #2002, but could not.

Also, around 1991 if memory serves, NJ personal plates went from six letters to seven. I applied for "RUTGERS" the first day of 7-digits. A mailman from Middlesex county ended up with it. I got my revenge when I moved to NC. I have "RUTGERS" on my 2003 Beetle.
 
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B

BigWill

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kupuna133 said:
Those blue plates were bad then and seem even more awful now. The color scheme and design now are fine.
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Gov Byrnes Daughters didn't like the yellow color and that is why we switched to UNC blue.

Stopped one for speeding on Turnpike, she was decent.

Anyone remember Jerry English who used to go everywhere with BB ?
 
G

goru1869

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Nov 16, 2005
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BigWill said:
Banning Straws are coming as Murph the Surf and Mr Dinner Newsome vie for "most out of touch Governator"....
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I wouldn't doubt a plastic bottle ban is something these tree hugging screwballs also want.
 
Knight177lb

Knight177lb

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1. Keep the plates the way they are now. They are unique, no other state has anything like our colors.

2. Everyone on here should be ordering Rutgers plates. Especially since the colors might change. The way the R is now, it looks really nice. If the red R is on a blue plate, it will look so wrong.
 
MADHAT1

MADHAT1

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robcac26 said:
It seems a lot of people didn't actually read the article. They aren't getting rid of the current plates, they are just proposing offering the throwback as one of the specialty plates you can purchase instead of the standard one.
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shhh, you'll stop the panic


and reason to go after the Gov.
 
A

anon_ivydyf0amkzay

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Has Jersey EVER had nice looking plates? I can only remember those ugly blue ones (the only ones I ever had) and the current (just as ugly) yellow flag ones
 
F

fsg2_rivals

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West Point Knight said:
Has Jersey EVER had nice looking plates? I can only remember those ugly blue ones (the only ones I ever had) and the current (just as ugly) yellow flag ones
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This thread made me look at plates from around the country. Northeast plates are almost all terrible, and the region would dominate a 10 worst list.

Alaska's is the worst, tho ...most beautiful state, most hideous plate.
 
J

Jm0513

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Aug 16, 2018
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RUaMoose said:
Wasn't it Byrne who got the plate changed to blue because it was his daughter's favorite color ? I kept one as a souvenir. Originally on my first car, a '74 AMC Gremlin back in '82. I kept transferring it from car to car over the years, decades actually

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Look at you Moosie... the pro picture poster!
 
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Knight Shift

Knight Shift

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HeavenUniv.

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Nobody prides themselves on being cheap more than I, but even I will not eat at the Blue Fountain In Toms River. It has been a longgg time, but it probably hasn’t gotten any better. Hard to imagine, but as bad as White Castle.
 
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Southern Gentleman

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HeavenUniv. said:
Cork, I spend a lot of time outdoors. New Jersey is not bland or ugly. From High Point to The Glades, we have everything. People just need to get off the highways and get a map.
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Exactly! Judy and I travel one day a week in this pandemic, always within 100 miles of Little Rock, just to get out and see things other than our house. We consciously avoid the interstate highways, even the intra-city ones. There is so much to see on the 2 lanes that you won’t see from the interstate system. Last week we drove to Slovak Arkansas and watched 100,000 plus geese lift off from a flooded rice field. Awesome!
 
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Southern Gentleman

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RUBOB72

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The legislature in NJ has nothing better to do? If the state corrections is releasing all these convicted criminals who is going to be making these plates? 😁
 
F

FRA10Thunderbolt

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Oct 21, 2010
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The story I heard regarding the NJ "Blue Plates" was Brendan Byrnes Daughter attended University of Delaware and the colors of the school are Blue and Gold and she is the one who picked the plate colors. I think NJ should go totally Radical and change the colors to scarlet and white! Here is a website I found that gives a brief history of NJ's license plates. History or NJ's License Plates
 
MulletCork

MulletCork

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Sep 1, 2012
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I was at a casino recently that still offered a "Blue Plate Special". I was like hot damn, you know I'm gonna get one of those and I'm not some grey hair. Wasn't horrible. Wasn't good. Somewhere in between.
 
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