Antique license plates sought
Jeff Francis would love to poke around in your shed.
Francis has a lifelong passion for collecting antique automobile tags. It began when he was 10 years old while riding his bike through a construction site in his hometown.
“When my front tire struck something metal sticking up out of the dirt, I stopped to pick it up,” Francis said. “It turned out to be a 1972 South Carolina license plate. It piqued my interest, so I took it home. Back then, Florida still issued new plates annually up until 1975. When I expressed my curiosity about car tags, an adult friend said I should go around the neighborhood and ask people for their old plates. I picked up 100 that first day.”
That began his 48-year quest.
“There are only three complete collections of state issued license plates in America. One is in Vermont, another in Memphis and mine in Florida. The other two are stored in boxes while mine is on display at my private museum in St. Petersburg,” Francis said.
By “complete collection” Francis means he has every tag, from every year, from every state in the Union. “My collection is open to the public by appointment.”
“Now, I’m working to complete my collection of early Arkansas municipal plates,” he said. “I’m trying to find city plates issued before Arkansas began requiring state license. A few larger cities started issuing car tags as early as 1909.
They are usually black and white porcelain embossed enamel on a heavy metal plate, 12 inches wide by 5 inches tall. They’ll have the name of the city, with an individual tag number across the face and a date down the side.” He further explained. “I’ve seen Little Rock tags for 1909, 1910 and 1911. One 1910 Little Rock tag has a blue background while another 1911 has red background, both with white lettering. I know Pine Bluff issued them for 1910 and ’11, but I suspect they went back as far as 1909. I’ve also seen a Hot Springs one without porcelain or a date that likely predates 1911. I’ve also seen an Argenta tag from North Little Rock dated as late 1917,” he said.
Francis said most cities stopped producing local tags soon after 1911 because that was the first year Arkansas began requiring state plates.
“I’ve been running classified ads in The Pine Bluff Commercial for some time trying to locate 1909, 1910 and 1911 Pine Bluff tags. I was just in Fordyce visiting with Benny Roark who saw my ad and sold me an original issue 1911 Arkansas tag,” he said.
As for Pine Bluff city tags, he said, “The only two I’ve seen surface are numbers 6 and 87, so there were obviously at least a few dozen produced.”
He visited Pine Bluff in July.
“And it looked like they had the whole of downtown dug up. I spent four hours walking around searching through the debris hoping to stumble upon an old Pine Bluff license. I’m convinced that somewhere in the city or elsewhere in Arkansas there have to be some of those plates. Even though I didn’t have any luck, I found Pine Bluff an interesting place with a lot of history, strategically located, and everyone was really nice.”
Expressing a concern, he said, “I’m afraid when people see my ads in the PBC classifieds, they think, ‘He’s a dealer who is going to resell the tags on eBay,’ but that’s not the case with me. I’m a personal collector with a true passion to bring this collection together for the public to appreciate and enjoy. And even if folks possess any of these tags and don’t want to sell them, I’d still like to know they exist and hopefully have pictures of them.”
Not to keep his focus too narrow, Francis added, “Local tags began to come back again beginning in the 1930s running into the ’60’s in some cities. Little Rock tags came back as early as the late ’20s.”
This proved an opportunity for municipalities to raise additional revenue by “double-dipping” in the public’s pocket.
“I’m also interested in any of these latter city plates as well as old buggy and all motorcycle tags. I’m especially looking for any plates prior to 1932.”
Asked if old tags are worth anything, Francis said: “A Pine Bluff could go anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000, depending on condition. One dug up out of the ground and beat up wouldn’t be worth as much as one in good condition. I gave $2,000 for the first 1911 Arkansas issue.”
“I want to motivate people to look under old houses or in the walls of buildings being demolished or in the shed out back to help find these hidden treasures,” he said.
Details: Jeff Francis, gobucs13@aol.com or (727) 424-1576.