Tennessee's new license plate

By now it is no secret that the rolling mountains of Tennessee are going to be replaced on our license plate with a new design, featuring a blue background, white writing, an outline of Tennessee at the top and an optional "In God We Trust" around the tri-stars.

Drivers can get their new plates at the time of their regular renewal this coming year. For example, the state's website said that if your tags expired in December of 2021, then your new plate will be given to you in December of 2022.

According to the state's website and County Clerk Sandra Clayton, although you may renew your tags three months ahead as usual, early renewal only starts after the third of January.

It will be a regular renewal process with the only change being a new plate. Plates can still be ordered online but there will be a $5 fee for a plate to be mailed. There is no fee if the plate is picked up at the County Clerk's office.

The state will reportedly produce 100,000 plates each week to keep up with the expected initial demand.

Changing plate designs

The license plate redesign takes place every 8 years as mandated by state law once the funds get approved in the General Assembly's annual budget.

It was reported that the state hired an "outside creative agency" to design the vintage-inspired plates in order to celebrate Tennessee's 225 years of statehood. The company, or creative agency, was Speak Creative in Nashville and Memphis. The agency was selected by a competitive bidding process in which the state agreed to pay them $20,000 for their services.

Speak Creative came up with four different designs which were put to vote from September 20, 2021, to September 27, 2021.

Over 300,000 Tennesseans voted on the design of the new plates with around 200,000 of the votes coming in during the first 24 hours of voting back in September. The new plate design won over the other three with about 42 percent of the vote. The one you see pictured is the design that was chosen.

After the plate's design was unveiled, many wondered why "In God We Trust" was on the plate. This was made optional in 2017 when lawmakers attempted to require the phrase on every plate. The conclusion of the debate was that the requirement would not be constitutional.

A history of TN license plates

Our current license plate design was originally instated in 2006 and only had minor modifications in 2011, 2016 and 2017. Mrs. Clayton said the plate is one of the longest running plates in Tennessee.

Molly Weisner and Daniella Medina explored the surprisingly interesting history of the Tennessee license plate in an article written for The Tennessean where they discovered that license plates were not always rectangles cut out of metal.

Some of the earliest plates, that date back to 1915, were made out of leather with embossed lettering. Others were cut into the shape of the state itself. Plates like that were used until 1956. Before plates were issued by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, individuals made their own plates that typically displayed their initials instead of today's alphanumeric code.