1991 Celebrate & Discover Baseplate

Celebrate & Discover plates include no permanent year designation. They are numbered from 501-751 through somewhere in the 850-000 series. (The highest observed number is 853-040.) Numbers theoretically could have been issued as high as 925-000, but a change in the numbering format was made prior to reaching that point.

In late April 1997 the general-issue format was changed to two letters followed by four numbers beginning at AA-0000, and the position of the slogan and jurisdiction name was reversed. The highest observed number is AY-8223, and plates of this base were probably numbered through AY-9999.

At least one unusual manufacturing variety has been identified. Plates 828-734 (issued Nov. 1996) and AB-1634 (issued July 1997) are made with the standard fully-reflective graphic sheeting. However, number AA-4847 (issued June 1997 and pictured below) was made on plain white reflective sheeting, with the graphic elements (Washington, D.C., Celebrate & Discover, and the two horizontal red stripes) silk-screen printed. Therefore, these features are not reflective, as they are on plates made with graphic sheeting. If through future inspection it is found that the highest all-number plates were made with graphic sheeting and the lowest AA-series plates were made with plain white sheeting and silk-screened graphics, it will be reasonable to conclude that modified graphic sheeting (with the flag moved to the left) was simply unavailable when the decision to change the numbering format was made. (It is worth mentioning, however, that non-passenger plates made for many years have included the flag offset to the left. Whether the graphic's location on non-passenger plates is the same as required on AB-1234 format auto plates is unknown.)

It appears that dated security marks were replaced with coded ones when this base was introduced. The security mark on the lowest observed plate, number 583-398, is BOR3. Mark codes in this format, three letters (the first of which is always B) followed by the number 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, were used on plates of other jurisdictions, as well. Other coded marks observed are BMH4 (no. 682-052), BPC2 (720-200), BLN2 (805-541), BAA3 (828-734), BIN2 (AA-4847), BIO2 (AB-1634), and BTR3 (AO-1213).

This base was introduced only for new registrations; there was never a general reissuance with this base. Optional two-year registrations were first offered in 1992, a change reflected in the following table of reflective stickers issued to validate 1991 baseplates:

Later stickers have been used to revalidate plates of this base.

About the Celebrate & Discover Design

The change to the D.C. plate slogan was the result of an advertising campaign that was announced in July 1990. According to a Washington Post article of that month, after sifting through about 5,000 tourism slogan suggestions made by the public, the winner chosen was “Celebrate The City-Discover The World!” The announcement was made in conjunction with celebrations planned for the following year, when in September the District would mark its 200th anniversary. (Separate commemorative City Bicentennial graphic plates were offered at an extra cost, and are still available.) The new slogan was shortened to Celebrate & Discover for use on license plates. “I think we definitely need the new image,” said an official of the local convention and visitors bureau. At the time, Mayor Marion Barry was on trial on 14 drug-related charges and the city's high homicide rate was known across the country. Tourism was down 17% in 1989 as compared with the previous year, and industry officials pointed to the city's reputation as a crime capital as having contributed to the change.