Wikipedia defines NOS as "obsolete equipment, or original parts for obsolete equipment, that have never been sold at retail. The term refers to merchandise being offered for sale which was
manufactured long ago but that has never been used. Such merchandise may
not be produced anymore, and the new old stock may represent the only
current market source of a particular item."
So, new old stock plates are plates that were made the same time as all the other plates of that year but were never issued to be put on a vehicle. A lot of these plates ended up just taking up space in country courthouses for decades. Without exposure to rain or sunlight and never taking the beating that used plates did, these NOS plates are practically new.
Because my grandfather was so lucky as to get his hands on a lot of these plates, we have long runs of plates (like RRJ*445, RRJ*446, RRJ*447, RRJ*448, ...). Most of our plates also have the original paper still between them. There are a few years where you can find ads for prisoner rodeos on the tan, brittle paper.
When you go to register old plates on a vehicle, the DMV will check them over to make sure they don't have too much rust or holes. they also check to make sure the colors are correct. There is no need to worry about the colors being correct when its the original plate in mint condition.
I think it was easier for me to convince people to buy NOS plates for their cars when the state issued plates were the ugly blue and red plates that were hard to read. Now they are issuing clean black and white plates that look really slick and classic. The only thing that I like better about old plates appearance wise now is that on new plates the numbers and letters aren't raised. It's a quality thing. You can tell that someone made these old plates and that a machine just printed out the new ones.Maybe I'm just being snobbish (and a little self serving). The state issued classic and antique plates are also ugly with that old buggy in middle of the plate. If you are cruising around in a nice '67 Mustang, you don't need a picture of a Model T on your license plate. You need a plate like this black and white FNH*747 that I have so many pictures of.
I'm having a hard time coming up with interesting things to say about license plates that I can write a full blog post about. If people have questions or comments, that would be great fodder for material.
Until next time,
Kelsey.
