These small license plates hang on the wall in my kitchen along with lots of other collectibles (junk) and I have one friend in particular who covets them. So I called him and asked what the deal was with these little license plates. They measure 10"x3" so they are much smaller than regular license plates.
He said that if you lived in the city limits of Searcy Arkansas, White County, you had to buy a license plate for your vehicle. They cost $5 and his dad griped a lot about having to buy one just because he was in city limits and his uncle who lived outside city limits wasn't required to purchase one. He assumes that the gripes grew louder and stronger as the years went by and they must have finally quit requiring the city slickers to buy them. $5 back then would have been quite a bit of money!
My son collected license plates along with lots of other things so I've had these things for many years. The dates are from 1937 to 1958 with numbers ranging from 158 to 958.
It would be interesting to know whether those numbers were for ones who lived in city limits with cars and indicate that Searcy grew from 158 to 958 from the year 1937 to 1958.
And it would also be interesting to know whether other towns had these required license plates.
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