The first Iowa license plates with the current background went into circulation Jan. 2, 1997. Plenty of things have changed:
- The metal got thinner and plates are no longer stamped
- The text went from blue to black
- Slashes were added in the zeroes
- The alphanumeric sequence ran out and was restarted letter-first
but the basic design has not. So despite cosmetic modifications, Iowa is still using the “same” plate as back then.
Here’s what 15 years of stickers look like. This year, every plate issued between 1998 and 2004 will be replaced.
