Pre 1911 rubber

Pre 1911 porcelain

1911-12

1913 (Dealer's Tag)

1919

1922

Style of 1925-29, 31

Style of 1930, 32

Style of 1933-35

Style of 1937-43

Masonite plate of 1944

Style of 1945-49

Style of 1950-55

Style of 1956-62

First slogan year

Style of 1964-66

Unique pair for 1967

Style of 1968-71

Style of 1972

Style of 1974-75

Olympics plate of 1976

Style of 1979-81

Style of 1982-83 (sticker boxes)

Style of 1983-92 (w/ stickers)

Style of 1994 date (no stickers)

Current motorcycle plate

The City of Montreal first began registering cars in 1904,  They issued annual porcelain tags, color coded to the year.  Unfortunately it is not known if these were dated or read "Montreal" since none are known to have survived.  1906 would have been the last year for these tags because in May of that year, the province took over registration .  Plates with a 'Q' prefix were to be provided by the owner.  They could be made of whatever material was handy, or even painted directly on the car, as was done by Ucal H. Dandurand who registered the first car, and painted "Q 1" in a red rectangle on the rear of his 1902 DeDion-Bouton.  Fortunately, this car, and registration number have been preserved in a museum in Montreal.  Later, PQ (Province de Quebec) instead of 'Q' was used for the provincial designation.

When the province started supplying the license plates in 1911, they were made of fiberboard (pressed cardboard), color coded to the year.  If it weren't for preserved records, these would be a challenge to date correctly!  Interestingly, they used this material up until 1924 and, since the plates weren't supposed to last more than a year, it didn't matter that the material wouldn't hold up over time.  Finding these fiberboard plates in decent condition is a challenge.  Most are found warped and with little paint remaining. 

In the earlier years up to at least 1916, a small dashboard plaque was supplied, with a number that matched the registration plates.  Since Quebec is primarily francophone, it is remarkable that these little plaques read "REGISTERED"!  These are highly prized as collectibles when accompanied by the matching plates.

In recent years, Quebec has probably done more with color than any other province.  There are some unusual color combinations seldom seen anywhere else such as the orange on blue '52, the black on "slime green" '71, and the "cream background" issues of late 70s.  The plates from the 50s on would add a lot of color to a wall, and fortunately for the novice collector, are relatively easy to get.
 

• The first provincially issued plates appeared in 1911.  Before that, plates were supplied by the owner.
• The metal shortage during WW2 forced the province to make the plates once again of  fiberboard, this time a more sturdy masonite composite.  Many provinces issued windshield stickers.
• The 1971 plate had a unusual metallic green paint color seen nowhere else.
• All plates issued since 1979 are valid.

Two varieties of the 1975 plate.

The latter was issued later in the year when a fire ravaged the Montmagny plant where the Quebec license plates were being made.  A new manufacturer had to be found, hence the different color, and crisper dies. All subsequent plates were also made there.

• The Fleur-de-Lys is the provincial flower, and appears on the provincial flag.
• 1967: Canada's Centennial (1867)
• 1967: Montreal World Exposition (Expo '67)
• 1976: Montreal Olympics

• In 1906 and 07, homemade plates all carried the 'Q' prefix.  From 08-14 this was changed to a PQ suffix.
• The early Dealer plates such as the 1913 shown carry the initials of the dealership rather than a serial number.  A number '2' indicated the second set of plates issued to that dealer.
• The 'H' prefix stood for Heavy Vehicles in the 1920s and 30s.  Later on, from the 50s, the H designated a Hearse or Ambulance.
• In 1963, the number of passenger cars registered exceeded a million for the first time.  The registrations over 1,000,000 carry an A suffix rather than a seven digit number!
• The center letter on the 1974-82 plates varied from year to year and was chosen, to some extent, to avoid overlap from one year to the next.
• 1974:  A, E, H
• 1975:  A, K, N, S, B
• 1976:  H, L, M, P
• 1977:  R, S, T, V
• 1978:  A, B, C, E, F
• 1979-82: H, P, L, M, S

There are more non-passenger types in Quebec's history, than any other province in Canada. There are dozens of types, all identified by prefix letter codes of some sort, but otherwise they have the same design as the passenger plate.  Anything which does not follow the numbering system described for passenger plates above is probably some sort of non-passenger plate.  Unfortunately, unless one has a reference manual, it is almost impossible to guess what many of the codes mean because of the French language.  Even then, many codes have no logical explanation.  In 1989 the Government slashed at least half of these types and replaced them with general F-series commercial plates.
 

Special Issues

In the 40s, doctors received this dated front booster plate made of fiberboard.  They follow the same color patterns as the regular plates for that year.

Links

• Elsewhere on this site: Stickers on plates 1979-date,  Vehicle Registration Figures.
• The registry of motor vehicles is handled by the Société de l'assurance automobile de Québec (in French).
• An impressive chronological history of Quebec plates can be found at  Alain Pepin's web-site.  Alain is a draughtsman, and has drawn excellent representations of the plates.