Tweet
I'm puttin' out the call for any other holders of New Jersey Historic "Q-plates" to bring their bikes that wear the very distinctive "historic" license plates to Oley this year for a mini-reunion. That's most members of Seaboard and Colonial Chapters, AMCA, and anyone else from New Jersey with a Q-plate. Some of us kinda want to see how MANY of those "Historic" license plates for motorcycles that the Division of Motor Vehicles in Trenton has issued since they originally told us Seaboard founders in 1975 that:
1.) "It's the law, we don't issue 'historic' plates for motorcycles,' (1-26-1975) (Ms. Ann Conroy, "Principal Clerk")
And:
2.) "We are unable to issue historic vehicle license plates for motorcycles because the design will not fit in the small motorcycle plate," (1-23-1975). Then, we received a letter from her boss, Mr. Joseph Monaco, the Assistant Director of M.V.s :
3.) "We'd have to order special dies, which are quite expensive. We would have to have many more such requests to pay for just the cost of the die. In any case, the word "historic" would have to be so small on a motorcycle license plate that it would be illegible at any reasonable distance. I must reiterate, we do not intend to issue historic motorcycle plates." (2-26-1975) Then
4.) "It is not possible with the existing equipment used by the (Bureau of Prisons) to emboss that word on the small motorcycle license plate." (11-10-75)
Then, we Seaboard Chapter members (mechanics all!), put our heads together at the next Seaboard Chapter meeting and proposed ways to get around the size problem, and for the state to use the same 3/4-inch die for the word "Historic" used on full-sized car plates, on the 3 1/2 x 7-inch NJ bike plate. We drew up scale license plate proposals, and I sent them with another letter to Trenton. (They'd made me Chapter Secretary when we started Seaboard in December, 1974, for the stated purpose of getting Trenton to make the plates)
After all of the above run-around, Mr. Monaco, whom we'd been corresponding with and who had told us that a special die for motorcycle-only "historic" plates would be "prohibitively expensive," finally had to show our proposals to the Prison Industries people in charge of making all New Jersey license plates, and lo and behold:
5.) He wrote back: "The 'historic' die used for passenger automobile plates will not fit on the motorcycle plate. We would need to purchase a small die and several "Q" die sets... the cost would be about $326," and, "It would take more than 13 issuances to offset the cost of the die alone, and processing cost amounts to about $5 per issuance."
and: "If you can substantiate a larger market, we would be willing to incur the expense of the special dies." (12-29-1975)
Well, I just picked up my telephone (yes, we had no internet, but we did have telephones, waaay back in 1975!) (They were incredibly archaic, crude, black things that you rented from Ma Bell by the month, were hard-wired right to your wall, and all you could do was talk on them!), and on January 2, 1976, I was able to send Mr. Monaco a list of 16 Seaboard members who requested 21 plates: Their names, addresses, years and makes of their bikes.
Permanent NJ Historic plates then cost only $25 "for life," and registered vehicles were exempt from N.J.'s draconian annual trip to a state-run "Inspection Station" every single year upon renewal of your regular plates, which were two of our main reasons for founding Seaboard Chapter in order to unite our voices to demand the plates, which were supposed to be for: "any resident of NJ who is the owner of a historic motor vehicle which is at least 25 years old and which is owned as a collector's item, and used solely for exhibition and educational purposes." (New Jersey Statutes, Annotated: 39:3-27.4)
That was just a telephone survey of the local Seaboard members who attended our regular meetings. Afterwards, I made up a little mail-back form to all New Jersey AMCA members, and by the end of January, 1976, we had requested 46 Historic plates for motorcycles.
In response to the first list of 21 motorcycles, I received another letter from Mr. Monaco in Trenton, dated January 9th, 1976: "I have instructed the (Bureau of Prisons) to purchase the dies necessary to manufacture historic motorcycle plates in the format depicted on the enclosed sketches."
We'd won! And the "prohibitively expensive die for the word 'historic'' that all of their argument was about, turned out to be nine-sixteenths, rather than three-quarters, of an inch tall. Obviously, it was so tiny as to be "illegible at any reasonable distance!"
All this was over 35 years ago, so I'm pretty sure that the folks we corresponded with are long-since retired from Trenton department of motor vehicles, and I know that some of my fellow founders of Seaboard Chapter and proud recipients of some of the other low-number "Q" plates are no longer agitating state motor vehicle authorities in this sphere. Ernie, Q2; Bob, Q3; and Cale, "Q7 & 99er," as we used to call him (he went back and got #99 for his BMW, later) have all passed from this life. And I'm sure there are probably others, too, among those who also drew from Ernie's hat that night for the numbers two through ten Q plates, after someone, I think it was Joe, motioned, got a second, & they voted that I get #1. I was truly humbled, and speechless.
But, whenever we got together after the victory (the first plates were issued in time for "The Bicentennial" celebration, in July, 1976), we used to call each other by our numbers, and at least Joe and I still do, on the phone and in correspondence.
Joe Burkel's
1.) "It's the law, we don't issue 'historic' plates for motorcycles,' (1-26-1975) (Ms. Ann Conroy, "Principal Clerk")
And:
2.) "We are unable to issue historic vehicle license plates for motorcycles because the design will not fit in the small motorcycle plate," (1-23-1975). Then, we received a letter from her boss, Mr. Joseph Monaco, the Assistant Director of M.V.s :
3.) "We'd have to order special dies, which are quite expensive. We would have to have many more such requests to pay for just the cost of the die. In any case, the word "historic" would have to be so small on a motorcycle license plate that it would be illegible at any reasonable distance. I must reiterate, we do not intend to issue historic motorcycle plates." (2-26-1975) Then
4.) "It is not possible with the existing equipment used by the (Bureau of Prisons) to emboss that word on the small motorcycle license plate." (11-10-75)
Then, we Seaboard Chapter members (mechanics all!), put our heads together at the next Seaboard Chapter meeting and proposed ways to get around the size problem, and for the state to use the same 3/4-inch die for the word "Historic" used on full-sized car plates, on the 3 1/2 x 7-inch NJ bike plate. We drew up scale license plate proposals, and I sent them with another letter to Trenton. (They'd made me Chapter Secretary when we started Seaboard in December, 1974, for the stated purpose of getting Trenton to make the plates)
After all of the above run-around, Mr. Monaco, whom we'd been corresponding with and who had told us that a special die for motorcycle-only "historic" plates would be "prohibitively expensive," finally had to show our proposals to the Prison Industries people in charge of making all New Jersey license plates, and lo and behold:
5.) He wrote back: "The 'historic' die used for passenger automobile plates will not fit on the motorcycle plate. We would need to purchase a small die and several "Q" die sets... the cost would be about $326," and, "It would take more than 13 issuances to offset the cost of the die alone, and processing cost amounts to about $5 per issuance."
and: "If you can substantiate a larger market, we would be willing to incur the expense of the special dies." (12-29-1975)
Well, I just picked up my telephone (yes, we had no internet, but we did have telephones, waaay back in 1975!) (They were incredibly archaic, crude, black things that you rented from Ma Bell by the month, were hard-wired right to your wall, and all you could do was talk on them!), and on January 2, 1976, I was able to send Mr. Monaco a list of 16 Seaboard members who requested 21 plates: Their names, addresses, years and makes of their bikes.
Permanent NJ Historic plates then cost only $25 "for life," and registered vehicles were exempt from N.J.'s draconian annual trip to a state-run "Inspection Station" every single year upon renewal of your regular plates, which were two of our main reasons for founding Seaboard Chapter in order to unite our voices to demand the plates, which were supposed to be for: "any resident of NJ who is the owner of a historic motor vehicle which is at least 25 years old and which is owned as a collector's item, and used solely for exhibition and educational purposes." (New Jersey Statutes, Annotated: 39:3-27.4)
That was just a telephone survey of the local Seaboard members who attended our regular meetings. Afterwards, I made up a little mail-back form to all New Jersey AMCA members, and by the end of January, 1976, we had requested 46 Historic plates for motorcycles.
In response to the first list of 21 motorcycles, I received another letter from Mr. Monaco in Trenton, dated January 9th, 1976: "I have instructed the (Bureau of Prisons) to purchase the dies necessary to manufacture historic motorcycle plates in the format depicted on the enclosed sketches."
We'd won! And the "prohibitively expensive die for the word 'historic'' that all of their argument was about, turned out to be nine-sixteenths, rather than three-quarters, of an inch tall. Obviously, it was so tiny as to be "illegible at any reasonable distance!"
All this was over 35 years ago, so I'm pretty sure that the folks we corresponded with are long-since retired from Trenton department of motor vehicles, and I know that some of my fellow founders of Seaboard Chapter and proud recipients of some of the other low-number "Q" plates are no longer agitating state motor vehicle authorities in this sphere. Ernie, Q2; Bob, Q3; and Cale, "Q7 & 99er," as we used to call him (he went back and got #99 for his BMW, later) have all passed from this life. And I'm sure there are probably others, too, among those who also drew from Ernie's hat that night for the numbers two through ten Q plates, after someone, I think it was Joe, motioned, got a second, & they voted that I get #1. I was truly humbled, and speechless.
But, whenever we got together after the victory (the first plates were issued in time for "The Bicentennial" celebration, in July, 1976), we used to call each other by our numbers, and at least Joe and I still do, on the phone and in correspondence.
Joe Burkel's
Comment