After the motorized carriages starting appearing on city streets, the French police constable realized a method should exist for identifying and tracking each one. So in 1893 the French authorities issued an order that “Each motor vehicle shall bear on a metal plate and in legible writing the name and address of the owner and also a distinctive number used in the application for authorization.” More to the point of its purpose, the order said “This plate shall be fixed to the left hand side of the vehicle and shall never be hidden.” That was the inspiration behind the first license plates in American, in New York.

On this day, April 25, in 1909 New York became the first state to issue its own license plates (imposing a $1 annual fee on the owner). That same year, New Jersey joined its neighbor in requiring state-issued plates. Many vehicle owners already had self-made plates, usually embossed with their initials, and had to switch them for the official ones.

Unlike the metal plates of today, both states had their early plates made of porcelain. New Jersey produced around 22,000 of them the very first year, and when plates for all vehicles had to be renewed and re-issued the following year,  Trenton ordered all told about 30,000 in all — some 5 tons’ worth. New York, meanwhile, running its own license system, refused to allow New Jersey drivers temporary passage into the state without New York tags, touching off a “license plate war” of tit-for-tat restrictions.