Diamonds in the Rough...

In a previous post I talked about mistakes that have been made with some of the license plates that have made their way into the hands of the general public. The most notable ones have been the mistakes that were made on the 1970 WDW pre-opening license plates:



These are just two of the error plates that made their way into circulation. There are others such as the green mis-cut, which has no white printing and is a little longer than the plate above with the edge of another plate attached to it. There is also a double plate that has been found as well as several other mis-cuts. Steve Garner has some great pictures of these errors on his website if you would like to see them.

The main subject of this post, however, is a little gem that was discovered by my younger brother while searching for license plates on one of his WDW vacations. We have developed the habit of looking through literally every single license plate on every rack we come across just in case there are any variants in the pile. It was during one of these searches that my brother ran across this plate:


For the sake of comparison, here is what it's supposed to look like:


The error on my brother's plate, although pretty obvious, is made all the more interesting when it's observed first-hand. Not only is there an error on the Mickey, but all of the black print on the license plate is shifted over to the left. This being an aluminum plate, all of the lettering is raised when the plate is stamped, and the lettering for the word "STUDIOS" is shifted in such a manner that the lettering itself sits on the flat of the plate while the raised sections remain blank. In my opinion this plate is truly a rare find in that it's one of those errors that's just a glitch in the printing process that may not have been duplicated more than a couple of times, making this license plate a true "Diamond in the Rough."

Now, as a bonus for making everyone wait so long for a new post, I want to share another Disney MGM Studios license plate. This was a cast member only issue many years ago. The special thing about this license plate is not that it was only issued to cast members, but that it was also issued with a letter from Dick Nunis thanking them for all of their hard work. This is not by any means the norm with Disney license plates, cast member or otherwise. Normally they are simply issued en masse to the public or the cast members or to the appropriate group in the case of opening team and other exclusive commemorative plates. This plate is one of the true gems of my collection as I was able to not only acquire the plate but also the original copy of the letter that was issued with it:





I truly hope you enjoyed this post and I hope that I can get back to a somewhat regular posting schedule again very soon. Till next time, Have a wonderful Disney day!!!