Another extraordinary example of Mexico’s remarkable experiment with advanced license plate design technolgy and road safety. This complex regisation has a normal embossed rectangular license plate, but in this case the registration numbers are cut out as a stencil. Great care was done to preserve some standalone elements in the numbers, like the dot in the center of the “4” and the “9”. Then th plate had a steel box compartment riveted to the plate to allow for the separate glass bead sheet to be inserted behind the stencilled openings.
In 1936, most but not all Mexico states created this design, but there are several distinct types of manufacture
Type 1: Taller rectangular plate with “1936” date (some with yellow Pat. Pending decal)
Type 2: Shorter rectangular plate with “936” date.
Type 3: No new reflectorized plate. Instead, a small vertical “1936” tab used over 1935 plate.
Sonora shares a long border with Arizona (and a small section with New Mexico USA). The twin cities of Nogales, one north and the other south of the border has long been the home of border operations and the majority of cross border traffic between the two nations. Starting as early as 1927 (shown here) and issued through 1959, there were a wide variety of binational plates issues by both Sonora and Arizona, presumable for consular staff and other government officials.
