North Carolina License Plate Initiative

As part of the ongoing commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the North Carolina Office of Archives and History is working with the Division of Motor Vehicles to create a specialty license plate. Designed by Amy Sawyer of Historic Sites, the plate features silhouetted artillerymen as well as the commemoration's theme—Freedom, Sacrifice, Memory—and URL. The design conforms with the new regulations set forth by the legislature guaranteeing that a large, unobstructed central portion of the plate be reserved for the license number and that the name of the state be clearly visible. Furthermore, the URL adopts the .gov suffix in place of the previous .com, a reflection of the ongoing migration of state government websites to the former.

The intent is to market a plate over the course of the commemorative period at a cost to the vehicle operator of $30 per year. Funds received from the Division of Motor Vehicles will be directed to the Division of State Historic Sites and Properties for use in commemorative activities and for battlefield preservation, acquisition, and interpretation.

A completed application and check for $30 payable to the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources should be mailed by December 1, 2011, to Bridget Jordan, North Carolina Historic Sites, 4620 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-4620. Once 300 orders have been received, the plates will be fabricated by the Department of Corrections.

Application for a North Carolina Civil War License Plate (PDF)