License Plate Maps

How the maps got started

Back in 2013, I tore cartilage in my left knee. I was sitting in the garage, not very mobile, looking at the pile of license plates I’d never turned in to Motor Vehicle.

I wondered if I could make a map of New Jersey, with each county cut out to scale and labeled with its initial. There it is.

I had to take some liberties, but what’s the point of art if you can’t have a little fun? I only had two ‘C’s, so Cumberland County is a sideways ‘U’. And like that.

I hung it on our garage, and my wife, Sue, said, “That’s beautiful. Where’s my map?” She grew up in Reading, Penna.

Jersey has 21 counties. Pennsylvania has 67. It took me two years at flea markets & garage sales to collect the plates for her map.

I’ve been gathering license plates and making maps ever since.