Richland Family’s Hunt for License Plates

By: Ronda Furrow

License plate collecting may sound odd, but for Louk Markham of Richland, it has become a lifelong hobby. After 45 years of searching, he has over ten thousand of them and still eagerly seeks more.

Beginning in 1965, the Markham clan would stop at flea markets, junk yards and old barns hunting for any unique and usual license plates to add to their collection.

Their fascination with the plates grew from stories told by the people who sold them, making early vehicle transportation come alive. Soon the family’s boxes of plates took over the garage and walls of their basement.

Now Markham continues to look for unique plates by searching online auctions and contacting members of the American License Plate Collectors Association (ALPCA) to barter and trade.

ALPCA holds an annual convention and has over 11,000 members, 3,000 of them from other countries.

As with many collectibles, license plates can be reproduced to look old and it is sometimes difficult to determine authenticity. Markham said that even original plates that have been repainted lose their value, and a true collector needs to be very careful when making a purchase.

Family vacations often center around license plates as Markham and his wife, Sherrie, travel to many parts of the world searching for plates that they may not already have. According to Markham, antique stores and word of mouth are still the best ways to find them.

Markham carefully logs and categorizes all of his plates in a large binder so he can keep track of his vast collection. His hobby also took him recently to the state prison in Adrian to tour the Michigan license plate making facility.

Markham considers the plates to be pieces of history, and said that his most special pieces are:
• A circa-1910 screen plate which allowed air to pass through to cool the car’s engine.

• Several plates from the 1910’s made of porcelain-covered steel.

• An Ill. Plate from the years of WWII, made from soybean cardboard because of the scarcity of metal.

• A 1932 Ariz. plate made of solid copper.

• An Ohio Plate made of leather.

• A 1928 Hawaii plate.

• A variety of old plates fashioned in the shape of animals that represent states.

• A 1971 moon plate, meant to be used on the lunar roving vehicle.

Markham also has special plates designated “legislator” and “governor,” as well as some made of wood and others in plastic.

The collector said he is not picky about the type of vehicle these license plates were made for, and his collection includes many bicycle, motorcycle, school bus and even a horse-drawn vehicle plate.

Markham estimates the value of his collection to be over $50,000. The most he has paid for any one plate was $500 for a pair of 1907 Penn. Plates made of porcelain.

He now has plates from all 50 states, all of the provinces in Mexico and Canada, and several hundred from all of the other continents—except for Antarctica.

Currently, the collector is hunting for a local plate that he saw in an old snapshot: the plate of a 1948 Galesburg rural agricultural school bus.

Markham said, however, that even if it doesn’t turn up, he will certainly enjoy looking for it.