Illustrated History of Connecticut License Plates

These plates are issued for temporary registrations - such as when purchasing a used vehicle or registering temporarily in order to have it inspected for permanent registration. Camp. Trailer, Camper, Commercial and Motorcycle are the types presently available for purchase. Combination and Commercial Trailer used to be issued as well.

Temporary Dealer and Repair plates are also issued, usually when a permanent plate has been lost.

These plates have holes punched in them for attachment in the same manner as a regular plate, however they often appear taped inside the rear windshield of the vehicle.

These plates are now valid for a period of 10 days.

Up until the early 1980s there were also metal temporary plates of similar design to regular Commercial, Dealer, Repair, etc. plates, with a 'T' suffix. These were typically used for vehicles whose plates were lost.

"In-Transit" plates of a similar design are issued, for purchases of a vehicle in Connecticut by an out-of-state owner.

Click the photo to see this type in use.

Camp Trailer


1992 Temporary Camp Trailer Interesting that this plate doesn't have the "Temp." legend on it

Combination


1972 Temp. Combination	1979 Temp. Combination


1989 Temp. Combination

Commercial


1963 Temp. Commercial	1965 Temp. Commercial


1967 Temp. Commercial From a 1941 Pickup truck	1969 Temp. Commercial


1981 Temporary Commercial. Like temporary passenger plates at this time, the caption was reversed from 'Temp. Comm.' to 'Comm. Temp.' for a short while.	1984 Temp. Commercial


1986 Temp. Commercial	1987 Temp. Commercial In 1987 the letter was bumped over and became full-sized.


1988 Temp. Commercial	1990 Temp. Commercial The "computerized" design came out in 1988.


1992 Temp. Commercial	1993 Temp. Commercial


1995 Temp. Commercial	2013 Temp. Commercial The barcode is a decal with the plate number on it. This plate was on a 1953 Dodge M-37.