I'd like to get original year license plates for my truck. Anyone have a set or know where I can find a set of '59 Montana plates? Are there companies that sell them or do I just need to cruise ebay until I find a pair?

 

There are plenty of collectors,so doing a Google search for license plate collectors clubs might be a good start.

 

Hopefully Montana used a simpler system than we have in Illinois, but maybe with less vehicle population back then yours might be just as hard to find. Here we have to display front and rear plates, and the truck plates aren't the same as car plates. On our trucks the weight and application are letter coded with the numbers. A light truck is a "B" plate. To add complication there was a "Front" plate and a "Rear" plate that were each stamped with their appropriate word. And in 1952 there were two different colored sets, one orange/blue (early year) and the other yellow/black (late year). The yellow/blacks were issued after the state won a court battle over increased licensing fees.

I've watched eBay and gotten sets for my '50 and '51. Also have a set of each color for '52, one I got from a collector's booth at the big Iola, WI, swap meet and the other I got from a collector at this year's Illinois Secretary of State car show here in Springfield. Your best chance I'd think would be to find a local collector who specializes in Montana and other regional plates. All sellers that I've seen at the big swap meets have a lot better selection of plates from their home state than of others across the country.

There's also a nice article in this month's Vintage Truck Magazine that gives good tips on restoring vintage plates. Stu

 

We also have front and rear plates but they I don't think we ever had different one's for a car vs truck, atleast not that I know of.