Plate Adventures in July: Toronto / Merrickville
- Jon Upton
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
I had hoped to attend the ALPCA Convention in Tulsa this year, but a family priority came up and I had to cancel my reservations. But all was not lost— I still found some things to see and explore. I went to Toronto with my son Greg for a boys’ weekend. My wife and daughter were working, so I got to plan everything. We started with the Canadian Automobile Museum in Oshawa. I had been there once about ten years before. Definitely worth the stop for a car guy (or a plate guy) if you can spare the time.
The museum holds a gorgeous single-digit Ontario plate. The picture will do the explaining. It’s kept in a glass case, but there is no information about who was issued the plate, or how it came to be in the museum’s possession. This alone, for me, is worth the modest price of admission. But there was more to see!
The museum does have a 1911 porcelain plate (# 7888), but it looks like it’s been used for target practice with a pellet gun. So rather than show a picture of that, I decided to show this one. I have befriended an elderly gent in nearby Renfrew, who has been a collector of “things” for many years, but has become interested in plates late in life. Aware that his clock is ticking, he wanted to collect pairs as far down to the beginning as possible. He’s not really a user of the internet, but he knows a lot of people and is no stranger to working the phone to find and follow leads. Within a month of looking, he worked some magic and turned up one of the Prescott pairs, bearing a number that was not previously recorded on Eric Vettoretti’s registry site. Here’s one of them.
From the old to the new… Back in February 2020, Premier Doug Ford paid a visit to the museum and, with the cameras rolling, presented “the new” Ontario plate issue to the museum for their display. The non-reflectivity problem was still only known to geeks like us on social media, and PlateGate hadn’t yet erupted, although it would do so within about a week. This plate is special because it came from the very first box.
I’m much more of a plate nerd than a car nerd. I know guys who could tell me all about the specs of this 1928 Durant D-55 Special, but I just stand and gawk. It has a beautiful short Ontario plate to match the 1928 model year, although I suspect that the plate is not original to the car. The windshield has the rare 1944 validation stamp on its left side. I applaud the museum’s attention to this kind of detail, but as you’ll see in a moment, there was a rather egregious error coming.
This 1910 car is of a make I’d never heard of before: McKay, which was short-lived and based in Nova Scotia. There was no model number shown on the signage; there was a picture of a touring car, but this one seemed a little shorter than the one in the picture. But then I noticed an oddity: There seemed to be a 1918 Nova Scotia plate fixed to the radiator.
I had to crouch down for a clearer view, and that’s when I noticed that the “eight” in 1918 had been painted over with a zero. That’ll make any serious plate collector wince. A plate is only original once. It’s one thing to repaint an old plate that has little original colour left, but this original example was in gorgeous shape, and now it’s not even historically accurate. 1910 falls within the pre-provincial era of Nova Scotia licencing history, where owners had to fashion their own number markers based on government specs. A 1910 plate should be white with black numbers, with the letters NS stacked on the right, and no year. It would be more forgivable to make a replica than to deface a super-rare 1918 plate.
Back to some positive stuff, of which there was lots. I got a kick out of this 1934 McLaughlin-Buick 66S coupe, complete with its rumble, or jump seat. These were originally intended for hired help in the days of carriages or the very early days of motoring. But I find it strange that a 1934 vehicle, in the height of the depression, would have such a lavish option.
I found this turn signal interesting. Both the left and right turn signals are mounted on the left of the car. I guess it was logical enough, given that the words were spelled out, and the colours were red for left, and green for right, just like port and starboard on boats. But still weird, just the same. I didn’t get the make or model of the car.
My son and I spent a couple of hours at the museum before moving on to Toronto. The focus of that trip was mostly baseball, but we did find a couple of antique places that had plates. Nothing I needed specifically for my collection, and some were priced a little high, but they were fun to flip through.
Dave Steckley, as well as the late John Rubick, had previously told me of their trips to Queen’s Park to receive unissued and expired plate leftovers in the 1970s. I myself had never been to Queen’s Park, and while there are no longer any plates to be had in that manner, we took the tour of the legislature chamber and portrait gallery. As we passed by the gift shop at the end of the tour, I saw a familiar flash of colour. Yes, they were Ontario plates, but they had been made into maps and birdhouses. That’s as close as I’ll ever come to a Queen’s Park jackpot!
Later in the month, I met up with a few fellow collectors at the new Merrickville car show. Eric Vettoretti brought his Delorean. Here’s a picture of Eric, with Mike and Alannah Franks at the show. Note Eric's "BACK280S" plates.
As we were wandering the field, I saw a replica General Lee with Ontario plates that looked a little “off” from a distance. On closer inspection, they were undated reverse-series plates from the early 1990s that had been repainted to look like 1973 plates, mismatched slogan and all.
On the other hand, here’s a plate and car that are, as the YOM program stipulates, “substantially unmodified.” This is my favourite thing to see in any car show– a time capsule. Here are examples of how it’s done for 1937 and 1941.
I see diplomat plates on a regular basis, given that I live in Ottawa. But they’re usually on late-model vehicles… usually nice sedans or SUVs. But there’s a first for everything… I’d never seen one on a classic car before, until I spotted this Triumph convertible.
Here’s a picture of Dave Grant, Jim Becksted, Mike, Eric, and me standing in front of Mike DeVouge’s VW Thing. Mike was off wandering the field, and we never did spot him, so we figured he’d be well-represented by his Thing if we took a group shot. I’m pretty tall, but not that tall… I’m just closer to the camera.
Merrickville has a few antique vendors. One of them sets up outside when the weather is nice. The plates are badly overpriced, but it makes for a neat picture.
Plate adventures are already continuing… More to come at the end of August!