During World War II, a massive campaign was initiated within the United States to divert iron and steel from civilian use into the manufacture of munitions. In Illinois, one of the first casualties of this process was the use of metal in license plates. From 1942 through 1948, Illinois license plates were literally homegrown, where good and noble Illinois soybeans were used as the base material for their manufacture. These soybean fiber plates, although more susceptible to water damage and mold than their steel predecessors, nonetheless usually survived their one-year deployment until the next set of annual plates was released.
Usually--not always. One major problem a farmer or other handler of livestock often encountered was to return to his vehicle only to find that his animal charges (especially goats) had eaten a license plate.
Georgia and Virginia also experimented with soybean plates during the war, although not as long as Illinois did. Illinois made a few soybean plates for use by Alaska. Montana bought expired Illinois soybean plates, flipped them over, and printed new Montana plates on the other side.
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