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PORCELAIN PLATES:
They began to be issued in 1904, although the first motor vehicles had already been imported years earlier, even before the arrival of the 20th century. In that year, 60 license plates were registered in the City of Buenos Aires, with the number 1 assigned to the first automobile to circulate in our country, imported by the illustrious citizen Dalmiro Varela Castex. These license plates began to be taxed after the founding of the Argentine Automobile Club in 1904, and also by imposition of the Buenos Aires Municipality. Interestingly, Varela Castex kept the number 1 on his vehicles until 1910, always claiming that the  number belonged to him. In that year, Mayor Joaquín Anchorena began a lawsuit with Mr Dalmiro, assigning the "magic number" to the official municipal car, which he drove, by decree.
In 1905, there were 100 private car registrations in the City of Buenos Aires alone. By 1906, the vehicle fleet had expanded, reaching 250 license plates for the "Private" category and 40 for "Rental" vehicles (taxis and remises). In 1907, 423 private cars received their license plates, 109 taxis, and 25 were added to the "Truck" category. Between 1908 and 1909, almost the same number were issued in each category: 1,500 for private cars, 147 for rental   vehicles, and 60 for cargo vehicles. By the end of the first decade, we could say that more than 6,000 motor vehicles were circulating on the streets and avenues of Buenos Aires alone. Add to this the fact that by the end of 1910, 6,834 horse-drawn carriages had been registered, all of which also had their corresponding license plates. It's also clear that the vehicular traffic problem was already significant at that time.
In the municipalities neighboring the great metropolis, vehicle registration was (somewhat biasedly) encouraged in their districts, with a significantly lower license plate issuance cost. Although measures were taken to reduce the large migration of license plates to localities neighboring Buenos Aires,  vehicle owners always claimed that they were in "Transit", for which a special license plate with that category was issued.
 . License plates with the "Omnibus" category only began to be used in 1918, with 6 vehicles registered in the City of Buenos Aires. It is important to highlight the number of motorcycles registered in 1904, which was 141 units.
The oldest automobile license plates I have  in my collection date from around 1909, although they are undated (number 3297 front and rear - different sizes), and are precisely similar to number 1 issued in 1904, which is on display in the Automobile Club Argentino museum. The oldest dated automobile plate I have is from 1914 and is from the Vicente López district, number 20. While its condition is not optimal, the year is intact. I currently  have no reliable information on the first license plates issued outside of Buenos Aires, although the first motor vehicles surely began to be registered starting in 1905. Pieces from this era are very difficult to find. For example, from the city of Santa Rosa, La Pampa province, the oldest dated plate I have is from 1916, number 8. Although I have one with a design very similar to the 1916 one, I estimate it to be older since it is undated.
These plates are mostly curved-shaped, making their design more than interesting. In the United States,  enameled license plates were always completely flat, although the first license plates issued by the different states of that country were made with metal numbers and letters riveted to leather. However, in Argentina, there were some exceptions to the rule,  and flat enameled license plates were manufactured, probably in a small number of districts in the Province of Buenos Aires. According to the few examples I have, they were all issued in 1931 and 1932 and are from the districts of Alberti, Bragado, Carmen de Areco, 9 de Julio and San Pedro. These flat license plates only have the perimeter frame and license plate numbers embossed. A new plate came in recently, 
with no embossed numbers. Curiously, I have one of the plates from Bragado for the original pair issued and a duplicate, which was surely made later when one of the originals was lost; both have the number 381.
The design of the porcelain plates was likely the election of the  manufacturers, who gave each category a different color combination. In Buenos Aires, the most important were the "Taco Company" and the "E. Colmegna Company", which also produced enameled house numbers and street names. In many cases, the first issues of these plates included the municipal or district seal,  such as number 3297 above, from La Plata number 62, and a very beautiful one from the 9 de Julio District in excellent condition, with the number 79. Some color combinations are more than striking and worth seeing; there are even cases of three-color combinations. The information contained on these license plates, in addition to the name of the town or district and the  assigned number, was mostly the year and, to a lesser extent, the category "P" for private cars, "C" for trucks or cargo, and within each of these, subcategories, which in the case of private cars could reach up to 5. For trucks, the category was surely assigned based on the weight of the load they could carry. Doctors could sometimes request a special license  plate. There are also license plates in unusual categories, such as "Chatita" (more common in steel license plates), an example of which is another one from  9 de Julio, Buenos Aires province. There is a license plate from the Mercedes district, Buenos Aires province, that bears the initials O.G., for which I have yet to find a specific meaning. The use of the  plate was good only for the year indicated on the license plate; the plates were surely returned at the beginning of the following year. There is  an interesting variety of license plates without the printed year, especially from the province  of Santa Fe. I have a possible theory: the first issues didn't bear a date in any locality (the 1904 issue from Buenos Aires corroborates this), and the annual license plate fee was paid, using the same plates for several years without replacement. Once the control of annual license plate payments became difficult to implement, license plates began to be issued with the printed year. I have seen a Las Flores car license plate with the year  1913, though I don't know if there were any earlier ones with the date printed on the license plate. Curiously, in the town of Monje, in the province of Santa Fe, enameled license plates were issued without a date; while similar, they were manufactured with a different font.
 The text "Municipality of..." is not commonly seen on enameled plates, although some examples exist, such as the 1925 number 4 for the town of Villa Alba, in the province of La Pampa, whose name was later changed to General San Martín. There are few cases in which the name of the province is introduced on an enameled plate, so it is sometimes impossible to trace the origin of each piece, when there are several places with the same name. (For example, the name Pilar corresponds to a district in the province of Buenos Aires and to two towns in the provinces of Santa Fe and Córdoba.)
 
In certain towns in Santa Fe, there are license plates bearing the initials F.C.C.A., which correspond to FerroCarril Central Argentino (Argentine Central Railway), the line later named General Bartolomé Mitre. There are examples from Pujato and Roldán, cities adjacent to that railway line. Since there are no other towns with the same names within the province, it is difficult to know the purpose of these initials on those porcelain license plates.
 The size of these plates varies greatly, although it could be said that the measurements (expressed in centimeters) were generally fairly standardized. The following list includes: 10 x 15, 10 x 20, 10 x 30, and a few 10 x 35. The next largest scale is: 12 x 25, 12 x 30, and 12 x 35 (there are a few 12 x 32 and 12 x 36). The third list is only 15 x 30 and 15 x 35. In the City of Buenos Aires, there were  very large plates measuring 14 x 40. Among this entire menu of measurements, the most common are 10 x 25, 10 x 30, and 12 x 30. To give a general idea of the proportions of each, there is a selection of the sizes mentioned above, with exceptions, of course. As a curious fact, we can see the front and rear license plates of the same vehicle: 1926 Ramallo number 252 of a car for private use, which have completely different sizes.
 Porcelain plates undoubtedly attract a lot of attention not only because of their age (some pieces were issued 120 years ago) but also because of their physical shape and the materials they were made from. Despite the time have passed, the plates are preserved in good condition and look as if they were recently manufactured and maintain the original luster. I don't know the manufacturing process  of these plates in detail, but I estimate that the enameling was done by hand, probably one by one. There were some cases in which their manufacture lacked the necessary attention. In the case od the plate from General Roca, Río Negro province, which has a "C" where a "G" should be. Another interesting case is that of San Andrés de Giles, whose second "3" of the year was done in a different shade of blue, likely an omission or a later correction.  The 1929 plate for Nueve de Julio even has a significant spelling error: "PasaGeros" should be spelled "PasaJeros". On the other hand, I wonder what a "Passenger Truck" would have been like; would they have carried people in the back?
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Updated May 09 2025
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