New York License Plate Slogan | Excelsior

"Excelsior" is Latin for "ever upward." New York has used it as a state motto since the Revolutionary era, and the modern license plate brings that official motto into the place once held by the Empire State nickname.

The Excelsior plate is a scenic standard design rather than a plain motto plate. New York DMV describes it as featuring landmarks across the state, including Niagara Falls, the Adirondack mountains, the Statue of Liberty, the New York City skyline, and Montauk Point Lighthouse.

The plate was chosen after a 2019 design vote and began regular issue in 2020. Drivers are not required to replace older valid plates just to get Excelsior plates, so Empire State and Empire Gold bases can still appear on the road.

New York first put the Empire State nickname on standard passenger plates in 1951. The exact wording was "THE EMPIRE STATE" from the 1951-52 base through the 1955-56 base.

The slogan changed to the shorter "EMPIRE STATE" in 1957 and stayed in that shortened form through the 1962-63 base. The older file incorrectly treated 1957 as a brief one-year shortening; the historical sequence shows that the shortened wording remained through 1963.

The Empire State slogan returned on the scenic white-and-blue base issued from January 2001 through March 31, 2010. In April 2010, the gold base shortened the wording again to "EMPIRE STATE."

New York plate slogans did not begin with "THE EMPIRE STATE." General-issue plates carried New York World's Fair wording in 1938, 1939, and 1940 for the 1939-40 fair.

A later "WORLD'S FAIR" slogan appeared on the 1964 base for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. That plate was revalidated for 1965, so the no-slogan period starts in 1966, not 1965.

After the 1964-65 World's Fair issue, New York standard passenger plates went without a slogan through the Liberty base and did not bring back a text slogan until the 2001 Empire State design.

New York's plate slogan history is not a straight Empire State-to-Excelsior story. It includes two World's Fair periods, two Empire State wordings, a long no-slogan span, and the current state-motto base.

The slogan gap is often described loosely as starting after the 1964 World's Fair plate, but the 1964 issue was revalidated for 1965. For standard passenger plates, the clean no-slogan range is 1966 through 2000.

This span covers the 1966-72 blue base, the 1973-80 orange base, the 1980-86 seven-character orange continuation, and the 1986-2000 Liberty base. None of those standard passenger bases carried a text slogan.

When the Empire State design arrived in 2001, it was the first standard passenger base with an Empire State slogan since 1963.