David Steckley has collected greater than 5,500 plates from throughout Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Australia
A six-year-old David Steckley was supervising as his dad modified the licence plate on the household automotive.
After eradicating the 1958 plate to interchange it with the 1959 plate – sure, the province used to situation new plates yearly – an uncle mentioned to him, ‘You need to save those plates.’
“I thought it was the silliest thing I ever heard,” Steckley mentioned.
However he listened to his uncle, and he saved it. It might be the primary of the greater than 5,500 plates he has collected over time, one of many largest collections in Canada.
Steckley has an Ontario plate issued from yearly from 1911 to the current day. He has plates manufactured from leather-based, porcelain, tin and aluminum. A stroll by way of the Acton man’s plate assortment is sort of a distinctive stroll by way of historical past. He has a brief paper licence from 1916, as a result of tin was wanted for the conflict. There’s the 1937 plate, the primary stamped with a crown to mark the coronation of King George VI.
There’s the 1943 plate the place you’ll be able to see the stamp of one other plate that’s been painted over, as a result of once more tin was wanted for the conflict, which led to the reusing of outdated plates.
There are plates from motorcade autos from visits to Ontario by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mom and Pope John Paul II.
He has the 1971 licence plate of former Ontario premier John Robarts – he needed it extra for the truth that its quantity, 1000, indicated it was the primary plate issued that 12 months fairly than whom it belonged to.
However Steckley’s favorite plate was discovered early in his gathering days, whereas nonetheless a teen. He was rummaging by way of an outdated barn and located a field of automotive lights. On the backside of the field was a small slab of rubber with the quantity 116 on it.
“I knew I had hit the jackpot,” he mentioned.
It was one of many oldest identified licence plates from 1905. And as unbelievable of a discover because it was, it might get higher. Steckley would later search for the plate within the motorcar registry and discover out that it was registered to Benton Neff, inventor of the Neff Steam Buggy, the second automotive to ever be manufactured in Ontario.
Acton’s David Steckley seems at a pre-1910 Ontario licence plate, one of many many uncommon plates he has in his intensive assortment. Herb Garbutt/HaltonHillsToday
Whereas the uncommon discover actually kick-started the gathering bug, he mentioned it was becoming a member of the Car Licence Plate Collectors Affiliation that actually took issues to a wholly new degree.
“All of a sudden you have a network of collectors,” he mentioned. “You have guys reaching out who want to trade.”
His assortment is meticulously organized with the Ontario plates displayed on the wall round his basement, ordered by 12 months. There’s a part for pattern plates, for personalised plates, for specialty graphic plates. Leaning in opposition to the wall are boards organized by province or state. Although he has just a few European plates, Steckley focuses primarily on passenger autos from Canada, the US, Mexico and Australia.
“Whatever you’re collecting – coins, stamps – you have to focus on what you’re going to collect,” he mentioned. “There’s just too much out there to think you’re going to get it all. And you have to be knowledgeable about what you’re collecting.”
Steckley mentioned over time, the passion has change into simply as a lot concerning the folks he has met and the buddies he’s made than it’s concerning the plates. And having associates within the passion pays off.
When Ontario began issuing plates starting with the letter D, Steckley put his collector associates on discover. In the event that they noticed a Service Ontario location issuing plates beginning with DAVE, he needed one. Positive sufficient, he received phrase of DAVE plates being issued in Whitby and instantly drove there to get DAVE 111.
However regardless of how a lot his assortment grows, there are at all times plates on his want record, which presently features a 1915 short-term plate, a 1962 plate from the Royal tour and a prototype of the Ontario plates that got to media members on the launch of Ontario’s new, and short-lived, blue plates in 2020.
“It’s something you can immerse yourself in and enjoy on your own, but you can also engage with other collectors,” he mentioned.
For the previous 20 years, he’s organized and held a licence plate collector’s present on the Acton Area each April. It brings collectively about 100 collectors from throughout Canada and the US to swap plates and tales.
His dedication to the passion earned him entry into the Car Licence Plate Collectors Affiliation’s Corridor of Fame final 12 months, simply the second Canadian to be honoured.
As for the plates that began all of it, Steckley mentioned he ultimately changed them with 1958 plates in higher situation. He suspects he traded the plates with one other collector someplace alongside the way in which.
“They didn’t have the sentimental value that they do today,” he mentioned.
