1993? That picture must be more recent with the URL sticker.
I notice license plates. It’s a curse. Anyway, here in Illinois, zeros look like letter Os. One exception is amateur radio plates if the license callsign has a zero. I can’t find a photo of an IL example online but it’s explicitly a zero with a slash run through it like shown here:
https://www.quora.com/On-a-license-plate-how-can-you-tell-the-difference-between-O-and-zero
It used to be that the number part of a ham callsign was tied to you geography so, for example Illinois, Indiana & Wisconsin would all have a 9 and you’d need a new call if you moved to a different area. However, that was lifted by the FCC some time ago and you can now apply for a vanity call with any valid combination. I’ve considered applying for a zero call (formerly only for CO, IA, KS, MN, NE, MO, ND & SD), mostly because it looks cool and I qualify for a shorter call from my current 6 characters. But I also wondered if it would get me out of a ticket … not that I get many.
You’re right. My first trip there was 1993 but that photo could have been a few years later.
In Virginia they are different characters but I believe they are treated as the same character for purposes of issuing plates. That is, if you have the vanity plate
ZOOM
nobody can get
Z00M
I have to correct myself here. I paid closer attention while driving home tonight and spotted* a couple plates with Os. It does appear that the letter is a little more squared off than the number. But the slashed zero seems to be just for the ham plates.
*Not easy! It seems the O is only used for vanity plates. Most randomly issued plates here LNNNNNN or LLNNNNNN and I think Os are never used for the prefix letter. Vanity plates aren’t terribly common but I had to drive around the neighborhood a bit to find one with an O and get a good look at it.
It was definitely allowed in the 80s, as my father had an Illinois registered car with a non-vanity license plate number that started with OW. No idea now, though.
I kept my 9 callsign when I moved to MN (0 land) in 1991, I’m not sure if there were vanity callsigns then (maybe for clubs but not individuals).
Brian
While going through some photos, I found one I took last October that I’d forgotten about. It’s an Iowa plate with a Zero and an Oh.
