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I recently bought an original serial tag for a Packard off of eBay, and I'm wondering what year it's from. The #'s are "U28847A". It looks like it was nickel plated, but the plating's mostly rubbed off. Also, I haven't seen another like it. Any ideas?

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Over 50 views and no one has any idea?

I'll take a stab at it, but in order to confirm this, you'd have to track down one of the old packard gurus athttp://www.packardclub.org/

By reviewing the list of models that were produced by Packard over the years in that site's reference section, there are only two model years that show a U or a UA in the model designation:

1907 series 30 (30 hp) Model U
or
1908 series 30 (30 hp) Model UA

I have no clue what the other numbers represent, since they don't seem to correspond with engine series numbers (which I understand used to be used as the vehicle identification number) or the production numbers for either of those two years.

I hope someone can further clarify.

Model UA would seem a good guess. One clue to the vintage of the patent plate, were the photo a bit clearer, would be the number of patents Packard claimed were utilized by them at the time. For example the 1936 plate claimed 1200, the 1934 plate claimed 1100, and the 1927-1930 plate claimed 600. So if this plate were from as early as 1908, it would no doubt be a very small number. I wish I had some patent plates from the early years so this could be a bit more quantitative.

Thanks for the stab guys. Here's exactly what it says:
"The Packard Motor Car Company is the owner of more than Five Hundred U.S. Patents and of more than Two Hundred and Seventy Pending U.S. applications for Patents. It is licensed under more than Three Hundred and Sixty U.S. Patents relating to Motor Vehicles and Aircraft. It's Motors and Vehicles and it's trademarks are also protected in most other countries."

If this is from 1908 or thereabouts, it's a little early for my 1925 project. Sorry about the poor pic, but I am out of batteries for the camera so I used my cellphone.

I can give you all the link from the eBay auction that I won it on:http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290215369916&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=019

Thanks for clarifying the text. It's just a pure guess, but I'd think the patent plate is from the early to mid-1920s, based on the # of patents. I'll be taking a look at the text on a 2-36 in a few days and will advise. But even if this is correct, no explanation for the unusual number.

Thanks Owen! Well, the car it's going on will be unusual enough, so when I seen it on eBay, I thought it was fitting!

Took a look today at the patent plate on a 2nd series Eight (2-36, 1925) and it claims the same 600 U.S. Patents as the 27-30 plate, so yours is obviously older than that.

Well, now that we know it's before '25, I'll really confuse those who "know" at car shows when I'm done with it!!