What are these brass plates

[Mike Cecil]

I agree with Keith and Ian: poor quality reproductions.

However, the genuine Australian nomenclature plate was retrofitted to many (most?) Australian MVs in service, as well as to newly acquired ones as they were assembled by the contractors. So a genuine or good quaility repro of the plate is a worthy addition to your Australian jeep dashpanel. I have seen them filled out as both a hand stamped, rough as bags job, or as deeply etched, perfect lettering (I have examples of both finishes). Does your jeep dash panel have four small holes that you can't account for, somewhere about the middle? The distances are about 3 inches apart horizontally, and 2 inches vertically (I'm guessing on the measurements until I can find the plates!)

There is also the aspect that a sizeable proportion of the jeeps that arrived in Australia, particularly those in the last 18 months of the war, were US rebuilds, and not new production vehicles. Hence, you may have a 1942 jeep, but that does not indicate necessarily when it arrived in Oz. It may have had a history somewhere else prior to being used to fulfil an Australian supply contract.

Regards

Mike C