The new Nebraska license plate was unveiled at a news conference Tuesday, March 22 with the Nebraska sower front and center. Upon the unveiling the design received ridicule from the Nebraskan citizens. According to 10/11 news, the sower on the new license plate portrays the “Michigan Sower” that can be seen on campus of Michigan State University. You can see the resemblance and the colors on the plates; blue and yellow also tie to the Michigan Wolverines.

There was much discussion on the similarity between the licence plate and the Michigan’s sower. Recently it was discovered that they have stopped production of the licence plates. It turns out, it actually was the Michigan sower. They chose this design from a contest in 2002. When the artist designed the plate, the picture he used was the Michigan Sower not realizing it wasn’t the Nebraska Sower. According to Grant Schulte a writer for Yahoo news, the artist Jeff Heldt said in an interview “it was a mistake on my part. There is no conspiracy around it. In 2002 there weren’t a lot of great pictures of the sower online. That was one of the more detailed ones.”

According to Andrew Ozaki a writer for KETV, The governor’s office said a new design will be selected soon, and that there will be no delay in issuing the new plates beginning January 1 2017. According to Claudia Amezcua, a writer for NTV, the DMV will partner with the Office of the Capital Commision to ensure the design depicts the correct image of The Nebraska Sower. Public relations director Taylor Gage said “it is important that The Sower on the plate accurately represents the sculpture sitting on top of the State Capitol.”

Hopefully they stay true to their word and the new licence plates look like our sower. So next time the sower is front and center, it will be the correct sower.