Circular highway shield
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A circular highway shield is a route marker consisting of a number superimposed on a circle. It is officially used for state highways in Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, and was formerly used in Oklahoma[1][2][3] and Vermont (though some still exist in the latter in some conditions). It is also officially used in Virginia for state secondary and frontage routes. Many road maps of areas in the United States use a circular highway shield as a generic marker for all state highways, because other designs are difficult to print and read.
Since three-digit route numbers are often too wide to fit in a circle of the same size and shape as a regular shield, some states horizontally elongate the circle. Other states will condense the typeface used, giving the numbers a tall, slender appearance.