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The state has halted production of its 2017 license plates -- the ones with an image of another state's sower, officials said Friday.

"We're working with the office of the Capitol Commission to come up with an image that is more accurate," said Rhonda Lahm, director of the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Criticism of the sower's depiction on the plates has grown steadily since Gov. Pete Ricketts revealed the design on March 22.

Officials said the identity of the artist who drew it -- Jeff Heldt of Omaha -- wasn't known until Friday, when Heldt came forward and said he used elements from a different sower -- one featured on the bell tower at Michigan State University -- than the one atop Nebraska's Capitol.

Heldt said he saw an Omaha World-Herald story about the controversy surrounding the plate, prompting him to go back to look at his decade-old files.

“I mistakenly grabbed the (picture of the sower) from Michigan, not knowing it was the one from Michigan, and that’s what I used as the foundation for my design,” Heldt said in a telephone interview Friday evening.

Lahm said the first part of production, in which the colors for the plate were set, has been completed.