License Plate News

[cpzilliacus]

Baltimore Sun: About 5,000 vanity license plates are banned in Maryland. Here's a look at why.

The 20-year-old "Objectionable Plate List," as it's called, is home to the dirtiest combinations of letters and numbers Marylanders could think up for their car bumpers.

MVA officials are allowed by state law to deny vanity tags for several reasons from joining the ranks of more than 75,400 approved vanity plates in the state.

Requests containing curse words, epithets and obscenities are rejected, even when they're disguised by different spellings and substituting of numbers for letters, and vice-versa.

[frankenroad]

I'm waiting for New York's to start saying State of Opportunity

You have a very good point there. I've been wondering if they're going to do anything about standardizing passenger plates to one color scheme. The EXX-NNN plates in this area are peeling apart like crazy and it's just weird having both white/blue and yellow/blue plates as standard issue in the Empire State. I wouldn't be surprised to see State of Opportunity plates.

You think it's wierd having 2 standard plates.   Here in Ohio we have 5 different valid standard designs on the roads.   I really wish they'd get rid of at least the two oldest, because many of them are faded beyond legibility (you're supposed to order new ones when that happens, but no one wants to pay the extra $3, and there seems to be little or any enforcement), and the Bicentennial plates (issued 2001-2004) have all the letters and numbers squished together and they are hard to read.

[PurdueBill]

I'm waiting for New York's to start saying State of Opportunity

You have a very good point there. I've been wondering if they're going to do anything about standardizing passenger plates to one color scheme. The EXX-NNN plates in this area are peeling apart like crazy and it's just weird having both white/blue and yellow/blue plates as standard issue in the Empire State. I wouldn't be surprised to see State of Opportunity plates.

You think it's wierd having 2 standard plates.   Here in Ohio we have 5 different valid standard designs on the roads.   I really wish they'd get rid of at least the two oldest, because many of them are faded beyond legibility (you're supposed to order new ones when that happens, but no one wants to pay the extra $3, and there seems to be little or any enforcement), and the Bicentennial plates (issued 2001-2004) have all the letters and numbers squished together and they are hard to read.

Somewhere once I recall reading that only two designs at a time were allowed to be validated in Ohio, so the last of the plain white plates had to be replaced when the bicentennial design was first issued in 2001 (the gold-to-white fade still being valid).  That must have been changed (if it were ever true in the first place) because indeed we now have the gold-to-white fade, the bicentennial AB12CD format, the red/white/blue bars that followed that without Bicentennial text, the Beautiful Ohio, and the word cloud, all apparently valid to apply stickers to.  Most of the gold-to-white fade and many of the bicentennial plates out there are in bad shape and indeed should be replaced.  Only pulling people over or just refusing to renew plates that old will get them off the road.

Fwiw, there was a period of a couple years when I had a Beautiful Ohio front plate and a red/white/blue non-Bicentennial rear plate (same custom plate number) on my car, just because.  Probably wasn't legal somehow, but the mismatched pair was fun for whatever reason.

[thenetwork]

I'm waiting for New York's to start saying State of Opportunity

You have a very good point there. I've been wondering if they're going to do anything about standardizing passenger plates to one color scheme. The EXX-NNN plates in this area are peeling apart like crazy and it's just weird having both white/blue and yellow/blue plates as standard issue in the Empire State. I wouldn't be surprised to see State of Opportunity plates.

You think it's wierd having 2 standard plates.   Here in Ohio we have 5 different valid standard designs on the roads.   I really wish they'd get rid of at least the two oldest, because many of them are faded beyond legibility (you're supposed to order new ones when that happens, but no one wants to pay the extra $3, and there seems to be little or any enforcement), and the Bicentennial plates (issued 2001-2004) have all the letters and numbers squished together and they are hard to read.

I can see if you live in a state where plates & renewals are based on the value of the car, and cost you well over $100+ per year that multiple standard plates are allowed, but in Ohio, where most standard plates & renewals are well under $75 a year, people are complaining about having to pay 3 bucks more to replace a "retired" plate?  Sheesh!

[OCGuy81]

Does anyone know what format Wisconsin is planning to go to?  I see on licenseplates.cc that they're at ZTC for a high. Curious what type of format they'll be going to.

[Big John]

^^ It was previously posted that they will go to AAA1001 or AAA-1001 format.

[mgk920]

Agreed, WisDOT announced a couple of months ago that they'll be going to LLL-NNNN.  I'm on a constant casual sort of lookout for new plates in that format.

From that site I also see that Illinois is issuing their new design plates (IMHO, they far better than the old ones with the difficult to read fancy script state name) in the LL NNNNN format.  I am assuming that they have exhausted the NNN NNNN and LNN NNNN number format combinations.

Mike

[OCGuy81]

Thanks Big John and mgk920 for that info.

Will WI roll out 7 digits with a new base?? Ha ha ha....unlikely I think

[kphoger]

https://twitter.com/GovMaryFallin/status/767785965259595776

I just saw one of these for the first time yesterday.  They look cheap.  They might have looked better without being stupid 3M flat plates.

[adt1982]

Agreed, WisDOT announced a couple of months ago that they'll be going to LLL-NNNN.  I'm on a constant casual sort of lookout for new plates in that format.

From that site I also see that Illinois is issuing their new design plates (IMHO, they far better than the old ones with the difficult to read fancy script state name) in the LL NNNNN format.  I am assuming that they have exhausted the NNN NNNN and LNN NNNN number format combinations.

Mike

The only letters they did not use in the LNN NNNN were I, M, O, U, and W.  It will be interesting to see if they keep the letters in alphabetical order this time instead of skipping all over.  Also, they ZZN NNNN through somewhere in ZVN NNNN on the old style plates.

[The High Plains Traveler]

Colorado is using an unusual production sequence for its plates. When the 2000 series nnn-LLL was issued, it went all the way through in alphabetical sequence (001-AAA to 999-ZZZ). In that sequence, though, the letter Q was never used, so they went back and issued all combinations with one or more Q, again in alphabetical sequence (001-AAQ to 999-ZZQ). Then, the plan was to use LLL-nnn sequences, so the next plate issued should have been AAA-001. However, they instead began issuing plates beginning with QAA-001 through QZZ-999, then jumped to plates with Q in the second position (AQA-001 to ZQZ-999), and finally Q in the third position (AAQ-001 to ZZQ-999).

There was a glitch in sequencing there, because after the Q-first plates were completed, a few plates beginning with RAA-001 through somewhere in the RDx-nnn sequence were issued. Then they went back to filling in the Qs.

So, what would follow the plates with Q? I've now been seeing plates beginning with the letter "O". In my area, I've seen OAX-nnn through OBA-nnn so far. My theory is that they're issuing plates with Q, O and possibly following with I because those letters were never used during the previous issuance of LLL-nnn plates in the 1980s. There are still a few of those on the road today, and maybe they're issuing the plates that can't be duplicates of existing plates to give time to withdraw those old ones from circulation as they're renewed. Odd, since it's taken a couple of years to get through the initial set with Q somewhere in the leading letters, which should have already provided time to call the old plates in.

[Pink Jazz]

Looks like Arizona is now on the Cxxyyyy series plates as of March 19.

[mgk920]

The new number format Wisconsin standard issue automobile plates start hitting the road in the next week or so.  They will remain in the current design.

http://www.wbay.com/content/news/Wisconsin-to-start-issuing-seven-character-license-plates-419381884.html
(note, there is an auto-play window in this link)

Mike

[paulthemapguy]

From what I can tell, it looks like Illinois planned to implement the new LL-NNNNN configuration on Jan 1 of this year...but they ran out of L-NNNNNN combinations before the switch was planned.     So, at the tail end of 2016 they issued a bunch of LL-NNNNN combinations at the end of the alphabet.  So now there's a bunch of LL-NNNNN plates starting with ZU, ZV, ZX, and ZY on the old plate design, in addition to the AB, AC, AD etc. appearing on the new plate design.

[kphoger]

Approximately 20 years after Mexican states began venturing into graphic license plates, the SCT has issued a mandate that there be no graphics at all in the center of the plate, so that the serial number be clearly legible.  Any license plate collectors who include Mexican plates in their collection are going to have quite a busy time over the next couple of years.

Some states have gone quite stark in their adherence to the mandate.  Take Chihuahua for example, which had just issued a new graphic plate last year:

2016 issue


2017 issue

[SP Cook]

How do Mexican plates work exactly?  From the few times I have been down there it seems that plates are not often, if ever, replaced.  The renewal seems to be a sticker, a little smaller than a motorcycle plate, which is a repleca of the plate including the number and a year,  stuck in the back window.  Most people do not seem to want to bother to scrape the old ones off and you see old cars with the whole window covered with expired stickers. 

[kphoger]

It's a state-by-state thing, as it is here.  But they do get replaced every so often, as they do here.  The sticker goes along with the two plates.  If you switch plates, you get a new sticker to go along with them.  I was going to post a photo of the back window of an old pickup, showing multiple stickers of various license plate issues within the state of Coahuila, but it's apparently on an old phone of mine and not online.

[kphoger]

I was going to post a photo of the back window of an old pickup, showing multiple stickers of various license plate issues within the state of Coahuila, but it's apparently on an old phone of mine and not online.

Nope, I found it!  It was online after all.  Here's a picture of my two older sons playing in the back of a 1969 Ford pickup in Coahuila back in 2012.  You can see all the stickers in the rear window.  The bottom-right one matches the 2010-2012 issue; the top-left one matches the 2007-2009 issue; the middle-left one matches the 2004-2006 issue; the bottom-left one matches the 2001-2003 issue, although the plates themselves had a maroon bottom band rather than a green one.  When I was there this past summer, the pickup was plated with the 2013-2015 issue and had a window sticker to match.  Presumably, it now has the 2016 or 2017 issue and a sticker to match that.

I believe the stickers lining the right half of the window must be the old style.  State-specific graphic plates didn't start being issued till the late 90s, and full-blown graphics didn't take off till after 2000.  Before that point, all states used the same base, differing only in serial block allocation and state abbreviation.

At least some states, I know, are not requiring owners to re-plate their vehicles with plates meeting the new standards until such point as they would be getting new ones anyway.  I don't know if that's how all states are doing it or not, but I would assume the majority are.

[SP Cook]

I was recently in Nicaragua and they seem to have the same system of a plate with a replica sticker on the window for renewal, but I never saw an expired sticker and never saw a plate that was not in pristine shape.  No matter how worn out the vehicle was, the plates all looked like they were made yesterday.

One weird thing, all Nicaragua plates have "CentroAmerica" (Central America) where a slogan might be.  In fact all Central American countries do that, either the same way or after the name of the country as "Honduras C.A.", even English speaking Belize has "CA".    To what end?  To distinguish it from the other Nicaragua in Africa?  I mean, wouldn't you know what sub-continent you live on?    Same thing with the road signs.  They use an enlarged version of the US Route shield but the roads are numbered as "NIC-1" "NIC-70" and so on.  As there is only the one class of numbered road, wouldn't you know what country you were in already?

[kphoger]

even English speaking Belize has "CA".

I've read that this can cause border agents some confusion when expats drive into the USA with a Belize-plated car.  Apparently they sometimes try and figure out what kind of weird California tag the "Belize CA" license plate is.

[kphoger]

To what end?  To distinguish it from the other Nicaragua in Africa?  I mean, wouldn't you know what sub-continent you live on?

Kind of like this one?

[signalman]

Kind of like this one?

The image is not showing for me.

[Big John]

Kind of like this one?

The image is not showing for me.

It shows a license plate. On the bottom it says "New Mexico USA"

[SP Cook]

Kind of like this one?

There are lots of people who don't get that New Mexico is a US State and not a part of Mexico.  If you remember the Atlanta Olympics the phone operators taking ticket orders were telling New Mexicans they had to call Mexico City because they only sold to the USA and Canada adresses.  So I can see avoiding police entanglements by using USA on the plates and DL. 

Same principle drives the joke around here where when you tell people you are from West Virginia, they tell you they "have a cousin in Richmond".   The degree of geographic illiteracy among non road geeks is vast.

But there is no other Nicaraugua.  It is Central America. 

[signalman]

The image is not showing for me.

It shows a license plate. On the bottom it says "New Mexico USA"

Thanks for the explanation John.  Now that I see it, I know the plate well and have an example in my collection.  Bizarre, when I quoted kp's post, the image appeared for me.  However, the image doesn't appear in his post.  I did not check my post, so I didn't see the image in my nor your post until I checked to see your response.