License Plate News

[7/8]

The plate on the left was one the worst license plates I have ever seen. Rare L for Colorado, who has one of the best standard plate designs in the country.

As a piece of art, I love it. I want it as a wallpaper on my computer. But license plates should not be art-first, readability-second. The fact that it took all the way to final production to finally switch to white numbers tells me that no one actually considered the readability of the plate during the concept and selection phase. Or they did, but didn't have the gut to tell the under-13-year-old that her plate has awful contrast.

This photo of an early production of the plate clearly demonstrates how awful the contrast was with black lettering. White lettering should work fine...still don't get the fascination with art for license plates.

Well said, there should be regulations on legibility. Is there a confirmation that the plate will have white lettering? All the images I can find show it with black.

The plate on the left was one the worst license plates I have ever seen.

The smiling sun is silly, but the plate is not that bad. Or it's bad in a different way. It is still leaps and bounds ahead of the CO plate, because it was at least designed as a plate first; notice the open background where the numerals go, with the numerals also contrasting well with the background. The CO plate above is literally just art with undersized numbers tacked on.

The 1995-1999 South Dakota plates are much worse IMO, the green numerals over the complex beige and white background is headache enducing.

[MikeTheActuary]

Regarding the new Pikes Peak plate for Colorado, the state DMV website shows it with white text.

https://dmv.colorado.gov/regular-license-plates -- it's under the 150th anniversary U13 section

[jakeroot]

The plate on the left was one the worst license plates I have ever seen.

The smiling sun is silly, but the plate is not that bad. Or it's bad in a different way. It is still leaps and bounds ahead of the CO plate, because it was at least designed as a plate first; notice the open background where the numerals go, with the numerals also contrasting well with the background. The CO plate above is literally just art with undersized numbers tacked on.

Actually, I have to agree with you here; the above KY plate was nice aside from that inane smiling sun (I wonder who the idiot was who thought of that). Otherwise, this plate is 100 times better looking than the flat, off-center, cheap piece of Dollar General crap which passes for a KY plate now.

I was so bored I recreated the plate. I think the sun is actually a nice element, it just needs some cleaning up...


Kentucky Plate Redesign v1 by Jacob Root, on Flickr

[Rothman]

Not sure what the Sun has to do with Kentucky.  The plate just looks like a generic, kids' book landscape.

[Ted$8roadFan]

IIRC, the smiling sun plate was so unpopular that the Commonwealth replaced it with the unbridle spirit plate within just a couple of years. 

[jakeroot]

Not sure what the Sun has to do with Kentucky.  The plate just looks like a generic, kids' book landscape.

That is a perfect summary of the plate, yes. Generic, landscape...kind of kids' book. Both mine and the original.

FWIW, my design was meant to make it less weird with the smiling sun, and that was about it 

IIRC, the smiling sun plate was so unpopular that the Commonwealth replaced it with the unbridle spirit plate within just a couple of years. 

Correct; Jan 2003 to July 2005.

Funny enough, the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association awarded it plate of the year for 2003.

The smiling sun plate was preceded for five years by this plate:

[OCGuy81]

Not sure what the Sun has to do with Kentucky.  The plate just looks like a generic, kids' book landscape.

That is a perfect summary of the plate, yes. Generic, landscape...kind of kids' book. Both mine and the original.

FWIW, my design was meant to make it less weird with the smiling sun, and that was about it 

IIRC, the smiling sun plate was so unpopular that the Commonwealth replaced it with the unbridle spirit plate within just a couple of years. 

Correct; Jan 2003 to July 2005.

Funny enough, the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association awarded it plate of the year for 2003.

The smiling sun plate was preceded for five years by this plate:

The one you posted was a great plate.  Simple, legible, and the cloud forming the shape of the state was a really nice touch.

[SP Cook]

West Virginia has again exhausted our inefficient and unwieldy numbering system. 

First series was *L NNNN, was exhausted in 1982, followed by *LL NNN, which exhausted in 2006, followed by *NL NNN which just exhausted.  In all cases * is the month of expiration 1-9 O N or D.  New series in *NN - NNNL.  The numbers will advance, thus the end letter will be A for several years to come.  The dash is a state map, previous series had no dash.  The base plate remains the same.

The sheer idiocy of a state with 1.7 million people having 7 character plates because of a refusal to abandon the inefficient system is just sad.  NNN LLL, with the month of expiration on a sticker, would never exhaust in this state.

The state also abandoned its practice of mailing motorists their renewal card, a bill, and a pre-addressed envelope, which they had to send back.  With more customers going into the offices or using the kiosks found in many stores, the state realized it was wasting a lot of envelopes.  Motorists will now get a post card reminder, with the cashier or the kiosk printing the renewal card when paid.

[kalvado]

West Virginia has again exhausted our inefficient and unwieldy numbering system. 

First series was *L NNNN, was exhausted in 1982, followed by *LL NNN, which exhausted in 2006, followed by *NL NNN which just exhausted.  In all cases * is the month of expiration 1-9 O N or D.  New series in *NN - NNNL.  The numbers will advance, thus the end letter will be A for several years to come.  The dash is a state map, previous series had no dash.  The base plate remains the same.

The sheer idiocy of a state with 1.7 million people having 7 character plates because of a refusal to abandon the inefficient system is just sad.  NNN LLL, with the month of expiration on a sticker, would never exhaust in this state.

The state also abandoned its practice of mailing motorists their renewal card, a bill, and a pre-addressed envelope, which they had to send back.  With more customers going into the offices or using the kiosks found in many stores, the state realized it was wasting a lot of envelopes.  Motorists will now get a post card reminder, with the cashier or the kiosk printing the renewal card when paid.

simple NNN LLL is about 8 million combinations after bad letter combos are taken into account and whatever other rules may be in place.
As a guess, 25-30 years worth of plates. Prrobably older ones would need to be replaced halfway through that time anyway

[route56]

Kansas has started issuing plates with seven characters of the format NNNNLLL.

The plate design has not changed

[kphoger]

Kansas has started issuing plates with seven characters of the format NNNNLLL.

The plate design has not changed

I can't find anything online about this.  Do you have a link?

[kalvado]

Kansas has started issuing plates with seven characters of the format NNNNLLL.

The plate design has not changed

I can't find anything online about this.  Do you have a link?

ANother random source:
https://licenseplates.cc/KS

Series format changed to 0000ABB on Sept. 8, 2023.

[Poiponen13]

Kansas has started issuing plates with seven characters of the format NNNNLLL.

The plate design has not changed

Why did they stop the good 123 ABC series which had already issued more than half of its combinations?

[kphoger]

Why did they stop the good 123 ABC series

which had already issued more than half of its combinations?

You just answered your own question.  The series would have run out in about three or four years anyway.

[hotdogPi]

Why did they stop the good 123 ABC series

which had already issued more than half of its combinations?

You just answered your own question.  The series would have run out in about three or four years anyway.

Don't series normally run to completion?

[kphoger]

Why did they stop the good 123 ABC series

which had already issued more than half of its combinations?

You just answered your own question.  The series would have run out in about three or four years anyway.

Don't series normally run to completion?

They usually do, yes.  But exceptions exist.  For example...

The previous Kansas series (ABC 123) was ditched partway through Xxx.

South Carolina switched from 123 ABC to ABC 123 partway through Xxx.

Ohio switched from ABC 123 to ABC 1234 without having used Zxx.

[Poiponen13]

Why did they stop the good 123 ABC series

which had already issued more than half of its combinations?

You just answered your own question.  The series would have run out in about three or four years anyway.

Don't series normally run to completion?

They usually do, yes.  But exceptions exist.  For example...

The previous Kansas series (ABC 123) was ditched partway through Xxx.

South Carolina switched from 123 ABC to ABC 123 partway through Xxx.

Ohio switched from ABC 123 to ABC 1234 without having used Zxx.

But S is a lot earlier than X or Z, that's T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z still to be issued. I very strongly wonder why they ditched this good series so early.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Kansas isn't as bad as Arizona's 2020 alphabet soup monstrosity. But unlike Arizona and South Carolina, Kansas isn't growing as much, hence the need for fewer new license plates. So why would it change now?

[kphoger]

I very strongly wonder why they ditched this good series so early.

So why would it change now?

I still haven't seen anything official from the state.  No news articles either.  Just the licenseplates.cc page linked to by |kalvado|, and the Wikipedia page was edited by |Stowellg| without adding any corroborating reference.

[Big John]

Why did they stop the good 123 ABC series

which had already issued more than half of its combinations?

You just answered your own question.  The series would have run out in about three or four years anyway.

Don't series normally run to completion?

They usually do, yes.  But exceptions exist.  For example...

The previous Kansas series (ABC 123) was ditched partway through Xxx.

South Carolina switched from 123 ABC to ABC 123 partway through Xxx.

Ohio switched from ABC 123 to ABC 1234 without having used Zxx.

Wisconsin switched from ABC-123 to 123-ABC partway through Wxx-123, though went full way on 123-ABC before switching to ABC-1234.

[tmoore952]

Various thoughts/observations. First post in this thread. I have only read page 90. I probably will repeat something said over the previous 2225 posts, but bear with me.

I remember in the '90s there used to be a Pennsylvania plate (related to Erie - maybe Presque Isle?) that was very hard to read. Brownish background with the characters (letters/numbers) not much different. I lived there in Pennsylvania at the time (near Philadelphia, so a long way from Erie), and thought -- if I was so inclined -- that it would be a good plate to have if you wanted to be able to do things and not get your plate noticed. Driving directly behind people with this plate, I was not able to read the characters much (if at all) and also wouldn't have been able to tell that it was Pennsylvania if I didn't already know.

I have also noticed recently (in the last year) a gold on blue Michigan plate that says "Water and Winter Wonderland" or something similar. Being a Delaware native, I often mistake this for Delaware if I see this from far away. Pennsylvania used to have a gold on blue plate but that went away a while back.

I remember when my family was driving out from Delaware to my sister's wedding in Illinois in 1986, we were driving a Chevorlet Cimarron with Delaware plates. On I-74 somewhere west of Indianapolis (guessing around Crawfordsville), I remember a family looking at us as they passed us by in their car. We figured they had never seen a Delaware license plate before.

[Poiponen13]

Has any state ever issued a combination USA or US? Or a state abbreviation?

[GaryV]

I have also noticed recently (in the last year) a gold on blue Michigan plate that says "Water and Winter Wonderland"

It's WATER-WINTER WONDERLAND. A retro plate from 1965. Very popular, probably not in the least because it's the colors of a certain University. I always smirk when I see one with a vanity number - you couldn't get vanity plates back in 1965, so it's truly not vintage!

When Michigan switched to blue on white, there were similar colors in nearby areas - Ontario, Iowa and CT, maybe others. It took a little getting used to the differences, but it didn't take long.

As far as not running out the sequence to the end, I seem to remember that MI switched to a new series when a new plate design came out. Certainly it did for the 2 versions of the plates with the Mackinac Bridge on them.

[US20IL64]

Has any state ever issued a combination USA or US? Or a state abbreviation?

Illinois has issued plates, since they started LL NNNNN series, with first two letters matching an official state abbreviation. Now we are in the E's.

Seen AR, AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, and DE with numbers after.

[route56]

I can't find anything online about this.  Do you have a link?

Nothing online about the change, just direct observation which I have posted on social media.