Strange license plate

[pderocco]

What could this be about? It looks like a standard series California plate, but the 9 at the beginning is distinctly smaller and has some sort of underline under it. This was the best pic I could manage with my phone at night:

[Ted$8roadFan]

I wonder if it's part of California's preparation for the end of the current NXXXNNN series.

[pderocco]

I wonder if it's part of California's preparation for the end of the current NXXXNNN series.

I've been wondering if they're going to use 0 as the initial digit, to postpone starting a new series.

The only thing I can think of is that the 9 tool or die broke, and all they had available was one intended for motorcycle plates.

[kphoger]

I've been wondering if they're going to use 0 as the initial digit, to postpone starting a new series.

Even though they told reporters in December that they're switching to 123ABC4 once the current series runs out?

[jdbx]

What could this be about? It looks like a standard series California plate, but the 9 at the beginning is distinctly smaller and has some sort of underline under it. This was the best pic I could manage with my phone at night:

That looks like a fluke or error to me.  I see lots and lots of plates in the 9- series, including those much later in the sequence than GFE, and I have yet to see one with that treatment.  I think we are a matter of a few months away from seeing 001AAA1 rolling around California.

[hotdogPi]

Last time I was in California about 8 months ago, it looked like they had already switched over. About 1/3 of plates didn't follow the standard letter and digit format.

[pderocco]

Last time I was in California about 8 months ago, it looked like they had already switched over. About 1/3 of plates didn't follow the standard letter and digit format.

No, they're only part way through 9Txxnnn right now. I actually look at plates a lot, for no good reason. It seems to take maybe 2, 2.5 months to advance the first letter, of which there are 23 possibilities (I, O, and Q only appear in the middle, which is why they always violate that rule on fake plates in car ads), so it takes about 4-5 years to go through an initial digit. Sometime early next year, they'll start with the new series, I think.

They have in the past prematurely jumped to a new initial digit, most notably from 1 to 2 when they switched to a new design that actually won some award. Since then, there have been specialty "retro" plates made available starting with 1U, 1V, and 2Z. So I suppose they could do that again, and then sell 9Z plates twenty years from now.

[jdbx]

Last time I was in California about 8 months ago, it looked like they had already switched over. About 1/3 of plates didn't follow the standard letter and digit format.

Commercial vehicles as defined by the CA DMV, which includes pickup trucks, rolled over back in 2010, which may be a big chunk of what you noticed.  They used to be in the sequence NLNNNNN and then rolled over to NNNNNLN, they are currently in the 4-series (ie 00001F4)

Sequential legacy plates and certain special issues also use a different 6-character sequence.