Talk:Vehicle registration plates of the United States

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[edit] Current numbering formats

I have a favor to ask. Before editing the current numbering format, please check to see whether what you have in mind is actually the current numbering format. Some jurisdictions change their numbering format but continue validating the old license plates; therefore, what you see on the road may or may not be the current issue. A good place to check is here. Thanks. Doctor Whom 16:04, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Most states/provinces have used a variety of numbering formats over the years. I think it's appropriate to remove references to common formats used previously, but not currently, by particular states. If we make references to every format ever used by every state, we'd have a list a mile long. Meanwhile, unique formats previously used by states, such as 1234-ABC in Georgia and New York or AB-123C in New Jersey, probably deserve recognition because they have not been used anywhere else since. Qqqqqq 23:34, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

The current list is becoming confusing due to the continued inclusion of previous or special-issue numbering formats. Barring objections, I'd like to reformat this list, listing common current numbering formats, sorted by jurisdiction rather than by serial format. Thoughts? Qqqqqq 20:43, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The license-plate number of the Beast

The article includes the following:

Thus most numbering sequences do not include lettering such as FUK, DIE, KKK, BTK, LSD, or USA; and numbering usually does not include 911 or 666. Exceptions where some of these combinations are used can be found in several states including California, Arizona, and Nevada.

The inclusion of some of these sequences, particularly 666, strikes me as dubious. No one has cited any official policy of any jurisdiction to skip those sequences, and people have already named several exceptions. Would someone care to provide a citation, so that we can distinguish certain jurisdictions' policy from urban legends? Thanks much. Doctor Whom 16:07, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

I was wondering why USA was considered obscene. When I saw it, my first instinct was vandalism, but I wanted to see what others thought to find out if there was any truth behind it. I'll wait here with you, doc. 208.12.108.88 23:48, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

-- 208.12..., the sequence "USA" is not considered obscene, but it is usually forbidden to avoid the misrepresentation that the vehicles were for official federal government business. Perhaps this should be clarified in the entry. --ThatsNotFunny 22:17, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Earliest specialty license plate

The article includes the following:

Considered the first specialty plate in the United States was a plate issued in 1987 by the state of Florida to commemorate the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster.

Who considers it to be so, and by what criterion? Given the definition of "specialty plate" in the article, I can think of several before 1987, such as the optional Bicentennial plates that many states issued and various plates commemmorating state anniversaries. Doctor Whom 01:37, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Then I'll go ahead and rewrite the passage to take out unverifiable statements. Doctor Whom 17:59, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] creation/manufacture

Shouldn't this article include information on the manufacture and components of a license plate. I know the majority are stamped-metal, although I think its Delaware who has begin doing it in a different fashion that is flat and simply printed on. — THOR =/\= 16:53, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

All the DE plates I've seen are cheap flat things. Also, along the same lines, weren't license plates manufactured in State Prisons? Is that true/false? Etc, etc? 68.39.174.238 05:16, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
The majority are stamped metal, although there is a trend toward flat-printed license plates, either for the general issue (e.g., the District of Columbia) or for vanity tags. Unless someone wants to beat me to it, I'll do a little research and add something, time permitting. Doctor Whom 16:04, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Missouri Plate Numbering Scheme

Doctor Whom, I live in Missouri, have lived here for 20 years, and know for a fact the numbering scheme is 123 ABC. It looks like they may be changing it in a couple years, but as of right now, it's still 123 ABC

It looks from the source that I cited that the numbering scheme already has changed. Doctor Whom 16:20, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

When I was growing up in Missouri they used to issue plates annually. The first letter corresponded to the month of issue until the current series was issued circa 1996. Before the 1980 series all January plates used one letter per month. This was initially continued with the 1980 series but when the format was exhausted a new letter was used. The initial first letters were as follows:
Jan A, Feb B, Mar C, Apr E, May H, Jun J, Jul M, Aug P, Sep S, Oct X, Nov Y, Dec Z.
When all possibilities for each month were exhausted in the 1980 series I believe the newer plates had the following letters:
Jan D, Feb F, Mar V, Apr L, May G, Jun K, Jul N, Aug R, Sep W, Oct T, Nov U, Dec Q.
Wisely with the current series they abandoned this scheme. Skywayman (talk) 14:29, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] County-based numbering

This page contains conflicting information about county-based numbering on license plates. Under Numbering and Lettering, Alabama, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming are listed as having county-based numbering. On the other hand, Appearance lists the states that do this as Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Here is the information on states I found from these two lists:

So, if anyone can verify the status of Nebraskan plates -- as to why some are county-based and some are alphanumberic -- both lists should be harmonized.

--Bennyfactor 02:31, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Re: Nebraska. Three counties — Douglas (previous code was 1), Lancaster (2), and Sarpy (59) — use a format of AAA 000. All other counties continue to use their traditional prefix codes. Qqqqqq 20:31, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] split?

should this article be split into separate articles for US and Canadian plates? This is the only joined country licence plate article in Category:License plates --Astrokey44 01:31, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

How would splitting help the reader? Does the amount of Canada-specific or US-specific information relative to the amount of overlapping information justify such a split? As for the statement that this article "is the ony joined country licence plate article," I don't see that as a persuasive reason for splitting the article, given the similarity between Canadian and US practice. Doctor Whom 16:37, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
well it would allow you to go into more detail for the licence plates of each country --Astrokey44 13:44, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
I would vote that they should not be split; the histories of the license plates of the USA and Canada follow a similar path, such that American license plate collectors often do not even consider Canadian plates to be "foreign." Qqqqqq 23:35, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
I would vote for a split for two reasons. First of all, as a Canadian reader searching for information on Canadian licence plates I have to sift through a lot of information on American plates. Secondly, and this is a superficial but still gets to me, they are called licenCe plates in Canada. I understand that the two countries share a lot, but so do the countries in the EU yet they each have their own page.--Lesouris 16:52, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Propose to split

Similiar reason as Lesouris and Astrokey44. Plus the page is way too long to justify having one article for two countries. OhanaUnitedTalk page 04:42, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] California Plate numbering

I got my california plates in the mail today and it was in the form of 1A23456, I have also seen CA plates in this form. I am not sure if they still use the more common 1ABC234, or if they only use the other. As for now both are on the list with california noted. I'll leave it like that until someone can find some source to deermin the currant usage. Pollox87 06:22, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

It would help if we knew the type of vehicle. According to this, both formats are currently being issued, but for different vehicle classes. Doctor Whom 16:36, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
I am a native Californian. I left there full time in 1991 and have settled in PA. When I left, the 1A12345 scheme referred to trucks. 1ABC123 (or whatever the first digit is up to now) referred to cars. There are various other classes of plates, as well, including the new exempt plates, which simply have 7 numbers. I always wished CA would define its plates in lettering somewhere. There are so many variations. --{{User:Coryma}} 21:15, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Arizona mirror-image front plate?

I live near San Francisco, California. The other day, I saw an SUV on the road with a front plate that appeared to be a current-issue Arizona plate. Since, as far as I was aware, Arizona cars don't normally have front plates, this piqued my curiosity. I then noticed that the letters/numbers on this front plate were backwards (mirror images). Sure enough, when I got in front of this car, the plate appeared normal in my rear-view mirror. I ended up changing lanes, and the SUV passed me, and its rear plate was a regular Arizona plate, and the plate number matched the mirror-image version on the vehicle's front plate. Has anyone else seen this sort of plate? Is any jurisdiction other than Arizona experimenting with this idea? Richwales 22:26, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Do you remember the plate number, by any chance? I.e. was it a vanity or a standard number? Also, what were the colors of the plate? Qqqqqq 02:06, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
It was a vanity plate, using the blue-green desert landscape design with dark lettering (not one of the old red plates with white lettering!). Richwales 02:53, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
I think the front plate was probably a privately-made issue, perhaps even produced by the facility that manufactures standard Arizona plates, which has long been known to make "booster"-type plates as souvenirs, etc. that resemble standard AZ plates but have slightly different features, such as an embossed and painted border and/or characters painted in a color other than the standard bluish green. Qqqqqq 17:35, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
OK. The front plate did, however, appear to me to be exactly like a regular Arizona plate (except that the letters/numbers were mirror images and looked normal in my rear-view mirror). The color scheme looked exactly the same as the current "desert landscape" Arizona plates (which I've seen a lot of, even though I live in California, because U-Haul apparently registers all their rental trucks in Arizona). I couldn't see the border of the front plate because it was obscured by a license plate frame.
I'd actually be surprised if it were legal to make private plates like this that so closely resembled the real thing. In California, I know it's illegal to make or possess a credible facsimile of a California license plate unless the facsimile is significantly larger or smaller than a real plate. I don't know what Arizona law has to say on this subject, though. Richwales 18:14, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
Actually, the Arizona Department of Corrections does manufacture and sell such plates, which to the untrained eye could be mistaken for real AZ plates. Nevada also produces plates as souvenirs that are strikingly similar to real plates, but again slightly different. But Virginia and Idaho take it a step further, producing for anyone living anywhere (for a fee) souvenir plates that look identical to those plates used registration and legal use on a vehicle. The plate collectors' market is overrun with such "fake" plates that are sometimes passed off as real plates. Qqqqqq 23:53, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
Arizona has temporarily discontinued this program as part of the transition to "flat" license plates. Apparently I got some of the last ones made that were still stamped. When a co-worker wanted to purchase some she found the web link under construction [1]. I called the office and was told they anticipated it would be back up in a week or two but they will no longer stamp plates on these orders. It's been about four weeks now and the link is still under construction. Possibly the program has been suspended indefinately. Skywayman (talk) 17:49, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Arizona has now reintroduced the novelty plate program. There are a few bugs they are working out with the online form. For instance an apostrophe was listed as an available option, but they say the font didn't include it. Slashed zero for ham radio callsigns is an available option but not on the form. The new program includes the current desert scene license plate. For legal reasons the letter color is not available in the correct color "Diamondback green", but other colors can be used instead. [2] Skywayman (talk) 07:06, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] British Columbia plates -- number sticker in middle

British Columbia plates always seem to have a number sticker in the middle of the rear plate. What is this? My guess would be that it might be the day of the month when the registration expires, but that's just a guess. Does anyone out there know for sure? Richwales 05:22, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that little sticker signifies the day of expiration. A few other Canadian provinces have a similar system. Qqqqqq 14:10, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Original Research

There's only once instance of an unverified claim (using the {{fact}} template), and that hardly qualifies for an OR template. It doesn't appear that there is any reason for it on this page, either. That said, unless there's a real reason for the template to be there, it should be removed. --MPD01605 (T / C) 02:29, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

On the other hand, perhaps people haven't made more use of the "fact" template precisely because the "OR/unverified claims" template is there, in which case individual "fact" templates might be seen as overkill. This is a long article with minimal citation of sources. It also has a history of edits by people who have insisted that they were right with no supporting evidence or even in the face of counter-evidence. Even now, the article contains questionable statements, statements that cry out for a source, statements that are difficult to reconcile with one another, and statements that border on advocacy. I'm not convinced that all of the problems have been overcome. Therefore, I think that the template should stay unless there's a more appropriate one. Doctor Whom 19:27, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] new merge proposals

The reason I am proposing merging is that as per Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/History of US and Canadian license plates (second nomination) (see also Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/History of US and Canadian license plates) the article is supposed to be merged, and it makes more sense to merge it here.

As for Historical Mississippi license plates, it looks like they're nominating all state histories for deletion, and I don't want to see all that hard work go to waste. Chris 02:13, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Merge History of US and Canadian license plates into U.S. and Canadian license plates tho the AfD should suffice as concenses. However do not merge Historical Mississippi license plates, instead it should be renamed to Mississippi license plates and fall in line with others(Indiana license plates). See Talk:Historical Mississippi license plates.. Joe I 10:56, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:NB87ASS-226.jpg

Image:NB87ASS-226.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 22:18, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] U.S. Diplomatic Plates

I was noticing that there appears to be a new plate and came here for information. Not sure how long the current one has been around and there is no sample image for them here. Not a bit deal, just curious. PerlKnitter (talk) 13:57, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

I uploaded the following pic of the current plate (as of 2007) to the Commons, if anyone is interested. -Loren (talk) 08:30, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
These are the new plates: http://www.state.gov/m/ds/rls/91484.htm

PerlKnitter (talk) 12:47, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] So...where is the Merge proposal?

Okay, I see tags to merge several articles into one, but all I see are two posts pertaining to two former mergers, all months apart. Let's discuss.--293.xx.xxx.xx (talk) 08:19, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

I'll do it this weekend, spliting the article into US and Canada separately. OhanaUnitedTalk page 14:12, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
Fine by me then. Thank You.--293.xx.xxx.xx (talk) 07:22, 19 March 2008 (UTC)
Finished splitting into American and Canadian articles. But I haven't done any other merges. OhanaUnitedTalk page 20:32, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
What was the rationale for this split? Was there a vote somewhere? Qqqqqq (talk) 01:29, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
First, we don't use votes on wikipedia. We use consensus. From what I saw in this talk page, most people are in favour of the split and all of us have a common rationale: because U.S. is not Canada, despite many people's believes. Then I saw the AfD rationale. This article was way better than when it was nominated for deletion 9 months ago, which is why I performed the split. OhanaUnitedTalk page 02:19, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
From what I see, it looks like 3 in favor of splitting and 2 against. Qqqqqq (talk) 15:34, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
Me, Lesouris, Astrokey44, and 293.xx.xxx.xxx agree to split. And numerous editors like Plate King helped with the cleanup (so they imply that they agree) OhanaUnitedTalk page 03:49, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image licensing

It has been pointed out on Commons that nearly all license plates contain designs that are owned by their respective creators (i.e. the individual US states). As a result, the photographs appearing here cannot legitimately be released as PD, GFDL, or other free licenses, and must be used under fair use. Consequently, these license plate images now appearing on Commons will be removed. If you would like to continue using them on Wikipedia, please upload them locally and provide an appropriate fair use rationale. Dragons flight (talk) 02:34, 3 April 2008 (UTC)