The U.S. state of California first required its residents to register their motor vehicles in 1905. Registrants had to provide their own license plates for display until 1914, when the state began to supply plates. Plates are currently issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Front and rear plates are required on most types of vehicle in California, including all passenger vehicles. On motorcycles and some other non-passenger types, only rear plates are required. On all vehicle types, registration validation stickers are also required, to be displayed on the rear plate.
Video Vehicle registration plates of California
Passenger baseplates
1913 to 1962
In 1956, the U.S. states and Canadian provinces came to an agreement with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the Automobile Manufacturers Association and the National Safety Council that standardized the size for license plates for vehicles (except those for motorcycles) at 6 inches (15 cm) in height by 12 inches (30 cm) in width, with standardized mounting holes. The 1955 (dated 1956) issue was the first California license plate that complied with these standards.
1963 to present
All plates from 1963 until present are still valid, provided they are displayed on the vehicle to which they were originally issued and the vehicle has been continuously registered.
The current 1ABC123 serial format was introduced in 1980. In this format, the ABC123 portion of the serial progresses from AAA000 to ZZZ999, before the leading digit advances by one and the progression begins again. All letters are used, although I, O and Q are used only as the second letter. Some series have not been issued, while others have been reserved for non-passenger and optional plates, such as 1ZZA through 1ZZZ and 3ZZA through 3ZZZ for Livery plates, and 1UAA through 1VZZ for Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and Coastal Protection ("Whale Tail") plates.
It is expected that when 9ZZZ999 is reached, the next serial format will be 123ABC1, maintaining the DMV's practice since the 1960s of reversing serial formats at exhaustion.
Maps Vehicle registration plates of California
Non-passenger plates
Optional types (specialty plates)
See the Passenger Baseplates section above for the 1982-87 "Golden State" plate, which was briefly issued as the standard passenger base.
Year-of-manufacture plates
The use of year-of-manufacture (YOM) plates is authorized by Section 5004.1 of the California Motor Vehicle Code. It is a law that allows vintage cars to be registered to use vintage license plates. Any officially manufactured California license plates which were produced prior to 1963 and plates on a currently registered vehicle or trailer of a corresponding model year. If used on the original plate, a sticker or metal tab that corresponds to the year of the vehicle is required.
In July 2009, California extended its YOM program to include passenger vehicles from 1963-1969, and commercial vehicles (pick-ups, etc.) through 1972. Any black-and-gold plate from this era may be used on these vehicles, as long as they are "clear" with the DMV (i.e., not used, reported stolen, or any records found, for the last 10 years). A valid sticker must be attached to the plate corresponding to the year of the vehicle that is to be registered.
As of January 2014, in very rare cases, California has extended custom license plates to exceed 7 digits, all the way up to, but not exceeding, 9 characters. However, most plates are limited to 7-and-a-half characters (the half-character is a half-space).
In August 2016, California extended the year-of-manufacture license plate program to include vehicles through the 1980 model year.
California Legacy License Plate program
The California Legacy License Plate program offers vehicle owners the opportunity to purchase replicas of California license plates similar to those issued in the 1960s. California proposed issuing plates similar to those of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The original plan was to restrict the plate colors to what would have been issued to the vehicle when purchased new. After a few months, the program was opened to all model years. Only the 1960s (gold on black) plate reached the required 7,500 minimum orders before January 1, 2015. The 1950s (black on gold) and 1970s (gold on blue) plates did not achieve the required 7,500 minimum orders. The plates were issued from late spring through summer 2015 and are still available for order from the DMV website. Additional time is required for personalized plates.
References
- CA Department of Motor Vehicles License Plate Introduction
- Other types of Specialty Plates
- California License Plate Data (1914-1962)
- Special Recognition Plates
- Legacy Plates
External links
- California license plates 1969-present
- More Photo of California license plates
- Free California License Plate Search
Source of article : Wikipedia
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