Talk:U.S. and Canadian license plates

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Contents 1 Current numbering formats 2 The license-plate number of the Beast 3 Earliest specialty license plate 4 creation/manufacture 5 Missouri Plate Numbering Scheme 6 County-based numbering 7 split? 8 California Plate numbering 9 Arizona mirror-image front plate? 10 British Columbia plates -- number sticker in middle 11 Original Research

[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)

[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)

[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)

[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:

• Alabama: Yes, http://www.plateshack.com/alabama/alabama.html
• Indiana: Yes, http://www.in.gov/bmv/platesandtitles/coprefix.html
• Montana: Yes, c.f. MCA1995 61-3-332 (9) http://data.opi.state.mt.us/bills/1995/mca/61/3/61-3-332.htm
• Nebraska: Maybe. Plateshack shows both alphanumeric and county-based plates since '03 http://www.plateshack.com/nebraska/nebraska.html
• South Dakota: Yes. http://www.plateshack.com/southdakota/southdakota.html
• Wyoming: Yes. (This page describes Wyoming's system)

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)

[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)

[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)

[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)

[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)