Kansas license plate county codes

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Kansas has a system of county codes used for identification of the home county of a state resident or company on license plates and state tax forms. The codes are two letters based on the first letter of and another letter in the name of the county. Sometimes, the letters chosen do not seem logical because they are not always the first two letters. For instance, the county code for Cloud County is not "CL", but "CD". The letters "CL" are actually assinged to Cowley County and "CO", which Cowley County could begin with, is not assigned.

The two-letter code began appearing on Kansas license plates in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Prior to that time, the code was a number based on the order a county ranked in terms of population based on a census taken sometime in the 1920s.

There is also a place on the address form of Kansas tax forms to place the county code.

From the early days of the system until about 1988, the two letters were stamped on the license plate on the far left side, one letter on top of the other. Since then, the letters are on a sticker that goes on the upper-left corner of the plate.

Idaho has a similar system, but uses a number and letter in the code rather than two letters.

The 105 county codes are:

[edit] Trivia

Every letter of the alphabet is used in at least one code except "X" and "Z".
"J" is the only letter used as a first letter which is never used as a second letter in any code.
"Q"'s only use is in Chautauqua County's code. "I" is used only twice (Finney and Miami counties) as is "U" (Butler and Sumner).
No code contains two vowels.
There's no true convention for the selection of the letters. For example, Bourbon County is the only county that begins with "BO," yet the code "BB" was used.
"BB" is also the only code which uses the same letter twice.
In most cases, but not all as cited above, the only county that begins with two particular letters gets those letters. Exceptions are Decatur, Dickinson, Hodgeman, Leavenworth, Logan, McPherson, Norton, Pawnee, and Pottawatomie.
Five codes use consecutive letters of the alphabet (although only once do those letters appear consecutively in the county's name): Cloud, Graham, Marion, Neosho, Russell and Stanton.