The U.S. state of New York was the first to require its residents to register their motor vehicles, in 1901. Registrants had to provide their own license plates for display, featuring their initials until 1903 and numbers thereafter, until the state began to supply plates in 1910.
Plates are currently issued by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.
Passenger baseplates
1910 to 1965
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 (15Â cm) in height by 12 inches (30Â cm) in width, with standardized mounting holes. The 1956 (dated 1957) issue was the first New York license plate that complied with these standards.
1966 to present
Notes on serials
1. Plus remakes of 1966â€"72 serials, issued upon request.
2. Plus remakes of 1966â€"72 and 1973â€"86 serials, issued upon request.
3. Plus remakes of Liberty serials, issued upon request.
4. Plus remakes of Liberty and Empire State serials, issued upon request.
5. This is the highest serial reserved by the NYSDMV.
Passenger baseplate variations
1973â€"1986: blue on orange
Letter series on the original run of 1973 orange plates were allocated by county and were determined by a number of factors such as geographical names or features found in any said county. The entire 1973â€"74 allocation list is displayed below.
By 1975, the DMV began to issue letter series that were not part of the original allocation. These were issued alphabetically, beginning with the 'A' series and running until the final 'V' and 'W' plates were issued in 1979â€"80. This was done on a rotating basis in the alphabetical order of the county name. At times, issuing offices or counties ran short of plates and plates would be diverted to where they were needed, sometimes breaking the intended issuing order.
In late 1979, the state introduced new narrower dies that were to be used on the upcoming seven-character passenger plates. Most of the 'V' series of six-character plates used these dies (except for VS, VV, and the series issued in the original allocation), as well as series UYA through UYH, WXC through WXZ, WYX through WYZ, and WZA through WZZ.
The new seven-character passenger plates started to be issued in late 1980. These plates were issued sequentially, starting at 1000-AAA, with the letters I, O, and Q not used and 0 not used as the first digit. The 'A' series ran until around the end of 1983 and the 'B' series from around the beginning of 1984 until June 1986; there were also a few mis-stamped plates with the GAM suffix in Nassau County. The final known issue was in the BUR series.
The seven-character passenger plates were issued without regard of the meaning of any specific three-letter combination except one: 1000-AUB through 4999-AUB were assigned to Cayuga County for its county seat at Auburn, where the Corcraft plate facility is located.
In 1984 the DMV began to issue plates directly through dealers, using the 'T' series. The plates were issued in the same manner as described above, and can be dated in this manner: TAA-TAZ in 1984, TBA-TBZ in 1985, and TCA-TCS in 1986. The final known issue was in the TCS series.
In July 1986 the DMV began to issue the Liberty series to replace this issue, and it took two years for the old blue-on-orange issue to be fully off the road.
1986â€"2001: Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty plates used the word "Liberty" in the 3M security mark in the ABC 123 serial format and in the early 1AB 234 format. During 1990 the security mark changed from "Liberty" to a year designation. 1990, 1991, and 1992 were used. By 1993, 3M lot numbers were used until the end of the Liberty issue in 2000. The year security marks only denote the year the sheeting was manufactured; the plates may actually date somewhat later. Neither the ABC 123 nor the 1AB 234 formats were issued consecutively; e.g. plates ABD 768 and UVK 767 could have been issued the same day in 1986. Type One Liberty passenger plate issues were largely county-coded and were issued two ways: "over-the-counter" from a DMV or County office or "mail-out" in which registrants received new plates directly by mail.
When the 1AB 234 format made its first appearance in September 1988, the first serial numbers observed began with 6VB; this was because most plates with serial numbers from 2VA 100 through 9VZ 999 and 2XA 100 through 9XZ 999 were issued from new car dealers, which had exhausted their allocations in the ABC 123 format (roughly VAA 100 through VZZ 999 and XGA 100 through XZZ 999; XAA 100 through XFZ 999 were issued in Suffolk County as mail-out replacement passenger plates). By December 1988 other prefixes began to appear, again not in consecutive order, e.g. 4AB 234 and 7TC 766 both could have been issued on the same day in 1989.
This passenger format had left-side numbers from 2 through 9, with the number 1 not used to avoid confusion with the letter I. This serial format was the last in which the serial numbers were county-coded. During this issue, this system was finally abandoned, and all subsequent passenger plate issues beginning with the following Type Three A1B 234 type have been strictly alphabetical. Most plates, including specialty, vanity, and non-passenger plates, contained embossed characters, except a few in the A12 3BC format, which had screened characters.
To date, these earlier Liberty plates are:
- Type One
- ABC 123 format, issued from July 1, 1986 through at least July 1989. These were issued primarily on a county-code basis. The letters I, O, and Q were not used as the second or third letter, in the second and third serial positions on the plate respectively, on Type One passenger plates.
- Type Two
- 1AB 234 format, issued from around September 1988 through at least October 1991. Those stamped out during 1990 start using the 90 security mark. Type Two plates were at least partially issued on a county-code basis and became the last regular series passenger plates issued in this manner. The letters I, O, and Q were not used as they could be confused with numbers. The numbers 0 and 1 did not appear as the first digit, in the first position, to avoid confusion with the letters O and I, respectively. The number 0 also did not appear as the second digit, in the fourth position.
- Type Three
- A1B 234 format, issued from around January 1991 through at least November 1993. 90, 91 and 92 security marks appear on this format, and this format was manufactured in consecutive order. As with the type-two series, the numbers 0 and 1 did not appear as the first digit, in the second position, to avoid confusion with the letters O and I, respectively; the number 0 also did not appear as the second digit, in the fourth position. Type Three plates began the alphabetically-issued order for all regular series passenger plate issues.
- Type Four
- A12 3BC format, issued from February 1993 through at least August 1999. These were manufactured in consecutive order. The earlier A plates issued in early 1993 had 92 security marks and were the final plates on galvanized steel. By the end of the A series, plates had lot number security marks and were on thin gauge aluminum. A few of the late A plates had 92 security marks on precleared 3M sheeting on aluminum stock as well. Some plates in the Rochester area had screened serial numbers toward the end of this plate's run, but most other Type Four plates remained embossed, as did plates in all other series.
- Type Five
- AB1 23C format, issued from May 1999 through February 28, 2001. All had lot number security marks, and were aluminum. GS9 99E was the final known Type Five issue.
- "Preferred" plates
- Plates in the 1A 234 format were usually issued by county clerks' offices to constituents who contributed significantly to the counties; some were also issued as remakes of pre-1973 serial numbers.
- Rental plates
- Although technically not passenger plates, those with serial numbers ZAA 100 through ZZZ 999 were assigned for use on rental cars from 1986 through September 1996, when they were discontinued and replaced with standard passenger plates, using Liberty, 90, and 91 security marks. This was done to discourage carjacking of rental cars. It is the only instance of the year-dated marks on this format. They were manufactured as needed in small quantities, and none were made after 1992.
2001â€"2010: "Empire State"
In 2001, the state began the process of replacing all of the Liberty plates with a new "Empire State" design depicting Niagara Falls, the Adirondack Mountains, and the New York City skyline, including the Empire State Building. This base was also the first to use the "Empire State" slogan since 1963. As on the Liberty base, the serial numbers were embossed onto the plate, but unlike on the Liberty base, all vanity plates, most specialty plates, and many non-passenger plates had screened serial numbers. Renewing registrants were given the option to keep their previous registration number on a new set of plates, for a one-time fee. Many took this option, and received embossed plates with old standard-issue numbers (not in the ABC-1234 format).
The Empire State passenger plate issue began at AAA-1000 in 2001 and ended with EYH-2999. The first letters on these plates are A through E.
2010â€"present: "Empire Gold"
In 2010, the standard plate was redesigned to "Empire Gold". This plate consists of dark blue numbers on a gold background, and retains the ABC-1234 serial format. Standard plate numbers are issued sequentially. As with the Empire State plate, standard-issue plates are embossed, while all vanity plates, all specialty plates, and many non-passenger plates are screened. Originally, the Empire Gold plate was supposed to be a reissue, replacing all Empire State plates in two years; however, after controversy over the new design and the $25 fee for reissue plates, mandatory replacement was called off, and the prior series remains valid. All new registrants receive the Empire Gold plate. Renewing registrants with existing Empire State plates can keep them or pay $25 for new Empire Gold plates. And for an additional one-time fee of $20, the new plates will have the same numbers as the previous plates (embossed).
The Empire Gold passenger plate issue began at FAA-1000 in 2010. The first letters on these plates are F, G, and as of October 2017, H. After HZZ-9999 is issued, the first letter is expected to skip to J, as the letter I is not used on standard passenger plates.
Optional plates
Non-passenger plates
As of 2015, the serial formats for non-passenger license plates in New York are:
Letters or numbers that are found on every plate are bolded.
Personalized plates
Before 1977 New York motorists were limited to use up to three letters and up to three digits on personalized/vanity plates, such as ABC-123, MM-123, and AB-12.
Vanity plates have been available since 1977 when DMV began allowing up to six characters using the 1973 plate dies. In 1978 new thin vanity plate dies allowing the issue of up to eight-character vanity plates began to be used. At first, in 1978, these plates had some restrictions: Numbers could only precede or follow letters and a dashâ€"which counted as one characterâ€"could only separate letters and numbers.
In 1982 these restrictions were relaxed allowing numbers to be interspersed with letters and some types like commercial, trailer and motorcycle vanity (six characters) plates were introduced.
- 1977 examples: ALBANY; METS-1; WAYNE; JOHN
- 1978 examples: BROOKLYN; AMERICA; GRADE-12
- 1982 examples: TERMIN8R; GOOD2GO; ALL4U2
Since 1982 NY special registration plates have been available on all subsequent plate issues and has expanded into the NYS DMV's Custom Plate program.
Motorists may select up to eight characters on a vanity plate:
- letters A through Z
- numbers 0 through 9
- spaces (not recognized as a character on the windshield decal)
- a state symbol (which represents a dash, but is not recognized as a character on the windshield decal)
Personalized serial formats in New York are electronically printed directly onto the plate, as opposed to the randomly assigned, default serial numbers, which are embossed onto the front of the plate.
Any plate combination that is in use cannot be assigned as a vanity plate. For instance, if the serial number FAB-1000 is in use, FAB1000 or FAB 1000 cannot be issued as a vanity plate since the three plate numbers are processed as the same serial number on the windshield decal. Any "questionable" or offensive combinations are also not allowed to be assigned; some are permanently banned. Of 152,430 applications for vanity plates from 2010 to 2015, five thousand plate combinations were rejected.
County coding
New York never placed the full name of the county of registration explicitly on its standard-issue plates. Some states encode the county of issuance into the selection of serial number, with varying degrees of subtlety. New York intentionally encoded county into the serial number from 1946 through 1986. One system was used from 1946 through 1973, and a second system was used from 1973 through 1986.
1973 base: original allocation
On the 1973â€"1986 orange base, plates were issued in letter blocks by county, initially with phonetic combinations similar to the county's name or the names of communities, companies, or colleges/universities within the county.
Alphabetical cross-reference
Notes
a. Duplicate use.
FIL: Allegany County (from "Fillmore")
ROP: Clinton County (from "Rouses Point")
LG: Warren County (from "Lake George")
References
External links
- Information about Empire Gold plates | New York State DMV
- Information on custom plates | New York State DMV
- Look up and order personalized plates | New York State DMV
- Order picture and professional plates | New York State DMV
- New York license plates, 1969â€"present
- Scott Smith's New York License Plates at the Wayback Machine (archived May 5, 2016)
- County codes for NY license plates (1946â€"1986)
