california black license plates

[66plysat]

Somewhere I saw a listing of California black license plate letters and their corresponding year. I believe a 1966 cars license letter sequence started with "R, S, or T". ( I can't remember where I saw this list, it sucks getting old ).

Does anyone have listing of Calif Black plates with the years and corresponding letters that can be posted here. It would be a big help to find plates that are correct when adding old plates for a proper restoration.

 

[440brew]

My 67 Coronet has orginal black plates that start with "S"!

Maybe 66 starts with "R"...

 

[68X426]

In theory the first letter for each year looked like this:

63 ABC
64 DEF
65 GHJ
66 KLM
67 NPQ
68 RST
69 UVW
70 YXZ

There are lots of exceptions, as many of the letters assigned were "accelerated" depending on demand across the state. My first 68 started with R and yet I have seen other 68s with Y,X, and Z.

RST could very well have been actively used in 66. Location mattered, demand mattered. There is a pic on line of an original 67 plate with an X. Supposedly all letters were used up by early 69, not 70, so the state started on the blue plates in late 69.

My current Road Runner plate (can't tell you how or why, it just is :confused2

 

[68X426]

Funny this subject just came up. For sale on ebay is a beautiful 68 Charger with an X plate. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Dodg...5d7QQitemZ140523673047QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks

 

[Meep-Meep]

In my experience for the last 30 + years looking at CA plate numbers and the year car they were on, I came to the following conclusion for first letters:

69 = Y Z
68 = W X
67 = U V
66 = S T
65 = R

From 63 - 65 it doesn't seem very linear but down to 66 and some 65 you can be 95% sure you will see it just as I wrote above. If I'm unfamiliar with the exact year of a late 60's car I look at the first letter (assuming it has black plates) and I haven't missed yet.

It's possible that most of the beginning alphabet got used up in the 63-65 years because when these plates were issues in 63 everyone automatically got them - even the 50's cars that were still alive and well in 63. That's why you see an original owner 1960 Falcon with 63 series plates starting with A and not the 56 series plates it came with when new. Anyway, I'm not the authority but this is what I have observed.

Case in point: 68 Charger above. My 68 RR is X. My 69 RR is Y. My 66 Bel is T and the other 66 Bel is S.

The blue plates started appearing in late 69 with the first letter A. My neighbor's 69 Camaro was 638 AQC as he got it in 1976. My only explanation to this is the car sat around and didn't get sold until mid to late 69.

There is an exception to this rule. Black commercial plates were used until 1971.

 

[shag766]

In my experience for the last 30 + years looking at CA plate numbers and the year car they were on, I came to the following conclusion for first letters:

69 = Y Z
68 = W X
67 = U V
66 = S T
65 = R

From 63 - 65 it doesn't seem very linear but down to 66 and some 65 you can be 95% sure you will see it just as I wrote above. If I'm unfamiliar with the exact year of a late 60's car I look at the first letter (assuming it has black plates) and I haven't missed yet.

It's possible that most of the beginning alphabet got used up in the 63-65 years because when these plates were issues in 63 everyone automatically got them - even the 50's cars that were still alive and well in 63. That's why you see an original owner 1960 Falcon with 63 series plates starting with A and not the 56 series plates it came with when new. Anyway, I'm not the authority but this is what I have observed.

Case in point: 68 Charger above. My 68 RR is X. My 69 RR is Y. My 66 Bel is T and the other 66 Bel is S.

The blue plates started appearing in late 69 with the first letter A. My neighbor's 69 Camaro was 638 AQC as he got it in 1976. My only explanation to this is the car sat around and didn't get sold until mid to late 69.

There is an exception to this rule. Black commercial plates were used until 1971.

my coronet 69 had YHF

 

[HitIt]

It's possible that most of the beginning alphabet got used up in the 63-65 years because when these plates were issues in 63 everyone automatically got them - even the 50's cars that were still alive and well in 63. That's why you see an original owner 1960 Falcon with 63 series plates starting with A and not the 56 series plates it came with when new. Anyway, I'm not the authority but this is what I have observed.

That is pretty much what I had learned too. In 63 when all the cars in CA were replated anything was possible. It was a bit of a scramble to manufacture and supply plates for every car on the road. Plates came in from all different places and makers whenever they were ready. I am sure there was some desired order originally but from what I read any plate that was on hand at the DMV was fair game in 63. So that kinda screwed stuff up for all black plate cars from then on out…. Like the 67 Coronet mentioned above.

I did a lot of reading then settled on K plates for my 64 Dodge. Hey, it could have happened!

 

[oliver]

heres my 66 belvy

 

[440brew]

another thing to consider is that the plates typically follow a calender year. however the auto indursty starts to put out new model years late in the year prior.

so if you car is a 67 and has an "s" at the begining it may have been purchased and registered in late 66!

 

[70beeper]

Ca Black Plates

Great subject, as a native I have always been a license plate reader. Getting pretty scarce, don't see many on a daily basis anymore. California did it's last complete plate reissue in 1963, so some vehicles have the same plates that could be up to 48 years. Considering they stopped issuing them in late 1969. Here are some of the ones with the year of vehicles that I have owned or family owned, i can't remember all the numbers, so I will give a prefix only

1962 HUB
1964 HKT
1964 OUN (our family purchased this car in mid 64)
1965 MOX
1965 PKH
1967 UJJ
1968 XOS
1969 XCH
1969 ZDY

I have even seen some 1970 cars that must have been sold in late 1969 with Z prefix Black plates It seems to be real hard to figure out exactly whats years/numbers were issued. Some DMV's went through plates quickly, like San Diego or Los Angeles, a small county like Inyokern or Mono may have took years to go through a box. The best way to see whats out there is look at old photos, movies or advertisements. Watch Get Smart or The Beverly Hill Billy's to see what cars had what plates. I have even seen Black California plates on The Andy Griffith Show,which some producer must have missed.

In regards to Commercial Plates, I have seen up to 1972 vehicles with Black plates. Interesting note on the commercial plates, they just changed the color & kept the same sequence, as opposed to cars, they always switched letters to numbers or numbers.

In the mid 70' when personalized plates came out thousands of these were turned back in & don't let anyone tell you, they had Black personalized plates, they started issuing them about 1974.

Now with year of manufacture plates including the Black plates, it will be harder to tell if a car was originally sold in California.

As a note on the Blue & Yellow, my father purchased a 1970 Chevelle Wagon in December 1969 & it was issued Blue Plates 074-AUD & a neighbor purchased one at the same time & received a Black plate with a Z prefix.

 

[autoxcuda]

My 68 Barracuda has XVS

My old 67 Nova had VFR

 

[kikgas01]

Here is the original plate for my 63.

 

[415Satellite66]

My California Plate for my 66 is SEZ

 

[Meep-Meep]

Now with year of manufacture plates including the Black plates, it will be harder to tell if a car was originally sold in California.

As I understand it the YOM program requires you get an original year sticker for the year car you want to register and put it on the plate with the month sticker. These will always be visible. After you are approved you will be issued a black metal tab that attaches to one of the screws where you put the current year sticker, making it a dead giveaway that the plates were added on later. Another possible giveaway is any letter combo is allowed, meaning the DMV does not follow the pattern as outlined in my post above. If you have a set of legible "B" plates with an original 1969 reg sticker then you're good to go.

 

[uk-maxie]

Just to add to the list, I believe this is our 63's original plate....

(prob now residing on someone's garage wall, since it was stolen fromn the car when it was shipped over in 2004 :angryfire