California Black Plate Letter Sequence

[C Richey]

Seeking the letter sequence for the 1963 to 1967 black California licence plates.

Letter Sequence Yr Sticker Yellow '56-'63 Blue '69-82
Blk '63-'69 Retro no '63 stamp Reflective
HZH 558 Calif Blk tag Red left '73 Yellow right '72
1/H DLR Calif Blk tag none Dealer
Calif Blk tag 63
Calif. Blk tag 64
Calif. Blk tag 65
Calif. Yellow Blk A----G 56 Sticker none
Calif. Yellow Blk D----O 57 Sticker Red w/ Blk letters
Calif. Yellow Blk M----R 58 Sticker Green w/ White letters
Calif. Yellow Blk R----T 59 Sticker White w/ Blk letters
Calif. Yellow Blk T----U 60 Sticker Blue-Gray w/ Silver letters
Calif. Yellow Blk U----X 61 Sticker Red w/ Silver letters
Calif. Yellow Blk W---Z 62 White w/ Green letters
TARGA Fla 1972 stamp

[Jon Schmid]

If your plate begins with HZH it was issued in 1963 as part of the changeover from yellow/black to black/yellow plates and your plates were issued through the DMV office in San Pedro. I don't know if this answers your question though.

[Jim Alton]

I don't recall where I read it, but I think the black plates with yellow letters (1963-1968) were sent in blocks to different DMV offices. They didn't count up from AAA 000.

You can find the sticker colors at http://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/wcm/connec ... OD=AJPERES

1963 no sticker
1964 White
1965 Orange
1966 Yellow
1967 Blue
1968 Pink
1969 White

All these stickers had black characters.

[Jim Alton]

Then again, at http://www.team.net/archive/healeys/200 ... 00626.html the author says:

2. 1956 base.
1956 AAA to Mxx were used during the first year.
1957 to 1962 the annual starting alphas are not well known.
Different colored tags were issued each year and affixed to the plates.

3. 1963 base.
These plates are quite well known.
1963 AAA to Mxx were used during the first year.
1964 M, N, O, P, Q, R (lots of overlap in 1964-65) plus a "year" decal, i.e. 1964
1965 N, O, P, Q, R (lots of overlap in 1964-65)
1966 R, S, T
1967 T, U, V
1968 V, W, X
1969 Y, Z

[Mike Wilson]

Jim: many thanks for this info. It will help people dial in the right plate for their car if they want to buy original black plates.

[Mike Wilson]

Jim: I seem to remember reading that certain letters were distributed geographically in California. Can you shed any light on that?

[Greg Bryan]

I have the plates off of my daddy's '64 Chevy issued in early 65 in San Leandro, CA. The reason it has a 65 and 66 sticker is that we moved to Erie PA for a year in '66-'67 so these were taken off. I'm thinking of putting them on my car is spite of the '666'. People used to tell my father that he had the devil's address on his car - and they were serious.

[Jim Alton]

Jim: I seem to remember reading that certain letters were distributed geographically in California. Can you shed any light on that?

Mike, I once found something online saying that blocks of license plate numbers were allocated to different DMV offices or districts. I took considerable interest in that because it meant that the black plates on my 911 & VW were not necessarily wrong for cars of those years.

I looked for that information today but couldn't find it again, but if it was on the internet it must be true, right?

I can tell you that from 1949 to 1979 New Hampshire plates had a code for the county. New Hampshire only has 10 counties--those codes are on Wikipedia.

[Jon Bunin]

I'm thinking of putting them on my car is spite of the '666'. People used to tell my father that he had the devil's address on his car - and they were serious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast

[Jim Alton]

I have the plates off of my daddy's '64 Chevy issued in early 65 in San Leandro, CA. The reason it has a 65 and 66 sticker is that we moved to Erie PA for a year in '66-'67 so these were taken off. I'm thinking of putting them on my car is spite of the '666'. People used to tell my father that he had the devil's address on his car - and they were serious.

Wouldn't these license plates be more appropriate for an English car, one with electrics by the Lord of Darkness?

[Greg Bryan]

Jim - yeah, maybe!

[Steve Douglas]

The California DMV sent groups of 1963 Black Plates to each office, for local issue, and then they also had mail out ones that came from the Sacramento office. "Stale Air" posted the list on The Samba a while back, attached is a scan of the original listing.

[Jim Alton]

Maybe I figured it out (or maybe I just figured out what everyone else--like Jon Schmid--knew). "Stale Air's" scan from The Samba only does up to prefix "RDA"

Stale Air's list from http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=373768&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=200

Meanwhile, there's a list showing plates started at AAA000 in 1963 and ended at ZZZ (maybe ZZZ999) in 1969:

63 - AAA-RDA
64 - RDB-SDP
65 - SDQ-TEC
66 - TED-UGD
67 - UGE-WEC
68 - WED-YCE
69 - YCF-ZZZ

(from http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbthre ... ber=436465) Note that Stale Air's list ends at RDA as does this list for 1963.

They may both be correct. In 1963, everyone in California had to replace their black on yellow plates with vellow on black plates, so the DMV must have issued a lot of license plates in 1963.

I suspect the list of plate prefixes by DMV office refers to the original issue back in 1963 and plates were more-or less sequential after that.

[Bob Forman]

In the early 60's we were lined up in the dark waiting for the gates to open to the LA Times Grand Prix at Riverside. The car in front of us was a black 1961 Chevy 409. It's license said: "GOT 409." Obviously, well-before vanity plates were invented. We figured he must have stood by in line letting the next person go ahead of him until something with 409 came up. Or, his dad was the governor. Either way, he got lucky.

[Mike Wilson]

Great info. Thanks, Guys!