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California license plate: Specialty index

Issued today Documented since 2026. Specialty plates for car, van, truck, motorcycle, and trailer, issued by California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). One of 14 California license plates.

California (United States) license plate, Specialty index (documented since 2026), sample 274WNH1
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Format, years and the law

Format
999LLL9, for example 274WNH1 (L is any letter, 9 any digit)

The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued.

Years issued
Documented since 2026; the format is likely older than the first year documented. Still issued.
Vehicle class
Specialty: optional-design programs on standard serials (US state programs). Issued for car, van, truck, motorcycle, and trailer.
Size
12 × 6 in (305 × 152 mm) · every country's size
About this plate
Two things to carry forward. Second, the absence of a California issuance-volume report is itself a finding: Florida's monthly active-plate portal has no California counterpart, so the differentiator identified in the L0 pass does not generalise and must be re-checked state by state.

Legal basis and sources

  1. the DMV's own three-way grouping of special interest, special, and special recognition/occupational/legislative/apportioned plates, the 15+15+17 enumeration above https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-registration/license-plates-decals-and-placards/license-plates/special-interest...
  2. § 5060: the 501(c)(3) sponsor requirement, the 7,500-application threshold and its 12/24-month window, the 2x3 in design space and 5/8 in message strip for passenger plates, the five-character motorcycle rule, and the... https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=5060
  3. VIRPM Chapter 21: 56 sub-sections, the deeper official index https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/vehicle-industry-registration-procedures-manual-2/special-plates/

This plate in your app

The series id is us-ca-specialty-index. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of California's series:

curl -s https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/us-ca \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VEHICLESDB_API_KEY" \
  | jq '.series[] | select(.id == "us-ca-specialty-index")'
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