California license plate: Standard 1ABC123
Retired 1980 to 2026. Standard plates for car and van, issued by California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). One of 14 California license plates.
Every design of this plate 6
The same registration series, issued on 6 looks. Same format, same size; pick one to see it above.
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dmv.ca.gov base default
2011 to 2026
Red script, the dmv.ca.gov bottom legend; month and year decals as on a registered plate.
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Script base, no legend
1993 to 1998, 2001 to 2011
Red script and the printed MO / YR sticker wells, no bottom legend (the DMV 1992 and 2000-2011 sample plates).
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Script base, SESQUICENTENNIAL legend
1998 to 2001
The 1993 script base with the red bottom legend SESQUICENTENNIAL - 150 YEARS for the state's 150th anniversary.
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Blue base, yellow characters (specimen) specimen photo
1980 to 1982
The 1980 DMV sample plate 1SAM123: yellow embossed characters and CALIFORNIA on blue.
Based on California 1SAM123 1980 Sample License Plate by Happoshu (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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White base, embossed red CALIFORNIA (specimen) specimen photo
1987 to 1993
The 1990 DMV sample plate 2SAM123: blue embossed characters, red embossed CALIFORNIA on white.
Based on 1990 California license plate 2SAM123 by Happoshu (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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Script base (specimen) specimen photo
1993 to 1998
The DMV sample plate 3SAM123: red script California, printed MO / YR wells, blue embossed characters.
Based on California 3sam123 Sample license plate 1992 by unknown (Commons, public domain) (Public domain)
Format, years and the law
- Format
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9LLL999, for example5BRK901(L is any letter, 9 any digit)The leading digit is a clock, not a code: issue began at 1AAA000 in 1980 and crept to 9ZZZ999 by 2026, so the first digit roughly dates the car, 1 is early eighties, 9 is the 2020s. I, O and Q sit out the outer letter slots.
The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued.
- Years issued
- 1980 to 2026. No longer issued.
- Vehicle class
- Standard: the default series issued to private road vehicles. Issued for car and van.
- Colours
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Characters
#17195E - Size
- 12 × 6 in (305 × 152 mm) · every country's size
- About this plate
- THE FORMAT CALIFORNIA RAN FOR FORTY-SIX YEARS.
- How numbers are issued
- VIRPM Appendix 1E, verbatim: "In 1980, seven characters were introduced in regular series license plates. Acceptable auto license plate series for 1980 only: 1AAA000 to 1SZZ999."
Legal basis and sources
- VIRPM Appendix 1E (PDF), California License Plate Data 1914-1980: 'In 1980, seven characters were introduced in regular series license plates. Acceptable auto license plate series for 1980 only: 1AAA000 to 1SZZ999.'... https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/file/vr-manual-appendix-1e/
- the VIRPM page that serves the appendix https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/vehicle-industry-registration-procedures-manual-2/appendix-1e-california-licen...
- en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_California
Before and after
This plate in your app
The series id is us-ca-standard-1abc123. 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-standard-1abc123")'
- Plate image (SVG, sample serial): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ca/us-ca-standard-1abc123.svg
- Blank template, filled on your side: https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ca/us-ca-standard-1abc123/template.svg
