# Rhode Island license plate: Wave

> The Rhode Island wave license plate: format 9LL 999, for example 4PM 779, 1996 to 2023, car, van, truck, and bus.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--rhode-island/wave-1996 · Markdown version of the HTML page, which is canonical. Site map: https://vehiclesdb.com/llms.txt · Terms of use: https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/terms

Part of [Rhode Island license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--rhode-island) (6 registration series).

![Rhode Island (United States) license plate, Wave (1996 to 2023)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ri/us-ri-wave-1996/rhode-island-license-plate-wave.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `9LL 999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | 1996–2023 |
| Class | standard |
| Issued for | car, van, truck, bus |
| Plate size | 12 × 6 in |
| Colours | background #FFFFFF; characters #0B2C5C |
| Checking a registration | The format above is broad: a registration that fits it has the right shape, which does not show that this series issued it. |
| Series id | `us-ri-wave-1996` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--rhode-island/wave-1996) |

Sources:

- [§ 31-3-11: the statutory contents this base satisfied unchanged across all four of its serial grammars](https://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE31/31-3/31-3-11.HTM)
- [en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Rhode_Island)

## About this plate

Two facts worth carrying past this gate. First, the 123-456 arrangement ran BACKWARDS (710-001 down to 399-999), the second descending US sequence this group found after New Hampshire's six-digit passenger series, descending serials are evidently not a curiosity but a recurring administrative choice, and any era-inference model that assumes monotone ascent is wrong twice in six states.

## Separators

the AB-12/AB-123 and 123-456 forms print a HYPHEN, which is in the emitted set; the 1AB 234 form prints a space, EXCEPT in the reported 1AL-to-1BQ blocks which printed no separator at all. Every one of those is covered by the optional-separator spelling, which is precisely what §2.6's forgiving/emitted split exists to make sound

## Before and after

| Relation | Series | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Replaced by | [Standard](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--rhode-island/standard-2023) | 2023 to today |

## Other standard plates here

- [Commercial](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--rhode-island/commercial) (2023 to today)
- [Standard](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--rhode-island/standard-2023) (2023 to today)

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-ri/us-ri-wave-1996.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/rhode-island?series=us-ri-wave-1996
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/us-ri` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "us-ri-wave-1996"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

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Open data, CC BY 4.0: reuse it with a visible credit to VehiclesDB and a link (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/attribution). Plate images show sample serials and are not open data (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/image-license). Dataset commit db0ec0a: https://github.com/vehiclesdb/vehiclesdb