South Dakota license plate: Dealer

Issued today Documented since 2025. Dealer plates for car, van, truck, motorcycle, and trailer, issued by South Dakota Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division (plates issued through the county treasurers). One of 5 South Dakota license plates.

The statute names a specific number, 77, and hands it to the trade, in a state whose counties number 66.

South Dakota (United States) license plate, Dealer (documented since 2025), sample 77-B123

Format, years and the law

Format
77-L999, for example 77-B123 (L is any letter, 9 any digit)

77 is a county number that belongs to no county: the legislature reserved it for licensed dealers, the statute reads "shall bear as a prefix the number 77", and the plate floats between the dealer's own vehicles.

77
licensed vehicle dealer (reserved non-county prefix) (dealer plate, transferable within the dealership)

The format above is broad: a registration that fits it has the right shape, which does not show that this series issued it.

Years issued
Documented since 2025; the format is likely older than the first year documented. Still issued.
Vehicle class
Dealer: trade/garage plates bound to a business, not a vehicle. Issued for car, van, truck, motorcycle, and trailer.
Colours
Characters #1D2849
About the format
Same fact, two states, and the DSL permits it in one and not the other, worth knowing when reading the two files together.
Who can have one
dealers, for demonstration purposes, and all motor vehicles registered by manufacturers or dealers (SDCL 32-5-89)

Legal basis and sources

  1. SDCL 32-5-89: dealer and manufacturer plates 'shall bear a distinctive number 77', alongside the department's power to determine size, design, thickness, colour and general makeup https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/32-5-89.html

This plate in your app

The series id is us-sd-dealer. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of South Dakota's series:

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