VehiclesDB

South Dakota license plate: Standard

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

South Dakota (United States) license plate, Standard (documented since 2025), sample 19M 463
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Format, years and the law

Format
99L999, for example 19M 463 (L is any letter, 9 any digit)

The leading number is your county: 1 to 9 went to the nine most populous (1 Minnehaha, 2 Pennington), then 10 to 64 run alphabetically from Aurora to Ziebach. South Dakota is one of the last county-coded states, Sioux Falls plates start 1 or 44 depending on the county line.

1
Minnehaha County (Sioux Falls, most populous, so it drew number 1)
2
Pennington County (Rapid City, second most populous)

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
Standard: the default series issued to private road vehicles. Issued for car, van, truck, and bus.
Colours
Characters #1D2849
About this plate
SOUTH DAKOTA STANDARD ISSUE. The Department of Revenue's licence-plate pages returned 404. Both are recorded so a later run knows the terrain.

Legal basis and sources

  1. SDCL 32-5-83: the seven-year design duty and the marked-contrast rule. Source line SDC 1939 § 44.0114 through SL 2010, ch 154, § 1 and SL 2020, ch 135, § 1 https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/32-5-83.html
  2. SDCL 32-5-84: metal or other suitable material, the state name in full or abbreviated, the distinctive number in figures or figures-and-letters, and the legibility standard. Source through SL 2020, ch 135, § 2 https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/32-5-84.html
  3. SDCL 32-5-86: reflectorization to a departmentally determined extent maintained through the plates' service life, and the state penitentiary plate plant in the bid-evaluation criteria https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/32-5-86.html
  4. SDCL 32-5-88: the optional Mount Rushmore replica, its discernibility condition and the Governor / secretary of revenue / penitentiary warden sign-off https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/32-5-88.html
  5. SDCL 32-5-89: departmental determination of size, design, thickness, colour and general makeup for all classifications, and the dealer plates' 'distinctive number 77' https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/32-5-89.html
  6. SDCL 32-5-81: county treasurer registration and issuance of a distinctive number plate, and the fuel-type declaration requirement https://sdlegislature.gov/api/Statutes/32-5-81.html
  7. AAMVA Ed.3 §1.1's recommended 7-10 year REPLACEMENT cycle, distinguished above from South Dakota's seven-year REDESIGN duty https://www.aamva.org/getmedia/646bcc8a-219b-47d8-b5cd-726240473163/License-Plate-Standard-Edition-3_September-2025-U...

This plate in your app

The series id is us-sd-standard. 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-standard")'
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