# South Dakota license plate: Standard

> The South Dakota standard license plate: format 99L999, for example 19M 463, documented since 2025, car, van, truck, and bus.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--south-dakota/standard · 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 [South Dakota license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--south-dakota) (5 registration series).

![South Dakota (United States) license plate, Standard (documented since 2025)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/us-sd/us-sd-standard/south-dakota-license-plate-standard.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `99L999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | ~2025 → today (documented from 2025; the format is likely older) |
| Class | standard |
| Issued for | car, van, truck, bus |
| 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-sd-standard` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/united-states--south-dakota/standard) |

The leading number is your county: 1–9 went to the nine most populous (1 Minnehaha, 2 Pennington), then 10–64 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.

| Code | Stands for | English |
|---|---|---|
| `1` | Minnehaha County | Sioux Falls — most populous, so it drew number 1 |
| `2` | Pennington County | Rapid City — second most populous |

Sources:

- [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)
- [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)
- [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)
- [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)
- [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)
- [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)
- [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-Update.pdf)

## 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.

## Use it

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