Licence plate numbers - why a mixture of letters and numbers? (vehicles, van)
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In California a car licence plate is a number, then three letters, then three numbers. Trucks are different.
Do you know why they do it like that? Why not all numbers, or all letters?
Things are often done like this - the VIN number - the key when you buy a software like Microsoft Word - serial numbers on products, even music records. My driver's licence number is one letter followed by six numbers.
Also the letter O can be confused with the number zero. L can be confused with a 1.
Maybe it helps you to remember?? I wasn't even sure which group to post this in.
Probably because a lot of states have run out of unique number combinations.
We had plates here, the Chesapeake Bay ones, which started out as AAA 001. At some point those combinations were retired and the plates started to read 12345 CA, and so on. You could approximately tell from both styles when the plates were issued.
In California a car licence plate is a number, then three letters, then three numbers. Trucks are different.
Do you know why they do it like that? Why not all numbers, or all letters?
Things are often done like this - the VIN number - the key when you buy a software like Microsoft Word - serial numbers on products, even music records. My driver's licence number is one letter followed by six numbers.
Also the letter O can be confused with the number zero. L can be confused with a 1.
Maybe it helps you to remember?? I wasn't even sure which group to post this in.
First of all
You can switch letter and number locations and create even more locations.
The reason you have 1ABC235 on cars it's because it denotes passenger vehicles.
The reason you have 1A23456 on trucks is because it denotes a COMMERCIAL plate. In California every pick up truck is automatically registered as a commercial vehicle. You have to do specific modifications to reclassify it.
Mainly adding a bed camper cover can remove the commercial designation and make it a passenger van conversion. Or RV if you put a sleeper. The hick is you cannot remove the cap as long as you are reclassified.
One of my trucks had 1A23456 commercial plate. My current one I had to reapply for a plate because some ***** stoke my front plate and its 12345A6. They simply moved the letter around.
And California in its infinite wisdom decided it would be a good idea to have the plate go with the vehicle. Where some states the plate goes with the owner and the new wher has to get his own plate or reuse a existing owned plate. But how else can the DMV squeeze another $25 out of you.
Montana has always had all numbers. the first number (county where registered) was 1 - 56, then the "serial number" (1 - 999999).
when they started running out of numbers, they added a letter to the country number (3A-0000).
then they began making custom plates for all kinds of organizations. there are now over 100 different styles of plates, not counting vanity plates.
Then they required that new plates be issued every five or ten years.
But then, there are those vehicles 11 years old or older that have PERMANENT registration.
So, we have all number plates, mixed letter and number plates, vanity plates, military plates, Amateur Radio plates (with the owner's call sign), college plates, high school plates, Masonic plates, Purple Heart Plates, Disabled Veteran plates, city plates, Elk Federation plates, Trout fisher's plates, just about anything you can name there is a plate for it. there is even a method for you to get the plate you want, if it isn't already made, and a portion of the registration fee will go to the organization you have the plate made for.
You want a scholarship for left-handed, red headed children of Air Force retirees? No problem, they will make a license plate for that, just submit the design and show where to send the money for the scholarship fund!
Ok, it's about the number of cars on the road. 6 numbers only gives a mere 1 million possibilities. Not enough for even a single city the size of LA or NY. All numbers in a 6 digit will multiply that by a bunch, but the combination of letters and numbers, such as ABC 123 gives over 20 million possible combinations, and using ABC 123 AND 123 ABC combinations can double that. Make it a mixture of any 6 letters and numbers and you can reach over a billion combinations. Add a 7th digit and you can reach much more. Enough for everyone to have a unique identifier in a legible plate that doesn't take up much space (unlike trying to put a DL number or software serial number on a plate and keep it legible).
Also the letter O can be confused with the number zero. L can be confused with a 1.
Maybe it helps you to remember?? I wasn't even sure which group to post this in.
Some states don't allow both an letter O and a number 0. One or the other, not both.
Same for 1 and L.
What I want to know is why I see so many 666s on license plates in California!
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