Canadian licence plate designs and serial formats

In Canada, Licence plate numbers are usually assigned in ascending order, beginning with a starting point such as AAA-001. Thus, someone familiar with the sequence can determine roughly when the licence plate was issued. After Ontario's transition to an ABCD-123 format in 1997, plates were issued in ascending order starting with AAAA-001. It took close to ten years to exhaust the supply of plate numbers with A as the first digit. In late 2006, plates with B as the first digit were assigned, and have continued from there sequentially.

The gradual increase in the use of letters in the serials of licence plates has given rise to an increased possibility of unintentional profane or inappropriate words or messages arising from the use of sequential alphanumeric combinations. Thus, numbering sequences generally exclude certain combinations of letters or numbers that would be potentially offensive. Jurisdictions' attention to excluding offensive combinations varies widely, however. In 1986, Waldale, a Canadian licence plate manufacturer, due to a production error, produced an entire batch of New Brunswick plates that began with the letters ASS. The plates were never issued, and were officially scrapped, but many found their way into the collectors' market.

From 1971 to 1975, Manitoba's licence plate bore the slogan "Sunny Manitoba: 100,000 lakes" [ [http://www.15q.net/mb.html Manitoba ] ] but was changed to "Friendly Manitoba", possibly due to conflict with Minnesota's "10,000 lakes" slogan.

Current and future standard-issue passenger plate designs and serial formats

Plate types and serial formats no longer issued but still valid

ee also

*U.S. license plate designs and serial formats

References

External links

* [http://www.alpca.org Automobile License Plate Collectors' Association]
* [http://www.licenseplates.cc/highs/ Current High-Issue License Plates (U.S. and Canada)]
* [http://www.pl8s.com PL8S.COM - The License Plate Collectors Hobby Website]
* [http://www.15q.net License Plates of North America, 1969-Present]
* [http://www.plateshack.com The License Plate Shack]
* [http://www.pl8ster.net Pl8ster.net]
* [http://www3.sympatico.ca/upton/backbump/ The Back Bumper]
* [http://www.zulsplatepage.com Zuls Plate Page]
* [http://www.rtbrandon.com/blankplates R.T.'s Blank Plates-pictures of license plates]
* [http://www.sebald.com/pl8s/ Sebald American License Plates]