History School me on California license plates

Wondering if anyone knows when new plates were issued in the 50’s? Obviously when plates were stolen/lost but did new plates get issued during a change of ownership?

I just found a few pics of the Desbrow 32 pickup that are new to me and the plates are different from the 1952 Hot Rod cover and a car show in 1955.

any help would be appreciated.

 

Plates stay with the vehicle in California.
1951 & 1956 were the years new plates were issued.

 

I have seen many Cal car ads over the years that seem to specifically mention black Cal plates as though they are something special. What's so special about them?

 

They look cool.

 

If a car is still wearing a black (1963 style) plate, that means the car has been in California and registered since the 1960s. That's kind of special.

I guess we don't have an answer yet as to why the plate on that truck was changed.

 

Didn’t they give you a new number tab each year

 

The 51 plate got a new metal number tab each year through 1955, then was replaced with the 56 plate. They went to stickers after that.

 

Yes, year number plates until they started with the yearly stickers. Believe they bolted on through the plate mounting hole.

In California you can now use a set of early stamped year plates but they have to match the year of the vehicle. Normally if a car is out of the DMV system (usually around 10 years of non-registration) even if they have a set of old black plates DMV will issue a new set of plates.

my question is why did they change on Desbrow’s truck?

 

Thanks for the info. New plates weren’t issued when a vehicle was sold?

 

I don't know what happened in the 50s, but in the 60s and later the plates stayed with the vehicle.

 

These are the plates that came on a 58 Edsel Villager wagon I bought. Not sure of the significance of the 63 stamped on the upper right but I’ve seen a few with this.

 

Hello,

In California, when anyone bought a new car and then the plates came weeks later, we all had the right to refuse the plate. Why, well letters and numbers may have accidently been pressed by those sneaky outlaws behind concrete walls and somehow got past the inspectors.

If a Chevy owner got plates that said FRD 599 and not CHV 599 it may be returned.

Jnaki

Recently, my wife got a new car and her plates said, not a nice connotation with the combo of letters. So, we returned them to the DMV and they sent us new plates. Give your local DMV a call or go the AAA offices to get more information.

Yes, you can change plates.

 

All of them were stamped with 63 because it was the first year the plate was used. Subsequent years got a sticker with the current year placed over the 63 stamp.

 

I’ve had vehicles long enough the the stack of yearly stickers could have reached 1/2” easily. After 6-7 years I cut all but the first one with an exacto knife then put the current on on. On the one vehicle I park outside I cut x’s in it so it’s useless to steal….and yes there are a-holes that do.

 

Nowadays with the YOM black license plate program, having black plates on cars isn't quite as special as it used to be. The exception is pre 1963 cars with black plates...since you can't go out and buy DMV clear black plates and put them on a pre 1963 car. I think the YOM program is 1963 to 1969 for cars and till 1971 for trucks. Also of course if you have stacks of old registrations going back before the YOM program that's good...that means they have been on the car before the YOM program started. Also any car that has YOM plates used will have to pay a "retention fee" every year..I think its $40.

 

California issued new plates EVERY year up until '41 ish (differnt sizes, material and colors each year). After that they went to bulk years when you got a metal tab for the new year, 1945-46 (single plate issued only), 1947-1950, 1951-55 and all were the same size (long and skinny). 1956 was the first year of the regular size that we still have now AND was the introduction of the stickers for years. They still had bulk year plates, 1956-62, 1963-69, 1970-79 (?) and each bulk year was a different background color and letter color. I believe you received new plates on regular registration when you hit the year cutoff for the new plates (or every year before the bulk years) until the stickers came around.

BTW, you CAN keep your old plates (again I believe from 1956 on) on your vehicle even if it's out of the system. You will need some sort of paperwork confirming that those plates were registered to the vehicle at some point, BOTH plates and a willingness to ask for a supervisor (also be patient and courteous).

 

Plates always stayed with the car. If you had bought a 1955 Chevy new, you'd get the 1951 plates with a metal year tab for 1955 registration, then everyone got new plates in 1956, and again in 1963 when they went to the black plates.

 

The YOM (Year Of Manufacture) is open to 1969 and older cars and 1972 and older trucks, it cost an extra $15 a year as of now. It does get a little bit boring to see so many YOM plates on cars but it beats seeing new reflective, script white plates on old stuff. I was lucky and have some vehicles with blue plates (from the 70s) still registered on them.

 

This is true.

 

https://lamag.com/lahistory/the-colorful-history-of-california-license-plates
There used to be a great cal plate website that went into great detail about them. Didn't find it on the first search, but this article covers the basics.

 

Taxifornia will accommodate almost anything you want and charge you EXTRA every year for the time you own your car. Seeing current new cars with black plates and yellow number/letters just cracks me up.

 

I see on the DMV website the cutoff is 1972 for trucks for this program..but like always they've screwed it up. DMV says that 1970 to 72 must use blue plates..this is wrong. Up to 1971 CA used black plates on trucks, and 1972 switched to blue and yellow.

 

This might have been true back then, but today, Year Of Manufacture plates that were assigned to the vehicle in modern times by the DMV (EG, Bob buys a pair of '31 YOM plates from the swap meet for his Model A and gets the DMV to assign them to his vehicle) belong to the owner. When Bob sells the Model A, he can either keep or transfer the plates, but they don't automatically go with the vehicle. Weird, but that's how it is.

The cost between single YOM plates and a matching pair are on an order of 10x, so I'll buy the correct setup for whatever vehicle (YOM plate and year tag) and throw the DMV-assigned plate, current tag, and registration in the trunk and go about my life. The chance of law enforcement pulling you over to question your YOM setup is close to nil unless you've done something stupid to get their attention or you're running a weird combination ('32 Ford with '51 plates, e.g.).

 

The “new” black on Ca plates is t a black like was used before, I think it has a brown in it.
But does look better than a white plate on an old vehicle.

 

The new black plate program is a joke, and it severely lessens the value of having original black plates on your mid sixties and early 70s rides. Now every snot nosed kid with a suzuhondota and a fart can exhaust ridin' around on the inner sidewalls of their tires can have a black plate.

 

here is a seller. Not saying to buy here, but they do have some good pictures showing the various years.
https://www.californiaoldlicenseplates.com/

 

Toyxxx

 

Well, opinions vary. I stand my mine.

 

No self respecting, "period correct" anal-retentive would consider using the new heritage plate; they are aluminum, reflective and the numbering is of the present system. The original plates will continue to retain their value...until the trend fades away.

 

Yeah, of the thousands of ways the state governments make money to trim the red side of the ledger, I am not upset that when they saw a demand for 'vintage black plates' in car crazy CA they decided to supply the demand with a new black plate.
Here in AZ, they sell registration info to companies for whatever use they want. Of course, this info is NOT available to individuals and you can't set your info to 'private' or not provide it because driving is a privilege. That's BS. This is a quibble in comparison.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pky8a8/dmv-mvd-sell-photo-ssn-private-investigators