Starting in 1993, California began to offer "Yosemite Conservancy" plates with a background image depicting the mountains of the park. This was followed up in 1996 by "Lake Tahoe Conservancy" plates depicting the lakeshore, and in 1997 by "California Coastal Commission" plates depicting a whale's tail. "California" continued to appear at the top of these plates in trendy red cursive script.
Since blue passenger plates stopped somewhere in the 1S__ range, and California sunset passenger plates started with 2AAA000, this left the combinations from 1UAA000 through 1ZZZ999 unused. This range of license numbers was divided up among the different types of scenic plates.
These plates say "Yosemite National Park" at the bottom, and depict a mountain range in Yosemite. Passenger license numbers issued for these plates started with 1UAA000, and as of 2025 have only gotten as far as the 1UB's. Commercial license numbers issued for these plates started with 2Z00001, and as of 2025 have gotten as far as the 2Z6's.
These plates say "Lake Tahoe" at the bottom, and depict the lake with a pine tree branch off to the left and snow-covered mountains in the distance. Passenger license numbers issued for these plates started with 1UEA000, and ran somewhere into the 1UE's before the plate style was discontinued. Commercial license numbers issued for these plates started with 2Z35000, and got as far as the 2Z38's before the plate stopped being issued.
These plates say "Protect Lake Tahoe" at the bottom, and depict the lake with snow-covered mountains in the distance and a beige (one might be tempted to say "smoggy") sky. Both passenger and commercial license numbers issued for these plates started where the previous (Tahoe Version 1) design left off.
These plates say "Protect our Coast & Ocean" at the bottom, and depict the tail of an enormous whale breaching the sea, high enough to make it kinda hard to read the "California" in trendy script at the top of the plate. They are sometimes called "whale tail" plates. Early issues of this design had a fuzzy, almost impressionist-art image with subtle colors; starting in 2004, this was revised to make the whale's tail stand out in stronger contrast against the ocean and sky (and the artist's signature, Wyland, started appearing in the lower-right corner). Passenger license numbers issued for these plates started with 1VAA000, ran all the way through 1VAZ999, then skipped to 1VDA000 and made it into the 1VDZ's before the plate style was discontinued. Commercial license numbers issued for these plates started with 2Z50000, and got somewhere into the 2Z5's before the plate stopped being issued.
These plates say "Protect our Coast & Ocean" at the bottom, and depict the tail of an enormous whale about to descend back into the sea. Unlike the version 1 design, there is a clear and sharp contrast between the water and the sky. Rumor has it that the switch to the new artwork was sparked by a dispute between the artist of version 1 and the State of California.
Like version 1, these plates are sometimes called "whale tail" plates. Both passenger and commercial license numbers issued for these plates continued the sequence from Version 1. However, there appears to have been some overlap in passenger license plate numbers with version 1, in that 1VDZ316 was reported as having the version 1 design but 1VDY714 was reported as having the version 2 design (source: https://licenseplates.cc/history.php?id=23).
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