Starting at either the beginning of 1994 or the end of 1993, "California" started being written in a trendy red "lipstick" script across the top of the license plate, instead of being stamped in raised block lettering. This practice has continued to this day.
At various points, different text appeared in red at the bottoms of these plates. From 1998-2000, this text read "SESQUICENTENNIAL - 150 YEARS". Starting in 2011, the text began to read "dmv.ca.gov".
Standard white-with-California-in-cursive-handwriting passenger plates continued to follow the same license numbering pattern as the previous white-with-California-in-block-printing passenger plates had. That is, a numeric digit, followed by three letters, followed by three numeric digits.
Standard white-with-California-in-cursive-handwriting plates issued for commercial vehicles continued the license plate number pattern that had been in use by the white-with-California-in-block-printing plates. That is, they consisted of a single numeric digit, followed by a single letter, followed by 5 numeric digits. No half-space was used between any of these characters. As before, the 3 digit group was incremented first, then when they wrapped back around to zeroes the letter was incremented, then when the letter wrapped back around to A the first digit was incremented.
Eventually, in either the late 2010s or the early 2020s, these combinations ran out. When this happened, the order was reversed: 5 numeric digits, followed by a single letter, followed by a single numeric digit. This pattern would have gone 00000A1, 00001A1, 00002A1, ..., 99999A1, 00000B1, 00001B1, ..., 99999Z1, 00000A2, 00001A2, etc..
White-with-California-in-cursive-handwriting trailer plates continued to follow the pattern of the white-with-California-in-block-printing trailer plates, with a single numeric digit followed by two letters followed by four numeric digits.
Prior to 2001, all trailers had to get a new registration sticker every year, just like cars and trucks did. Starting in 2001, trailers began instead to be issued "permanent trailer identification". A $10 registration renewal fee still had to be paid every 5 years, but this was so small that it wasn't worth it to require evidence to be displayed on the trailer itself.
(This rule does not apply to "trailer coaches" or "park trailers." These are trailers designed for human occupancy. Such trailers still get white-with-California-in-cursive-handwriting plates issued to them with a license number that starts with 1 followed by 2 letters followed by 4 digits, and have to have a yearly registration sticker in the upper-right corner just like a regular passenger or commercial plate does.)
You'll see Permanent Trailer plates on semi trailers that are part of big rigs. That's because there is currently no weight fee connected to the trailer. Under current law, weight fees are connected only to the towing unit, and are paid based on the total gross weight of the combination for each state they enter. (If the towing unit has a "permanent" tag from another state, which isn't apportioned, such vehicles must use a trip permit or temporary registration to enter California. Source: https://anewscafe.com/2011/09/07/redding/traffic-cop-are-out-of-state-big-rigs-paying-their-share/)
Trailers with existing plates were issued a white "PTI" sticker, which was to cover up the previous year's annual registration sticker. Newly registered trailers were issued white plates with the "California" logo replaced with the words "California Perm Trailer" (also in trendy script), and red bars replacing the month/year registration sticker wells in the upper corners.
While the license numbers on these plates did continue the digit/letter/four-digits pattern of previous trailer plates, the first digit started with 4 to avoid overlapping the combinations used on previous plates.
During the early years of the white-with-California-in-cursive-handwriting license plate era, exempt plates continued to be indicated by an "E" on the left side of the plate inside an octagon or a diamond — octagon for local governments, diamond for the state government.
The license numbers for these plates consisted entirely of six numeric digits, ranging from 100000 to 999999, after the E-in-the-octagon-or-diamond. Although there were no sticker wells, thin rectangles with the words "MO" and "YR" still appeared where the month and year sticker wells would go on a regular non-exempt plate.
Some of these plates had a first numeric digit of 0. Despite having California in trendy script at the top, these were actually part of the subsequent "CA EXEMPT" plate program that started in 1998 (described below). There had been a surplus of [E]-stamped blank plates lying around, so California decided to use them up by treating the [E] as a 1. A vehicle with an E-in-an-octagon license number of [E]012345 would be listed in the DMV database as having a license number of 1012345, for example.
Starting in 1998, California stopped making a distinction between license plates for exempt vehicles owned by local governments, and license plates for exempt vehicles owned by the state government. Instead, all exempt vehicles are now issued license plates with "CA EXEMPT" in non-embossed red block letters across the top.
These plates have 7-digit license numbers, from 1000000 onward.
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