Rick Kretschmer's License Plate Archives

A Pictorial History of Pennsylvania License Plates
Passenger Car Plates Dated 1958 to Present
(including distinct station wagon plates dated 1960-1964)

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My "Pictorial History" pages are intended to be a supplement to the information found in the ALPCA Archives. I am providing additional details and additional photos not found in the archives, and clarifying information when appropriate. When the ALPCA archives cover a subject in great detail, I do not repeat that detail here. I sincerely hope that you find this information useful.

If you find an error or have additional information, or can provide a plate or a photo of a plate that I'm missing, please send me an e-mail. There's a link to my e-mail address at the bottom of every page. Please note that all plates shown that are credited to another person are plates that I am still seeking for my own collection.

On this page - Pennsylvania passsenger car plates dated 1958 to present
Introduction
Pennsylvania passenger car plates dated 1958-1964 (including distinct station wagon plates dated 1960-1964)
Pennsylvania passenger car plates from 1965-1970
Pennsylvania passenger car plates from 1971-1976
Pennsylvania passenger car plates issued 1977-1979 and with 1980-1984 expirations
Pennsylvania passenger car plates issued with 1984-1988 expirations
Pennsylvania passenger car plates issued with 1988-2001 expirations
Pennsylvania passenger car plates issued with 2000-2006 expirations
Pennsylvania passenger car plates issued with 2005-2009 expirations
Related links

Introduction

From 1906 until 1979, Pennsylvania license plates displayed the year of issuance. However, plates and/or stickers dated from 1941 until 1979 actually expired on March 31 of the following year. The last non-staggered registrations bore a 1979 sticker, which actually expired on March 31, 1980. Staggered registrations were first issued in October 1979, and first expired at the end of September, 1980. Staggered registration stickers have the expiration month and year printed on the stickers rather than the issue year. Pennsylvania has consistently issued single passenger plates since 1952. All Pennsylvania license plates, excluding motorcycle plates, since those with 1956 issue dates have been 6 inches high by 12 inches wide.

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Pennsylvania passenger car and station wagon plates dated 1958-1964

The dated 1958 passenger plate was Pennsylvania's first multi-year base plate, other than the 1942 plate whose life was extended for one year due to metal shortages during World War II. The plates issued in 1958 included a tab slot next to the year, which was shortened to just "58". It's obvious that the intent was to cover the "58" with a metal tab in subsequent years. But these plates were instead renewed in 1959 and subsequent years with a sticker, making Pennsylvania among the first few states to use registration stickers on license plates. The state name abbreviation was shortened to "Pa" and centered; the shortened year "58" was positioned under the upper right bolt hole. The correct placement of the renewal sticker was under the upper left bolt hole, although there was no sticker well or box to indicate this. All 1958-1964 plates carried the embossed year "58" regardless of the actual year of issuance. The tab slot was removed from new issues of the base plate beginning approximately with V-prefixed plates in late 1959.

Serials with four or five characters, which had no letters, one letter at the beginning or end of the serial, or two adjacent letters at the beginning or end of the serial, were all issued in 1958, as were serials with six numeric digits. These formats had all been used previously. However, serials with two non-adjacent letters had been discontinued for 1957, and alpha-numeric serial plates with numbers on both sides of the letter(s) were discontinued for 1958. Six character formats now had a keystone separator between the third and fourth characters. Got all that? In other words, continuing serial formats included 0000, x000, 000x, xx00, 00xx, 00000, x0000, 0000x, xx000, 000xx, and 000-000.

A few new serial formats were introduced during the seven year life of this base. These proved to be more common than any of the continuing formats. Fairly early in 1958, a new format x00-000 made its debut. Later, when all combinations of letters and numbers were issued, formats 000-00x and then 0x0-000 were subsequently used.

1959 passenger renewal sticker		1959 passenger new registration sticker

Pennsylvania employed an unusual sticker serial numbering system from 1959 to 1974 that has confused many collectors. Renewal stickers have a seven digit numeric serial number, which is rather unremarkable. However, year stickers used for newly issued plates always have the serial number "PA0000". These are not sample stickers placed on regular plates. This information can aid the collector in identifying a natural plate merely from a photograph, without having to physically inspect the plate to see whether other stickers are hiding under the top sticker. (Of course, incorrect stickers that have been applied by well-meaning collectors could still be a problem.)

During the years 1960 to 1964, Pennsylvania issued license plates to station wagons and other similar passenger vehicles (which today we would call SUVs and mini-vans) that were distinct from normal passenger car plates. These plates are embossed with the legend "Pa Suburban 60" across the top. "Pa" of course is the state abbreviation, and "60" is the first year of issuance. "Suburban" does not mean the vehicle owner lived in the suburbs, nor does it mean that the vehicle it was assigned to was necessarily a Chevy Suburban. Rather, "suburban" is an archaic term for station wagon.

(Incidentally, this is where the Chevy Suburban got its name. Originally, "Chevy suburban" just simply meant "Chevy station wagon", but gradually as people stopped using the term "suburban" in the generic sense, it came to be used as an actual model name. But I digress.)

Suburban license plates serial numbers formats always included the letter Q as the first letter, although its position varied. Initially, plates had the letter Q and up to five numbers, with the Q initally in position 1, then positions 2 through 6 in order (as opposed to passenger plates which had a letter in postion 1, then 6, then 2). When this format was exhausted, the letter Q was returned to position 1, followed by a second adjacent letter. This second format was also exhausted, and a split format was begun, with the Q in position 1 and another letter in position 3. No stickers were used in 1960 since the year was already embossed on the plate. The embossed year "60" was found on all suburban plates issued 1960 through 1964.

Stickers for 1961 throuh 1964 were of different colors than regular passenger stickers; they were placed in the upper left corner, the only flat place on the plate with enough room. For some unknown reason, a good number of suburban plates have 1964 stickers with serial number PA0000 placed over top of 1963 stickers. Stickers with this serial number ordinarily indicate a new registration, so you should not see them placed over top of other stickers. I'm guessing someone at the DMV got carried away and applied 1963 stickers to too many plates, necessitating covering them with 1964 stickers before they were issued. I've never seen an older-issue (pre-1963) suburban plate with a 1964 sticker with serial PA0000.

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Pennsylvania passenger car plates from 1965-1970

All 1958-1964 passenger and station wagon plates were replaced during a general reissue in 1965. Suburban plates were discontinued and station wagons again received regular passenger car plates. The 1965 base plate was undated and was valid during its first year without stickers; it was renewed with stickers through 1970. It again featured the state map outline border, this time with dark blue characters on a dark yellow background. For the first time in Pennsylvania license plate history, the state name was spelled out in full. Correct sticker placement was again in the upper left corner, although there were no aids such as sticker wells or boxes to guide the motorist with sticker location.

Serial formats were similar to the 1958 base, except that plates with fewer than 6 characters were not issued as standard plates. First, all numeric 6 digit plates were issued, followed in order by serials with a letter in position 1, position 6, position 2, and position 3. Vanity plates were introduced in 1965, although the serial numbers could not exceed 5 characters and were required to contain both letters and numbers, and words were not allowed. Motorists who wanted to keep their 5 character or fewer serial numbers from the previous base were allowed to do so by ordering them as vanity plates.

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Pennsylvania passenger car plates from 1971-1976

The next Pennsylvania passenger general reissue was in 1971. Anticipating that these plates would be used through 1976, these plates bore the legend "Bicentennial State '76" along the bottom, and featured a large embossed Liberty Bell graphic separator in the center. (The real Liberty Bell is located in Philadelphia.) The serial number dies were made narrower in order to accommodate the Liberty Bell graphic; these dies remain in use through the present day. The full state name appeared again at the top center, and for the first time, there were sticker wells located in the upper left and upper right corners. On early issues, the left sticker well contained an etched "71", no doubt necessary since the only other year indicated on the plate was the embossed '76. The state map outline border was history; this was the first passenger plate since 1936, 35 years prior, not to have this feature.

On this base, even year stickers were blue on white and were placed in the right well; odd year stickers were red on white and went in the left well. Beginning in 1973, most plates displayed two stickers at any given time; the plates pictured are naturals and therefore have only one sticker. 1974 was the last year for the special new registration sticker with serial "PA0000". Beginning in 1975 and continuing through 2000, newly issued plates had a sticker with a large "T" (for temporary), which was then supposed to be overlaid with an actual year sticker with a normal serial number for the initial registration year. Therefore, finding natural plates during this timeframe is a little tricky, because there will almost always be the "T" sticker under the first year sticker.

Serial formats followed the same pattern as the 1965 base, except that it became necessary to use the fourth serial position for the letter. Therefore, the sequence of serial formats was 000*000, x00*000, 000*00x, 0x0*000, 00x*000, and finally 000*x00. (The asterisk indicates the position of the Liberty Bell separator.)

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Pennsylvania passenger car plates issued 1977-1979 and with 1980-1984 expirations

The general reissue of March 1977 swept away the bicentennial plates that had become so "last year". Keeping with tradition, the next base plate had dark blue letters on a dark yellow background. At the center of the plate was a large, embossed keystone outline; the legend at the bottom proclaimed "Keystone State" for the first time. At the top of the plate were the state name and the two sticker wells in the upper corners. This time, there was no etched date in either well, nor was there any embossed date on this plate. The plate was used for its first year without stickers, and in subsequent years with stickers. Again, the even year stickers were supposed to go in the upper right corner, and the odd year stickers in the upper left corner. But sticker placement became confusing to new registrants on this base, because the temporary "T" sticker was consistently placed in the upper right corner during manufacture. Motorists tended to place their first expiration sticker over top of the "T" sticker, regardless of whether it was an even or odd year.

There were a few significant changes in Pennsylvania license plate issuance during the time this yellow base was issued. Upon reaching serial 9Z9*999 in approximately August or September 1979, the long-running one-letter serial format was discontinued, and new plates began to be issued in the xxx*000 format that was widely used across the U.S. at the time. A small number of early Axx*000 series plates were issued with 1979 registration stickers. Staggered registration was introduced in October 1979, with the earliest stickers indicating a September 1980 expiration, since Pennsylvania initially registers vehicles for an 11 month period. When the 1979 annual stickers all expired at the end of March 1980, renewals were issued with staggered expiration dates ranging between September 1980 and August 1981.

1979 passenger sticker (expired March 1980)	1980 passenger sticker (Sept.-Dec. only)	1981 passenger sticker (Jan.-Dec.)	1982 passenger sticker Type 1 (Jan.-Aug.)	1982 passenger sticker Type 2 (Sept.-Dec.)

The staggered registration stickers contain the expiration month and year on a single sticker. All stickers for a given year have the same colors. For some reason, the 1980 stickers (which were dated September-December only), all 1981 stickers, and the January-August 1982 stickers featured the expiration month in large prominent letters, while the expiration year was so small you had to be inches away to read it. At a distance, these stickers looked like month stickers only.

This scheme was not well thought-out for a couple of reasons. An example of one problem: if a motorist already had 1978 and 1979 year stickers, then received a staggered January 1981 expiration and dutifully placed the January 1981 sticker over the 1979 sticker in the left well, it then appeared that the plate expired in January 1978 rather than January 1981. A second problem: The 1980 and 1982 stickers had the same color scheme, and two stickers were displayed on the plate at a time. Therefore, beginning in September 1981 when the September 1982 expiration renewal stickers were issued, there would be no way to distinguish between a plate with 1980 and 1981 stickers, and one with 1981 and 1982 stickers, except from inches away.

The state wised up to these problems, and beginning with the September 1982 sticker, the format was changed to display a large numeric month and two-digit year. This sticker format continues until the present.

The dark blue on dark yellow base continued to be issued to new registrants until approximately late 1983, with natural 1984 expirations. In late 1983, a new base was introduced; however, existing stocks of the old base continued to be issued simultaneously with the new base until they were depleted. After the March 1977 reissue, Pennsylvania did not have another general reissue until late 1999. By 1999, these 1977 bases had become pretty awful looking, and they were replaced as quickly as the tri-color base plates became available, without even waiting for the old yellow plates to expire one last time.

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Pennsylvania passenger car plates issued with 1984-1988 expirations

About mid 1983, a new base plate was introduced, but even though six plus years had elapsed since the last general reissue, this new plate was issued to new registrants only. This plate was dark yellow on dark blue, of course, and this time the keystone separator was solid rather than just an outline as was used on the previous base. The most notable feature was the use of the state's then-current tourism slogan, with the words "You've Got a Friend in" across the top of the plate, and continuing the sentence with "Pennsylvania" centered at the bottom of the plate. This entire slogan, including the state name, was embossed using mostly lower case letters, except for the first letters of the main words. The use of embossed lower case letters is fairly rare in license plate history. Anyway, this plate had a single sticker well in the lower left corner only, with just an empty spot in the lower right corner. The intent was of course for motorists to only display a single sticker in the well, but many of them continued the practice of the previous two bases by placing alternating year stickers in the two corners. The serial format continued to be xxx*000; beginning in the HAA series.

This base was somewhat controversial and unpopular due to the slogan, and it was short lived. The serial range got up to the late Rxx series (I don't know whether RZZ*999 was actually reached) in late 1987 when it was replaced.

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Pennsylvania passenger car plates issued with 1988-2001 expirations

(Thanks to Ron Butler for sending photos of his 1988 "Keystone State" plate. I still need this one for my own collection.)

The tourism slogan used for the previous four years was summarily dismissed, and the legend "Keystone State" made its reappearance. The legend and the state name also inexplicably reverted back to all upper case letters. Otherwise, these plates were identical visually to the previous "Friend" base. The legend was placed at the top of the plate, and the state name and single sticker well were at the bottom. Once again, this plate was issued to new registrants only, and the bases introduced in 1977 and 1983 continued to be valid with appropriate stickers. The serial format remained xxx*000, and started in the SAA series.

During 1991, serial ZZZ*999 was reached, exhausing the format. A new serial format xxx-0000 was begun, starting with the AAA series. These were the first 7 character standard passenger plates ever issued by Pennsylvania. Adding the seventh character necessitated shrinking the keystone separator back to the size used from 1958 to 1970. The serial numbers had reached the early Cxx series, specifically to the CEE series by one account, when this base stopped being issued in June 2000.

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Pennsylvania passenger car plates issued with 2000-2006 expirations

Some time during the late 1990s, it dawned on Pennsylvania officials that the state could not go on forever without a plate reissue of some kind. Some of the yellow plates were over 20 years old, and since in Pennsylvania the plate stays with the owner and not the vehicle, there were a significant number of these still on the road. After 20 years of use, many of them had become pretty ratty looking and even unreadable.

The decision was made to replace all plates, both the yellow and the blue plates; however, the yellow plates were replaced first, on an accelerated basis between September 1999 and February 2000. Yellow plates with January expirations were replaced first, and those with December expirations were replaced last, as quickly as the new plates could be made. Serials on this base began in the DAA series; the last of the tri-colored plates that replaced old yellow plates were issued in the DDN series and originally had a December 2000 expiration sticker.

According to information provided by the state, the blue plates were replaced over a two year period between July 2000 and June 2002, as they came up for renewal. Blue plates registered in even-numbered zip codes were scheduled to be replaced between July 2000 and June 2001, and those registered in odd-numbered zip codes between July 2001 and June 2002. However, it's reported by one license plate collector who's a Pennsylvania resident that this deadline was later exteneded to August 2002. Also, optional graphic plates that were not blue and yellow in color were not replaced, nor were the yellow-on-blue "We the People" optional plates that commemorated the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. The new plate was issued to all new registrants beginning July 2000, with the earliest expiration date of June 2001. The remainder of the DDN series not issued as yellow-base replacements were issued this way.

This plate has the familiar sticker well to the left of the state name, both of which have been moved back to the top of the plate. However, numerous plates are floating around out there with no stickers. There are two reasons for this. One is that the old "T" (for "temporary") stickers introduced in 1975 are no longer placed on the plate pending the arrival of a real sticker. Instead the bare plate is issued along with a temporary window sticker. Second, is that residents of Philadelphia were initially required to display "real" (not temporary) window stickers to indicate their plates were valid rather than plate stickers. This was done because theft of plate stickers was apparently a problem that was both significant and primarily limited to Philadelphia for some reason. Apparently some Philadelphia residents did not like being singled out with different stickers, and so for a while they were given the option of receiving a plate sticker or a window sticker. Reportedly, Philadelphia window registration stickers were discontinued in December 2003, and so by now every Pennsylvania license plate on the road should have an expiration sticker on the plate itself.

Serial formats and dies continued from the previous base, with the serial numbers starting in the DAA series. Other than the serial number and the keystone separator, the remainder of the plate is screened. The new plate was the first Pennsylvania standard passenger plate to ever have more than two colors, and the first to have any screened elements. It also has the distinction of being the first license plate anywhere in the United States (and perhaps in the world) to display a web address, www.state.pa.us, which is the address of the state government home page. Since then, however, several other jusrisdictions, including West Virginia, Nebraska, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, and Maryland have followed suit.

The highest observed letter sequence on this plate is FYC. Some very late Fxx series plates were issued with natural early 2006 expiration stickers on this base before the existing stock was used up. The latest reported natural 2006 expiration on this base is April. This base plate continues to be renewed with stickers. However, state law now requires that license plates be replaced upon reaching 10 years of use, so we can expect this base to begin to be removed from the road sometime in late 2009.

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Pennsylvania passenger car plates issued with 2005-2009 expirations

Approximately late December 2004, Pennsylvania began issuing a modified version of the blue-white-yellow tri-color license plate. This new plate differs from the previous base in several subtle, but noticeable ways. The blue and yellow bands no longer fade to white gradually, but rather have distinct boundaries; the blue band is now navy blue rather than light blue; and the fonts used for the word "Pennsylvania" and for the web site address have been revised. The size of the keystone separator has been enlarged slightly. Perhaps most significantly, the web site address itself has been changed to visitPA.com. This site proclaims itself to be the official tourism web site for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania, the initial registration period is for 11 months; for example, a plate registered in December 2004 would expire at the end of November 2005. Therefore, some late 2005 expirations were issued on this new plate.

This new plate design is not a general replacement for the previous tri-color fade design. Rather, it's a "mid-course adjustment" to the tri-colored base, and is being used concurrently. State law now requires plates to be reissued after ten years of use, but it doesn't mandate a general statewide reissue. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether this base will be replaced at the same time as the fade base starting in 2009, or whether the solid band base will continue to be used through about 2014.

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Related links

Back to A Pictorial History of Pennysylvania Passenger Car Plates, 1906 to 1957

Related pages on this site
A Pictorial History of Maryland Passenger Car Plates, 1954 to present
A Pictorial History of North Carolina Passenger Car Plates, 1956 to Present

Pennsylvania passenger car license plates elsewhere on the web
PA PL8S - Images of most every type of current Pennsylvania license plate, by John McDevitt
15q.net - Pennsylvania page  by David Nicholson
The Plate Shack - Pennsylvania section by Marc Welby
The License Plate Gallery - Pennsylvania page by Tim O'Connor

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