Reserved-Number Passenger Car License Plates

DCplates.net has created this page to address reserved-number plates because, especially in the past several years, they have been distinctive in their appearance (see below) as compared to other Washington, D.C. plates. Actually, however, low-number plates have been different, at least slightly, than regular plates for decades, so it makes sense to begin our discussion with a history of D.C. plate numbering.

Note that in addition to being discussed below, general-issue registration numbers are addressed elsewhere, in various contexts, on other pages of this site. For example, topics such as which numbers were assigned annually from 1907 through 1917 and the various general-issue formats of the 1960s are addressed on the pre-1966 passenger page. The use of letter prefixes beginning in the 1920s is also addressed on that page as well as on the non-passenger plate page.

Registration Number Assignment from 1907 through 1934:
Most Numbers Randomly Assigned

The first city-issued plates were introduced in 1907. From then until 1917 (the "porcelain era") the same series of numbers was used. Registration numbers were assigned beginning with 1 in 1907 and progressed, on the same type of undated plate, through the end of 1917 when numbers are estimated to have reached approximately 61395.

There have historically been questions as to the starting point of D.C. plate numbers during the porcelain era (as well as later). Our best evidence of numbers having been issued starting at 1 in 1907 is a registration listing book published in 1912 in which the names of vehicle owners and businesses to whom plates numbered 1 through 11060 had been assigned. Most registrations through number 83 were issued to dealers for use on "demonstrating cars," and the first ten numbers were assigned to the Pope Automobile Company. Some numbers below 83 in the 1912 list have no registrant data associated with them presumably because the registrations were cancelled. Numbers were not reassigned during the porcelain era, but rather were simply abandoned. Three- and four-digit numbers were also assigned to vehicle dealers as the need arose throughout this era. Numbers 2501 through 3100 were set aside for assignment "to Motor Cycle owners only," but otherwise no specific blocks of numbers issued through 1917 are known to have been segregated for particular individuals or vehicle types.

Because every number was issued only once between October 1907 and the end of 1917 there were likely none that were considered "reserved." That's not to say, however, that certain numbers were not considered desirable and were not therefore spoken for long before they came along in the sequence of assignment. As happened in other jurisdictions in later years, and even as the first registrations were issued, in the District of Columbia special numbers such as 50000, 55555, and 56789 were probably requested in advance of when they would have otherwise been issued.

1918-1926: All-Numeric Auto Registrations

The numbering format utilized from 1918 through 1926 does not necessarily lend itself to a group of numbers easily being identified as "low" because all registrations were comprised only of numbers. However, even if it was not easy (or in fact necessary) to differentiate between a "low" and "regular" number, as plate collectors are inclined to try to do today, it appears that some numbers were already being reserved.

Our best evidence of this is a set of 13 plates, one from each year from 1923 through 1935, all with the number 29. As discussed below we believe that a more formal system of reserving numbers year after year for certain vehicle owners was likely not put in place until 1935, yet this group of no. 29 plates is essentially direct evidence that at least by the 1924 renewal season, if not earlier (possibly back to the 1919 renewal season towards the end of 1918), certain numbers were issued to the same individual or business year after year.

Existence of the no. 29 plates also suggests that D.C. registration numbers began at 1 (not 100 as previously thought) annually from at least as early as 1923, and probably back to 1918. From 1918 through 1926 numbers for all motorists were assigned sequentially as high as necessary, reaching just over the 100-000 mark before the general-issue format was changed for 1927 to include a letter prefix, at which time plates with only numbers became more distinctive.

It is believed to have been in 1920, and possibly earlier, that plate numbers 100 through 105 (or at least 100 and 101, with the higher four numbers perhaps obtained slightly later) were first assigned exclusively to the White House. They were displayed with Maryland plates numbered 100-000 through 100-005 until 1924, when a vehicle registration reciprocity agreement with Maryland was reached, obviating the need for plates of that state. Prior to 1918 numbers assigned to the White House are known to have included 4505, 16405, 16471, 16472, 20574, and 22650. More information on this interesting subject will be added to this page or a separate one in the future.

1927-1934: All-Number Plates Become More Distinctive

For 1927, instead of issuing general-issue auto plates numbered above 9999, letter prefixes were introduced after that number was assigned. From 1927 through 1934 numbers were assigned (presumably randomly to motorists) from 1 through 9999, after which plates with various letter prefixes were issued. Although most of the all-number combinations probably were not reserved for particular registrants (aside from the lowest ones, of course), it was during this eight-year period that D.C. motorists probably began to distinguish between auto plates with various numbering formats.

Registration Number Assignment from 1935 through 1956:
Numbers As High As 9999 May Be Reserved

It was for 1935 that the formal practice of reserving certain registration numbers for certain motorists, year after year, is believed to have begun. Another noteworthy change that took effect in this year is the abandonment of letter prefixes on private auto (and non-passenger) plates in favor of a return to all-number plates.

From 1935 through the 1954 plate (marked "3-31-55"), reserved plates were numbered from 1 through 9999. Motorists not lucky enough to obtain one of them were provided with randomly-assigned higher numbers in five- and six-digit formats. From 1935 through the 1946 base ("3-31-47"), non-reserved numbers were issued sequentially as high as needed, in at least one year (1936) slightly higher than 200-000. In each of these years the starting point for non-reserved numbers was at some undetermined number substantially higher than 10000. On the 1948 through 1954 ("3-31-55") plates, non-reserved plates were numbered 1-1001 through 9-9999, and plates with letter prefixes (in a series of A-1 through Z-9999) were assigned after plate 9-9999 was reached.

The span of reserved numbers on the 1955 ("3-31-56") and 1956 ("3-31-57") plates was reduced to 1 through 1000. All other auto plates issued during this period are numbered with two letters followed by four numbers, beginning at AA-10-01, so it was during this period that all-number plates, with the quantity issued now reduced significantly, became far more exclusive and distinctive than they had been previously.

Registration Number Assignment Since 1957:
The Modern System of D.C. Reserved-Number Registrations

Beginning with the 1957 ("3-31-58") plate, reserved number registrations were numbered from 1-1250, and it is in this manner that they are still numbered today. (Conversely, since 1957 five general-issue numbering formats have been used: AB-123 from 1957-63, 1A234 for 1964, 1AB23 for 1965, 123-456 from 1966 through 1997, and AB-1234 since 1997.)

Reserved-Number License Plates

D.C. license plates upon which reserved numbers are displayed were identical in construction and appearance to general-issue plates through the 1968 registration year, which ended on March 31, 1969. For the 1969 registration year, each existing reserved plate was revalidated with a black-on-yellow sticker, to be placed in the upper right corner (as were general-issue auto plates), but motorists to whom new reserved registrations were assigned during the year received black-on-white plates with "3-31" and "70" stamped in the upper left and right corners, respectively.

For the next four registration years, 1970 (exp. 3-31-71) through 1973 (exp. 3-31-74), new dated black-on-white plates were issued annually (while general-issue plates were being validated with stickers). New reserved-number plates have been issued annually ever since, making this one of several plate- and registration-related details that makes Washington, D.C. unique. This is the only place in the United States where at least some passenger car owners still receive a new pair of license plates every year, and this now-unusual practice continues because it facilitates reassignment of the coveted numbers annually.

Beginning with the 1974 ("Bicentennial") base reserved-number plates were validated with stickers, making them look like multi-year plates, but none were used for more than a single twelve-month period and none should have ever had more than a single sticker applied to them. When the expiration of general-issue passenger registrations began to be staggered in 1983 reserved-number registrations continued to be issued annually using an April-March registration year, and this remains the practice today. Low-number plates followed the matching sticker serial number rule from 1967 through 1987 as described on the stickers page.

As for their design, reserved-number plates of the 1974 (exp. 3-31-75) to 2000 (exp 3-31-2001) registration years closely resemble the general-issue design. Since 2001 the D.C. government has taken advantage of the annual plate replacement to experiment with some interesting and unusual graphics.

2001 (expires 3-31-02)	2002 (expires 3-31-03)	2003 (expires 3-31-04)
2004 (expires 3-31-05)	2005 (expires 3-31-06)	2006 (expires 3-31-07)

2007 (expires 3-31-08)	2008 (expires 3-31-09)

Click here to see photographs of reserved plates in use.

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	This page last updated on May 20, 2008
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