Washington, D.C. Personalized Plates

Personalized license plates, also known as "vanity" plates, have a registration number comprised of letters and/or numbers chosen by the vehicle owner. Although usually considered a separate plate and registration type by plate collectors, personalized plates are considered part of the private passenger category by most DMVs including that of Washington, D.C. Plates of this type have always been issued in pairs for periods identical to those of other registration types (i.e. April 1 through March 31 annually until the expiration of registrations became staggered in 1983).

It was during the mid-1960s that vanity plates were first made available in many of the states, and their debut in the District of Columbia came in late 1964. The black-on-white plate style introduced that year and issued for more than a decade incorporated the wide dies used to make most D.C. plates in use at the time. Long after their use had been abandoned for all other plate types, however, they continued to be used to make personalized plates, resulting in five being the maximum number of characters allowed on each plate for many years. Not until a second plate style was introduced in the late 1970s or early 1980s, on the blue-on-white Nation's Capital (1978) base, was the number of available characters increased to six. On the present computer-generated plates the limit is seven. Punctuation and other marks offered in some of the states have never been available on D.C. personalized plates.

As with all non-passenger plate types from this jurisdiction, the history of personalized plates is not entirely understood. A lack of ample documentation about them leaves us to draw conclusions about their history mostly based upon known examples.

First-Issue (1964) Baseplate

The most noteworthy and unusual characteristics of the earliest Washington, D.C. personalized plates relate to the way in which the city's name is displayed. This important feature was conspicuously absent until the plate was validated with a long decal placed below a horizontal rule embossed directly below the registration number. These strip decals, used from 1964 (exp. 3-31-65) through 1967 (exp. 3-31-68) are marked with WASHINGTON, D.C. and the expiration date.

Nineteen sixty-four baseplates appear to be the first of all D.C. plates to have featured the city name as WASHINGTON, D.C. When they were issued in the fall of 1964 other D.C. plates in use were red on white with 3-31-65 embossed in the upper corners and DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA centered at the bottom. (Click here for an image.) Interestingly, however, the personalized plate stickers have WASHINGTON, D.C. printed on them, not DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Regular plates issued about six months later in the spring of 1965 (marked 3-31-66) are also marked WASHINGTON, D.C., and when one considers the lead time needed to produce a year's worth of plates it is reasonable to assume that by the time the 3-31-65 vanity plate decals were printed the decision to change the way the city name was displayed on license plates had already been made.

Although a revised plate style with the city name embossed was introduced in early 1968, 1964 baseplates could continue to be used as long as they were properly revalidated annually. One 1968 base pictured below was validated into 1986, and others (of both the 1964 and 1968 styles) were likely used later.

	This plate exhibits characteristics of the earliest personalized plates and is, in fact, a first-issue. Properly referred to as a 1964 plate, the decal stretching across the bottom indicates the first expiration date for Washington, D.C. plates of this type: March 31, 1965.
	Plate US-1 shows the second-issue (1965) sticker, which is the same color as passenger car plates of that year and indicates a 3-31-66 expiration. It was displayed on a Lincoln in the presidential fleet that was used by four U.S. presidents.
	This first-issue base was validated for the third year of the District's personalized plate program. Wide dies used to make these plates limited the number of available characters to five.
	Most unusual about this plate is the different die used to emboss the slogan. More obvious is the change in sticker styles after the white-on-green 1967 ("3-31-68") strip sticker. A small black-on-white dated "69" sticker was used only on vanity plates for 1968, although on this example it's covered by the 1970 ("3-31-71") sticker.
	Plate no. 9212 is shown simply to illustrate that D.C. drivers are not limited to using only letters on their personalized plates. All-numeric combinations are allowed, too, as long as they are above 1250, the highest reserved-number registration issued.

Exactly Where Is That Car From?

Imagine how odd it would be to see a plate without a jurisdiction name, like C-W-F above, in use! It was possible in Washington in 1968 and early 1969, and although only a small quantity of "no-name" plates were used for only a short period it's an interesting story that's worthy of being told.

As 1967 drew to a close and plans were made for the March 1968 renewal season, D.C. DMV officials knew that motorists with plates of all registration types except personalized would be receiving new plates for the April 1968-March 1969 registration year. Therefore, dated "69" validation stickers were needed (and were in fact issued) only for personalized plates. For some unknown reason, however, a decision was made to not make them in the "strip" style, with the city name, issued for the previous four years. Instead, the black-on-white 69 stickers are of the same small size and format as the white-on-green dated 68 sticker, the first to be issued in D.C.

These traditional-style 1969 stickers were perfectly adequate when used to validate vanity plates already in use because the black-on-white plates had the city name displayed and still visible on the white-on-green 3-31-68 strip sticker. The '69 issue simply covered the right potion of the older sticker, as shown on plate RBT above (although on this example the '69 sticker has been covered by the white-on-red dated '71 sticker). The no-name vanity plates were the result of motorists purchasing new personalized registrations, evidenced with plates without an older strip decal. The problem was identified and corrected rather quickly, on or about Feb. 1, 1968, with plates upon which the city name is embossed (as shown below).

It's impossible to say how many sets of personalized plates were distributed with a '69 sticker and no mention of the issuing jurisdiction. Also impossible is the determination of exactly when and for how long these plates were issued. Because this is such an unusual occurrence in the overall history of U.S. license plates and because it happened so relatively recently, we believe it's worth spending some time and energy to address these questions. If you agree, read on! If you don't, click here to jump over the following discussion.

The determination of exactly when and for how long D.C. vanity plates were issued and used with no jurisdiction name is presently impossible due to uncertainties as to exactly when certain changes were made to them and when stickers of particular registration years ceased to be issued in favor of stickers of the following year. However, we know enough to speculate that only a small quantity of them were used only for, at most, about 14 months. If you consider how relatively few vehicles were registered in Washington, D.C. in the late 1960s, then speculate as to what small percentage of private passenger vehicle owners chose to purchase vanity plates, and then consider that what resulted in these no-name plates being issued was only the purchase of a new personalized registration (not any renewals) during a mid-winter period of what may have been as short as a few weeks, it becomes evident that we're discussing a very small number of plates, possibly not even 50 sets.

It is important to understand that the date shown on D.C plates and stickers of this era indicates the registration expiration (not issuance) date. For example, personalized plates bearing the white-on-green strip sticker marked 3-31-68 were valid for use from April 1, 1967, through March 31, 1968. More theoretical, because we don't know the facts, is the premise that at some point prior to March 31, stickers (or plates, if applicable) marked "3-31" of any registration year would stop being issued in favor of stickers of the following year. For example, if someone obtained a new personalized plate in Nov. or Dec. of 1967 it came with a white-on-green 3-31-68 sticker. But what if a motorist obtained a new personalized registration and set of plates during February or March? What if their registration was issued on March 25 or 26? Returning to our example, as of some (undetermined) early 1968 date it would make no sense to continue to issue plates with a 3-31-68 sticker that was soon to expire, so prior to the end of the 1967-68 registration year 3-31-68 stickers stopped being issued and 3-31-69 stickers were distributed instead.

Back in the days when registrations were issued annually and their expiration was not staggered, motorists (especially those not prone to procrastinating) were aware of what was commonly referred to as a plate or sticker's "earliest display date." In most jurisdictions, plates and stickers could be displayed no earlier than one month prior to the beginning of their period of validity. In D.C. and most other places that used an April 1 to March 31 registration year, the earliest display date for plates and stickers was March 1. Therefore, we presume, stickers or plates for the upcoming new registration year were almost certainly issued as early as the earliest display date, and possibly before. For example, anyone that purchased a regular D.C. registration during March 1964 received a red-on-white plate marked 3-31-65, not a black-on-yellow plate marked 3-31-64.

An article about the history of Washington, D.C. plates in a 1987 issue of the ALPCA Newsletter indicates that the second-issue personalized baseplate, with the city name embossed, was introduced at the beginning of Feb. 1968. DCplates.com would have expected that prior to this time new vanity plates would have been issued with 3-31-68, not 3-31-69 stickers, preventing the distribution of plates with no indication of the issuing jurisdiction. However, the same article clearly indicates that no-name plates were indeed issued, the presumption therefore being that 3-31-69 stickers were issued in conjunction with purchases of new personalized registrations for some period more than two months prior to the beginning of the registration year. For example, if we assume that new personalized registrations purchased during the first quarter of any year were issued with stickers (or plates) for the registration year to begin on April 1 of that year, then no-name plates were issued for one month, Jan. 1968, after which plates with the embossed city name were issued.

Until additional facts come to our attention about the timing of the introduction of 3-31-69 stickers and (separately) personalized plates with the city name embossed we can only assume that if 1964-style plates were indeed issued only with a 3-31-69 sticker, resulting in a plate with no visible jurisdiction identifier, they likely were not issued for long.

Second-Issue (1968) Baseplate

As discussed above, WASHINGTON, D.C. began to be embossed on personalized plates thought to have been introduced in February 1968 due to a change having been made in the style of sticker issued to validate plates of only this type for the April 1968-March 1969 registration year. Plates of this style were issued slightly longer than ten years, until late 1978, but only for new registrations. Older (1964-style) plates could continued to be revalidated throughout the period during which these 1968 baseplates were issued, and both black-on-white plate styles could continue to be revalidated at least into the late 1980s after the next (1978) base was introduced.

	This example shows the embossed city name introduced (on plates of this type) in early 1968. Plate B O L is an example of a natural (i.e. new) 1975 (exp. 3-31-76) registration, although due to the combination of plate and sticker styles no expiration date (March 31) is indicated.
	The traditional, plain black-on-white format, with wide dies not used on passenger plates since early 1966, continued to be the standard for personalized plates issued through most of the 1970s, and they could have been used, if properly revalidated annually, into (we believe) the early 1990s.

1978 and Later Baseplates

The story of D.C. personalized plates becomes much easier to understand as of late 1978. It was then that this type joined other non-passenger types in being made on the standard-issue plate, which at the time was the new 1978 base. (No vanity plates were made on the 1974 base.) Since late 1978, personalized plates have been made on whatever base was being used for most other plate types at the time.

With the introduction of the 1978 personalized base the wide 1957-66 dies were finally retired. The introduction to vanity plates of narrower dies used to make most other D.C. plates since 1966 allowed the number of characters permitted on them to be increased from five to six. The number was increased to its present level, from six to seven, at some as yet unidentified date between 1978 and 1987.

Looks Can Be Deceiving

Washington, D.C. is the only U.S. jurisdiction that does not offer plates of a distinctive type to amateur radio operators. D.C. plates with ham radio call signs are in fact personalized plates, not examples of a separate type.