Michigan License Plates

This updated version of the 2007 base began in 2013, but it did not replace it. Both bases are still valid.

"PureMichigan" logo at top. Series presumably began at DAA 0000.

Low: DAA 0801 2015-09-13 Duncan Malloch

Brett Weisbrot - 26 May ’23

This base began in January, 2007 and it is still valid. It replaced previous bases by the end of that year. This base was updated with a new design in 2013 for new registrants, but the 2007 base is still being revalidated.

The series presumably started at BAA 0000. BAA 0006 reported as a low in the Bay City area by Colin MG.

Mike Iczkowski - 9 Jan ’14

This is the new in 2013 Mackinac Bridge optional plate that replaces the Spectacular Peninsula optional.

The design was changed in 2014 for better visibility. The main change was from white registration characters to black, but the graphic background was also toned down.

Original high: AJG 843

Revised low: AJH 790

Andy Deceunynck reports that he saw two MBA nnn plates in St Ignace, MI which is the town on the north end of the bridge. The letters would seem to be an acronym of Mackinac Bridge. Eric Kipp speculates that the "MBA" on the plate legend likely stands for "Mackinac Bridge Authority." Gary Forgue reports seeing several MBA plates in the Detroit area in the past year.

Eric Kipp reports AA 2110 on 2014-07-09, which appears to be a Commercial plate on the Mackinac Bridge base.

Gary Forgue - 31 May ’23

Spotted in Rochester Hills

This is the new optional "Bridge" plate that replaces the "Bridge" plate with the Great Lakes Splendor legend. Steven reports 2HA A56 as the low.

Spec. Pen. Purple Heart: 476C1 2013-11-10 Bill Christian, III

John - 24 Nov ’21

This option debuted December 1, 2021. Low is 0NBM00 per Eric Tanner.

w7n - 21 May ’23

'Pure Michigan' base presumably started with RB 00000

Brett Weisbrot - 3 Nov ’22

Commercial low: CA 00275

2007 high: CF 13636 2015-07-15 Eric Kipp

The "Pure Michigan" base presumably started at DA 00000.

Lucas Kannou - 30 May ’23

This is on the revised design.

Eric Kipp - 1 Jun ’18

G01 42A reported as a low by Rob.

Lucas Kannou - 2 Jul ’22

From John Northup: Dealer plates expiring Feb 2014 are now being issued with the "PureMichigan" tourism logo at the top of the plate, instead of the blue bar. This makes the state name much more difficult to read. The numbering sequence resets every year. Even-year expirations have the small "D" in the fourth position; odd-year expirations place it in the third.

Low: 000D03 2015-07-02 seen in the Detroit area by Gary Forgue.

Isaac Wilson IV - 23 Mar ’22

On the Pure Michigan base

Eric spotted the first plate of this new type - 0000E0 on 2007-09-29.

John Northup - 16 Apr ’23

On the new Mackinac Bridge base.

Lucas Kannou - 2 Mar ’23

Looks like this series may have picked up near where the now-defunct blue trailer series concluded. Chris Chan reports the same type of plate in the Flint area in the nXnnnn series, but the reason for the X series is unknown. John Northup reports X-series high on 3/7/10.

Lucas Kannou - 15 Nov ’22

Lucas Kannou - 18 May ’23

A new series being piloted on Consumers Energy vehicles, for use by large fleets. These plates do not require validation tabs (PF stands for Permanent Fleet).

Lucas Kannou - 13 Sep ’22

New dies. New format for 2007 is AB12345 with no space between the letters and numbers. As in the past, there is room at the bottom for the weight sticker. AA00852 is the low.

BA02155 is the low for Pure Michigan.

Lucas Kannou - 2 Jun ’23

Instead of keeping the distinctive yellow-on-navy style with the pre-1982 dies (to accommodate the two-line legend), new Historical Vehicle plates are the standard blue bar style, with HISTORICAL screened on the bottom. Low for this series, 079541, reported by John Northup 8-1-2009. The series continued where the former yellow/blue series left off, however skipping the 100000's, which are used for State Govt.

Lucas Kannou - 30 Aug ’22

000G013 reported as a low by Isaac.

Now on the "PureMichigan" base

Lucas Kannou - 21 Dec ’22

Gunther Frostyburger - 26 Jan ’23

Upon reaching ZZ 999, the series changed to the A000A format.

2007 base low: K022N

Eric Tanner reports that after finishing Z999Z, they apparently rolled back around to A000A again, which was last used on the old blue base.

Lucas Kannou - 26 Jul ’22

Andrew Turnbull - 30 Dec ’18

Andrew Turnbull - 5 Jan ’23

MUNICIPAL is screened across the bottom. Isaac reported 000x050 for a low.

Isaac Wilson IV - 3 Nov ’22

Now on Pure Michigan base.

Issued to non-profit entities, like churches, the Red Cross, and some ambulance companies.

Gary Forgue reports 000Y038 as a low.

John Northup - 17 Apr ’23

New dies; still no space. Beginning in 2004, all trailers were switched to this type upon renewal. The series presumably begain at A000000. Chris Chan reports A000042 as a low. Trivia: Personalized plates aside, this was Michigan's first 7-character series--of any type--since 1932.

Gary Forgue - 11 May ’23

Lucas Kannou - 27 May ’23

Usually reserved for very specialized equipment permanently mounted to a vehicle, such as for mounting commercial signs.

Isaac Wilson IV - 21 Sep ’07

"STATE GOVT" screened at bottom. Probably started at 100000. 100002 reported as a low by Jim Turner.

MDOT has a different numbering scheme than other state government vehicles, using 7 numbers instead of 1nnnnn, and possibly starting with 0030000. Isaac reports 0033154 on 2009-07-24.

Isaac Wilson IV - 17 Jun ’21

David Wilson - 29 Jun ’10

Colin McGregor - 8 Mar ’15

Issue began in 1996 at 0MA00, but it appears Olympic is now using the same configuration as other Specialty plates. Fee is $25 annually, hence the scarcity. By comparison, the optional "Bridge" graphic plates cost only $5 extra upon first registration and nothing additional to renew.

It looks like SOS has gone back to the special format for Olympic plates, tacking an extra number to the end thanks to the Florida dies (FRPs now have the option of six digits for personalized tags). However, Plate It Your Way still shows the 0MA00 format as the only one for Olympic plates.

Isaac Wilson IV - 13 Jul ’10

Series shared by Michigan State Fire Fighters Union, Michigan State Firemen's Association, Fraternal Order of Police, Freemasons, and Police Officers Association of Michigan.

Now on "Pure Michigan" as of at least 1CF38.

Bill Christian, III - 10 Aug ’13

On the "Pure Michigan" base.

Both the B and G series are being issued on the new base. No reason is known.

G high: GY92K 2015-10-12 Bill Woodard

This series is applied to all of Michigan's university and fundraiser plates, except for those listed elsewhere on this page. There was an alternate series in the A00AA format that was used for mail orders from Lansing, but it has been discontinued. This series now features new dies.

Rob reports a low of AA04A on a Central Michigan Univ. plate.

Vanities are permitted on specialty plates, but they had a limit of 5 characters due to space limitations until recently. Now that the new smaller dies are in use, 6 characters will now fit and may be used.

Bill Woodard - 22 Aug ’19

ISA comes after plate number

John Northup - 15 Apr ’23

Formerly on the blue bar base.

Five-year expiration; has the old two-sticker month and year validation system.

The newest version of this plate features a screened, diagonally stacked DV before the characters, which also begin with DV embossed for regular series plates, but personalized is now an option with up to six characters.

Brett Weisbrot - 5 Nov ’22

Willie C. Brock, Jr. - 24 Jan ’14

On the "Pure Michigan" base.

Lucas Kannou - 10 Jul ’22

ISA comes after plate number

John Northup - 1 Aug ’09

AAA0013 is the low for this issue, seen in Tempe, AZ by Ted Martin on 2006-03-04. The die and spacing change took place at AFP8999/AFP 9000.

AUR 5436 was reported by Joey Hurd on 2006-03-22 in Chicago. This is way out of sequence, but it appears to be a regular issue.

ATJ7242 was seen and photographed by John Northup on 05-05-05, but it is way out of sequence from the current allotments.

DSD1225, which is some sort of special issue, was reported by Frank Foster on 2005-05-01. A good guess would be that the first letter "D" stands for Detroit, and the "SD" something else.

SCH9802 (unspaced) was photographed and reported by Isaac.

This series follows "ZZZ 999" in the standard white on blue plate style that has been in use for more than 20 years. There is no space between the letters and numbers on these plates. It is not known yet if the 3/3 plates were produced and issued all the way through ZZZ 999.

Colin McGregor - 8 Mar ’15

Low for narrow dies is 5197 KP. John Northup reports that non-commercial trucks will now receive regular passenger plates instead of truck plates, and fees will be based on the same schedule as cars. Existing truck plates on non-commercial vehicles will continue to be renewed, but new registrations will receive passenger plates. Commercial trucks will continue to receive truck plates.

Rob - 28 Dec ’06

Eric Tanner - 2 Jul ’02

New dies. R0003 was seen with new dies, but R0060 was seen with old dies. R1658 had new dies.

Chris Chan - 20 Jan ’07

Eric Tanner - 5 Jan ’07

Yellow on navy blue series with 1970s dies. No longer issued, but still valid for existing registrations. New registrants get the fully-reflective blue/white series. Ten year validation interval; this example expires April 2016.

Lucas Kannou - 17 May ’23

John reports having seen two ZZZ plates in Brighton, so perhaps that office got the last of the 6-digit plates. Plates have been observed as high as XHE 280 with no sticker box, and as low as XJH 451 with a sticker box in the lower right corner. Narrow dies low was UDU 000, reported by Eric 11/18/01.

Colin McGregor - 8 Mar ’15

- 26 Feb ’04

Eric reports official confirmation that the last wide die trailer plate was Z 99950. The first narrow die trailer plate was in the new configuration - 0B0001. This series has since been replaced by the new Permanent Trailer issue and is no longer revalidated.

John Northup - 26 May ’01

In 1994, narrower dies were adopted to allow seven characters on personalized plates. These moved onto passenger plates with the UDU xxx series. They eventually crept into all other plate series as well, completely replacing the 1982 die set, except for a few blue-base holdouts that clung to the large 1970s die set. As of 2007, all series were using even narrower 8-digit Florida-style dies.

Eric Tanner - 18 Nov ’01

As with the passenger of this type, the "Month" and "Year" boxes have been eliminated. The highest reported truck series with the boxes is F13 26B. Note that this type is no longer issued to noncommercial pickups; they now get passenger plates (see note under "truck" above).

Eric Tanner - 1 Jun ’06

Rob - 28 Dec ’06

Began in 1997 with other Bridge plates. Started at 00AA0.

Eric Tanner - 2 Mar ’06

Screening has been changed to eliminate the "Month" and "Year" boxes in the blue band at the top of these plates since Michigan has changed to using a single validation sticker. The newer "Florida" dies are now in use on Bridge plates.

Low: 0AA A00 Eric

Chris Chan - 1 Apr ’07

Isaac Wilson IV - 6 Mar ’06

Phased out in favor of the "permanent trailer" plate. No longer revalidated.

Eric Tanner - 3 Aug ’04

Smaller dies

Rob - 22 Dec ’06

No longer issued but still being revalidated. This type was not available as personalized. Low of AAA 04 reported by Bill on 2008-03-19.

Although these plates are still in use, they won't be for much longer. Michigan changed to a 10 year plate life as of 2015. All plates older than 10 years must be replaced. This will eliminate many Great Lakes Splendor plates and all World's Motor Capital plates during 2015.

Spencer - 17 Jul ’07