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New York License Plates

Excelsior base introduced in 2020 as a replacement for the previous two bases.

New York announced the yellow/orange base plate starting in April 2010 for transactions that require new plates. An additional $25 fee will be added to renewal charges for the new plates. New plates will be issued to renewals starting in May 2010. Registrants may keep their current plate number by paying an additional $20 fee.

Ron Ridolph advises that Passenger plates started in the FAB, FAC, FAD, and FAE series. FAA was skipped.

Although these plates were to replace the current blue on white base for common types such as Passenger, Commercial, Motorcycle, and Trailer, it was not intended for Specials for professions or special groups. Those plates will be replaced later by a different design to be announced at a later date.

Update: Due to public outcry, the yellow/orange plates did NOT become a mandatory general reissue, but were issued for new registrations only. Many people had been objecting to the steep fees associated with the planned reissue, which has much more to do with raising money for the state to use in their budget shortfall than just replacing the current base plates. Had the original plan to make the new base a general reissue gone through, it would have generated $129 million for the state. In addition to the new plates, registration and insurance surcharge fees increased.

Regarding the T800205T format Taxi plates, Felice advised: These plates are issued to NYC Taxis while they wait for the plate with their medallion number to be made. These plates started in the 1970s when they were the standard issue for NYC taxis, around 1989-90 they were replaced with medallion numbers.

Non-Passenger types on the 2010 base were to appear in the following formats and number blocks:

AGRICULTURE: 10000-GL

AMBULANCE: 10000-EV

APPORTIONED: 10000-PC

BUS: 10000-BB

COMMERCIAL: 10000-MA

DEALER: 7000000

FARM: 10000-FR

HANDICAPPED: 600000

HISTORICAL: HX-50000

LIVERY: 10000-LV

MOTORCYCLE: MT

OFFICIAL: R-10000

SCHOOL: 10000-SH

SPECIAL COMMERCIAL: 10000-SM

T & L C: T600000C

TAXI: 10000-TY

TOW TRUCK: 10000-TT

TRACTOR: 10000-TC

TRAILER: BA-10000

TRANSPORTER: 2000000

Current Series

2010 Series

Passenger

JSF-9999

Davon Nagy - Mar 4 ’21

This is the new Empire Gold issue that began April 1, 2010. Low: FAB 1774 John Rotella reports that as of 5/24/10, Cayuga County DMV is offering customers their choice of new Empire Gold or old Empire White plates. Cayuga County's DMV is in Auburn, where the license plates are made at the prison just 4 blocks from the DMV office. The State's official policy was that white plates would be used up before gold were issued in any particular office. John also reports that Cayuga County has been issuing their stock of plates in reverse order. Rich Daniels reports the following skipped series: FAG, FAT, FCC, FDA, FDR, FED, FEM, FME were all skipped. All of the FKx series. Most FxK series were skipped up through FMK, except for FAK, FBK and FJK, which were produced and issued. FRK, FWK were skipped in the FxK series, but FPK, FSK, FTK, FXK and FYK were produced. All FxU prefixes were skipped: FAU, FBU, FCU, FDU, FEU, FFU, FGU, FHU, FJU, FLU, FMU. FNx series also skipped. FRT, FTA, FTC, and FTD series skipped. All of the FUx and FVx series were skipped. All FxU series through FXU were skipped. GGG was skipped. From John Rotella (4-10-12): Four weeks ago the Syracuse office was issuing FXG series. Today they are issuing FSP series. More from John: Cayuga Co. (Auburn) never stops providing us with interesting information. They routinely issue plates (of all types) out-of-sequence or backwards. Last week I registered 2 motorcycles and got plates 35RH66 and 35RH67. Yet we see nnRTnn plates around town, already registered some months ago. Last September my friend got passenger FSG-1245 in Auburn, while three weeks I ago I was issued FSF-9219 for my sister's car. From JD Merritt: The FZN series were issued predominately by DMV offices on Long Island in September 2012, while GAx series were being issued on Long Island since May 2012. FZN must have been on the back of the shelf, first in last out. Although not exclusively, many GBx series plates have been issued by New York State licensed dealers to retail customers who did not have valid license plates to transfer from their trade in. NY law requires the Insurance ID card to state "REPLACEMENT VEHICLE" to transfer plates from old car to new vehicle.

Agriculture

41257-GLAGRICULTURE

Chris Scott - Sep 5 ’22

Cayuga County, which has the largest number of Agriculture and Farm plates. NY plates are manufactured at Auburn which is the seat of Cayuga Co. government.

Probably started at 10000-GR on Empire State. 12042-GR reported as a low.

Sal Dodd informs us that Agriculture plates are for individuals/corporations that are moving farm produce or livestock for the purpose of selling retail or wholesale their own products. Registration rates are somewhat less than Commercial plates. Agriculture plates cannot be used on vehicles "for hire" and the vehicles they are used on must be insured. They were first issued on the "Liberty" base in late 1994. Windshield validation stickers are used for these plates and registrations are staggered, issued for a one year period.

Empire State high: 61782-GR 2014-05-30 Des Elmes

Empire Gold is using the GL suffix.

Low: 10121-GL

Disabled

640424

Stanley Zhou - Sep 23 ’21

Flat

Empire Gold probably started at 600000.

Wheelchair symbol appears to right of numbers and takes up two of the eight spaces available on the plate. Handicapped plates are in the 200000 and 500000 series and are flat. 400000 series plates are also in use, but are listed here separately as Disabled Veteran since they have that legend. 957363 was just issued to a friend of Bird Man, so no idea why the numbers are jumping around so much.

Emergency Management

AX
9877

Brett Weisbrot - Sep 5 ’21

Letters are stacked to the left of numbers is the town/village/county entity. Bottom has the county in red. This is the format for Official plate replacements.

Format for State replacements: State Agency name on left in Blue. Stacked 2 numbers, and 4 more (regular size) - former vehicle plate number (in red). "STATE" at base (blue) "EM" (blue) top left; sticker with four letter County code of use in top right corner. Red banner "New York."

Farm

31049-FRFARM

James Schaller - Nov 20 ’23

Cayuga Co.

Farm plates are for moving equipment between farms, migrant worker buses, or from farm to dump, or any other farming activity. Vehicles with Farm plates do not require insurance. They are registered for one year and all expire in December. Plates are validated with a plate sticker. A legitimate farm or livestock operation must be owned in order to qualify for these plates, and specific information regarding the use of the vehicle must be provided to the DMV. FA suffix was used on the Empire State base, and the FR suffix is on the current Empire Gold base.

Limited Use Auto

12405-LS

Geoffrey Gallagher - Nov 30 ’13

Applications include electric vehicles owned by the NY State Park Police. A Limited Use Auto is defined as a motor vehicle, other than one registered or capable of being registered, which has a maximum speed of not more than forty miles per hour.

Jim S. spotted the first of the series, 10000-LU on an electric vehicle of NYS Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation.

Empire State high: 22283-LU 2012-09-11 Mike Vickers

The LS series is on the Empire Gold base.

Official PSD

BH
8754

Ryan - Apr 12 ’24

This is a new type of Official plate that denotes the Political Sub-Division. The town, county, or agency name is spelled out to the left of the numbers, and the county name appears at the bottom. The format is a two letter stack to the left of the four digit number.

Low: A/A 1110 2015-05-14 Eric Forand

Plates for the City of New York have that on the left, but have "NYC" where the county name normally appears on the bottom. (The City of New York is comprised by 5 counties.)

Semi-Trailer

3963D5

Chris Scott - Aug 3 ’21

Flat

Earlier numbers in this series have the state silhouette as a separator between letters and numbers. This and newer issues are printed with no separation.

From Sal Dodd:

Semi-Trailer is a five year dated plate. First issued in Nov. 1989 on liberty base for 1990 model semi-trailers, with a 1995 expiration. Only 1990 or newer trailers can be registered with these plates. The numbering format was 1234A5, with the A5 appearing as a constant on all 1995 expiring plates, the lowest number being 1000A5. Each year a new series is started, generally appearing in November for the next 5 year term, i.e. 1991 trailer = 1996 expiration. The format on this plate would be 1234A6. 1992 trailer = 1997 expiration. Format 1234A7 and onward. The year of the trailer from 1990 onward makes little difference in what plate is displayed though. A 1993 trailer may have displayed a standard trailer plate for two years, then get a five year plate if desired, and expiration will reflect 5 years from issuance, with no relationship to model year.

Liberty base: 1995 =A5 1996 =A6 1997 =A7 1998 =A8 1999 =A9 2000 =A0 2001 =A1

2002 =A2 2003 =A3 2004 =A4 2005 =B5

2006 =B6 2007 =B7 2008 =B8 2009 =B9

These were fairly rare, but needed as those renewing exp 00 plates needed plates before the Empire bases were ready, and some were issued in early 2001 due to Empire base not ready in Jan 2001 for some non pass types that were low in registration levels. New 5 year registrants also needed these if registering during Nov or Dec 2000. NY allows up to 60 days before a registration period starts on trailers.

Empire Base: 2006= B6 2007= B7 2008= B8 2009= B9 2010= B0 2011= B1 2012= B2 2015= C5

State

225154STATE

Chris Scott - Jul 20 ’22

Now in Empire Gold. "15" is now stacked.

2014 update from Jim Schaller: N.Y. is replacing "STATE" plates with a new Empire Gold (flat) agency-specific type. The agency's name is on the left, followed by the original vehicle number - but with the first two numbers (vehicle year) stacked. Also- a small sticker is at the upper right corner, with a four letter code for County of use. "STATE" is at the base. Several different agencies seen.

Former type had www.state.ny.us white on dark blue at bottom of plate. Flat plate. New York outline on left side of plate, "STATE" in red letters under outline. First 2 digits indicate model year of the vehicle or equipment.

JD Merritt reports a new NY State Government series. He reports 111103 on a silver Toyota Prius in Queens on 1/9/13.

The plate is on the Empire Gold plate with the Seal of New York to the left and the serial to the right. Instead of "Empire State" on the bottom, www.ny.gov is inscribed. The plate is flat.

T&LC (Taxi & Limo)

T808299CT&LC

Davon Nagy - May 28 ’21

Flat - Empire Gold

"T&LC" replaces The Empire State bar at the bottom of the plate.

Series originally started with T10000C on the Liberty base, then expanded to 8 characters in 1999 with numbers reaching as high as T34xxxxC. All previous numbers on the Liberty base have been replaced with Empire plates starting at T400000C. All T&LC plates are flat. Our thanks go to Felice Batisti for providing this information.

Empire Gold low: T600004C

T&LC - Nassau Co.

N204423CNASSAU COUNTY T&LC

Brett Weisbrot - Mar 19 ’21

This is a new issue only for Nassau Co. Used in conjunction with a checkerboard style (black & red) much the same as the regular T&LC. At the bottom of the plate where "THE EMPIRE STATE" usually appears, this type has "NASSAU COUNTY T&LC" on it. Some "door to door" taxis in Nassau Co. have traded their TX suffix Taxi plates for this new type.

Empire Gold started at N200000C

Low spotted: N200003C

Taxi - NYC

Y104297CTAXI

Davon Nagy - Jan 16 ’21

These were issued in the NXNNA, NXNNB, NXNNC, NXNND, on the Niagara Falls base, and NXNNH and NXNNJ on the Empire Gold base. The end letter is about half the size of the other characters.

From Felice Batisti: The license plates on NYC Taxis are the same as their medallion numbers. The numbers run from 1A10-9Y99, excluding the letters F, I, O, Q, R, S, X, and Z. All numbers have been issued. On the Empire Gold base plate number 1A10H would be the second plate issued to that taxi. On the Liberty base a small number was used. Numbers 1-6 have been verified. On the Empire State base the letters A-E and G were used. F has not been used on any base. On the Empire Gold base the letters H-K (excluding I) have been verified.

Low: 1A70A

Transporter

2106368TRANSPORTER

Kevin Gallagher - Aug 7 ’20

Flat plate. "TRANSPORTER" in place of "EMPIRE STATE" on bottom. Issued to Businesses (not dealers) involved in transporting vehicles from one location to another.

NOTE: Transporter plates are issued by the state in blocks to branch offices in descending order, or a backwards progression, but the offices issue the individual plates in an ascending order. Therefore, the low is actually the high for this type.

Empire State was in the 3000000 series.

Empire Gold are in the 2000000 series.

2001 Series

Passenger

EYH-2999

S.J. Dodd - Jan 19 ’10

EYH-2999 was the last Empire State plate produced. Some higher series plates were made, but they were special registrations, not standard issues. Yet John Rotella observed several embossed EYS plates (including EYS-24xx) -- they would have been flat if they were specials.

Low: ACA-1005 by Steven Weinstein on 3/22/11.

Prefixes not observed: AA-, AB-, AI-, AO-, AQ-, AZZ, BF-, BJ-, BS-, and BU-. AA- & AB- reserved for use on paper In Transit plates. Letters I, O, and Q were not used in any position. Paper In-Transit plates moved from AA- & AB- to the ZA- series.

Rich reports other prefixes skipped: AFU, ASS, BAD, BAT, BLK, BMW, BRA, BRP, BVD, BYU, BYV, BZB, BZY, BZZ, CAD, CAT, CBA, CBS, CDC, CFU, CHP, CLT, CNN, CNT, CPA, CPR, CUD, CUF, CUM, CUN, CUS, CVS, CYA, DAD, DAH, DAM, DAV, DCJ, DDS, DEA, DEC, DEM, DET, DKS, DLR, DPW, DSU, DTZ, DUD, DUH, DUM, EAG, EAL, EAP, EAT, EEP, EFU, EMS, EMT, EPA, EPT, ERA.

Some plates in the DNB 8200 (probably 8250 through 8274 at least) series were produced without the state silhouette between the letters and numbers.

Commercial (2001)

92910-KA

Brett Weisbrot - Aug 24 ’21

This series of Commercial plates started in 2001 at 10000-JA, Some prior 1986 Liberty base Commercial plates from the 10000-Ax series were reissued on the 2001 base.

Mike V. notes that it has taken nearly 10 years to get from 10000-JA to 99999-JZ, probably because light trucks may now be registered as passenger cars.

Medical Doctor

MD
85535

Bird Man - Mar 30 ’06

Ross Day reports that this series, issued 2001-2010, was issued a fixed number of plates (90000), with serial numbers constantly reissued as numbers 'died'.

For the succeeding series, see Physician under Specialty Plates.

Low: M/D 1 spotted in Queens NY on the Empire State Base (2001-2010) by Kevin Gallagher.

Mike Russo reports that special issue plates are coded with a "P" on the registration stickers.

Thruway Authority

TWY-851

Kevin G. - Dec 10 ’09

2014 update from Jim Schaller: N.Y. is replacing the regular "TWY" plates -used on official Thruway Authority sedans, with a new Empire Gold (flat) plate. It has "NYS THRUWAY AUTHORITY, the original vehicle number, and a County name at the base (Maintenance Division HQ, such as "ALBANY")

Specialty Plates

EMT- Paramedic

5000
EMTP

Quinn Iuliano - Sep 5 ’24

Flat

Same as the "EMT" plates, just for Paramedic Level Providers. The letters EMTP are smaller than the numbers.

"EMTP" are very small letters, apparently the size of stacked letters, but are not stacked. The small letters are to the right of the normal size four digit numerical serial.

Low: 12 EMTP spotted by Mike Russo.

NASCAR

583FAN

Brett Weisbrot - Jul 7 ’24

Flat

In the 2020 Series it changed from CAR to FAN.

While we don't plan to track highs on these, it is worth mentioning Tyler Rotondo's report that the New York version of these plates looks nearly identical to New Jersey's version, and they could easily be mistaken for each other.

Nascar discontinued the word CAR and replace it with the word FAN for 2020 Version

Press

NYP
7650

Brett Weisbrot - Aug 29 ’21

New York Press plates, used by members of the news media. Numbered in sequence, NYS does not grant request for low numbers. NYP 1 is usually given to the president of the New York Press Club. Usually seen in New York City area. Weegee reports the NYC Police Department has ceased issuing parking placards to members of the press. NYP plates are now the only method of media vehicle parking. Professional organizations are working with the city to reinstate the placards.

Steven Weinstein reports a strange version of an NYP plate was spotted on 2010-08-20. The plate, NYP 4304 had the new gold type New York across the top and the words Empire State (not The Empire State as in the blue/white plate) at the bottom but the plate has the white (not gold) background with blue letters. Sort of a cross between the old and new plates. The plate was spotted in Dobbs Ferry, NY

Mike Russo speculates that this will be the "Empire Gold" version of all Special Organization plates with small letters and large numbers. He has seen a few NYPs in this style in addition to an Appellate Court Judge (all three words spelled out to the left of a 3 digit number) in Albany.

Also, Mike informs us that the vast majority of the specialty plates have transitioned to this design, although this is the only professional organization that has "EMPIRE STATE" along that bottom.

Military and Veteran Plates

Veteran

103VTU

Brett Weisbrot - Mar 12 ’24

This Veteran design debuted 6/29/12 according to Steven Weinstein. Graphics include US flag over the entire plate background with blue "Veteran" on the left.

Prior design had waving flag to left of numbers with small red Veteran caption below flag on mostly-white background.

Order of issue is uncertain, confirmed suffixes are VET, SVC, SRV, VTN, VTR, MLV, VUS, and AMV. See our History tab for more details.

low 101VET Jim S.

Persian Gulf Veteran - 146PGV

Vietnam Veteran - 515VNV

Retired Series