The current high has blue characters.
Red high: ZND-9976
Blue low: ZNE-1005
The official release date for the red character plates was April 16, 2007, but some were issued early. WTF-1973 is the blue high. WTF-1995 is the red low.
As noted above, the series progressed to AAA after ZZZ.
First series high: ZZZ-9905 2014-02-13 Gunther Frostyburger
Second series low: AAA-1010 2011-11-16 Tyler Rotondo
Richard Baucom reports new plates with 07 3M hologram with second squigglyline hologram- a first for NC.
OBX has been issued in Dare County, but it is a special issue since N.C. does not use O and begins the second alpha at N in each series. In a departure from normal issues, OBX-1 through OBX-9999 was issued from Dec. 1999 through July 25, 2000. An additional block of plates numbered from OBX-01 through OBX-0999 was made available on Aug. 14, 2000. There is an annual fee of $20 for OBX plates. For those who may be unfamiliar with North Carolina, OBX is a trendy designation associated with the Outer Banks region on the coast. OBX-9401 reported by Reid Williamson. OBX-6188 reported by Eric Sivertsen.
The OBX series has been extended. OBX71149 reported on 2015-06-29.
Another special issue is the GTP series that designates the North Carolina Global TransPark, which is an economic development area in eastern NC near Kinston. The high is GTP99822 from Ken Reager on 2008-06-10.
The GC suffix is used for another special issue that designates the Guilford Battleground Company, a non-profit that supports the Guilford Battleground National Military Park in Greensboro, NC. Chris Cargill reports 0366GC.
Chris Cargill reports that the XXX series was issued in the Greenville and Rocky Mount areas, but all of the plates were recalled because they looked too close to KKK. Ken Reager reports seeing XXX-3nnn in use on 9/12/08, so not all of them were pulled off the roads. Mike Sager reports XXX-3006 on 2009-02-28. Ken Reager reports XXX-3922 on 2010-07-02.
As of late June 2012, it appeared that the series jumped from the BCT to BKK, but Mike Sager has recently seen new plates with prefixes BCY, BCZ, BDE, and BDK, so it may be that the series didn't really jump, but rather the BKK plates were distributed out-of-order for whatever reason.
As of Dec. 2012, Mike Sager reports that it looks like BKK-1001 thru BKL-9999 and CDB-1001 thru ???-???? are the out-of-order sequences. He has seen a lot of BKK and BKL plates, and now a couple CDB plates, but nothing in between.
Walter Pilley reports BJZ-9454 on 2013-03-19, which is the highest in the regular progression below BKK. He also reports BKM-8227, which is the only plate reported between the BKL and CDB series.
Curtis Barwick reports BLD-3470 on 2013-03-26.
Walter reports BLY-6nnn on 2013-05-10.
Mike Sager reports BMC-3340 on 2013-05-12.
Ken Reager reports BMD-5nnn on 2013-05-20.
Walter reports BMX-1078 on 2013-07-02.
Mike Sager reports CAL-7507 on 2013-07-07.
Walter reports CAM-4000 on 2013-07-19, CAP-nnnn on 2013-08-01, and CAS-1182 on 2013-08-03.
Mike Sager reports CBA-8221 on 2013-08-03.
Walter reports CBB-1302 on 2013-08-31, CBH-4850 on 2013-09-02, CCJ-8303 on 2013-09-25, and CCS-1859 on 2013-09-29.
From Charles Robinson: The official press release for the optional "First in Freedom" plates will be June 24, one week before their availability. I understand these plates will be assigned a block from the current numbering system. Approximately 900,000 will be made for July availability (that would be close to half of the DAA-DMZ series, for example).
Walter Pilley - 1 May ’24
