Are license plate letters random?

In many (if not most or all) states in the U.S. (for example, California) the numbers are assigned sequentially, not randomly, so you can figure out approximately when the car was registered (although not necessarily by the current owner) by looking at the number.

How can you tell the difference between a 0 and an O on a license plate in California?

Generally, the letter O should be wider, more like an oval or egg-shape. The number 0 has flat sides, like a racetrack. There are licence plate fonts where the two characters are identical.

How do you tell if it’s a 0 or O?

The slashed zero glyph is often used to distinguish the digit “zero” (“0”) from the Latin script letter “O” anywhere that the distinction needs emphasis, particularly in encoding systems, scientific and engineering applications, computer programming (such as software development), and telecommunications.

What does the letter D mean on a number plate?

The current format In 1979 a format was introduced specially for diplomatic vehicles. The letter in the number plate represents the type of person the vehicle is allocated to, with D being used for diplomats and X for non-diplomatic accredited personnel.

What do the letters and numbers on a licence plate mean?

Following that, the second letter indicates which postal area it was registered in. As for the numbers? Up next, the numbers on a licence plate indicate when a car is first registered — with this identifier changing every six months.

Why can’t you go past W on a license plate number?

Normally, we don’t go past W because of the possibility of confusion with the “restricted” and commercial class vehicles that are W, X and Y. Z is held in reserve for other special uses such as the disability classification.

How can you tell when a car was registered in California?

There are some special California license plates are numbered sequentially, so by the license plate number you can get a general idea of when the car was registered. For example, a license plate starting with 4 is older than one starting with 8. There are also different numbering systems for different types of vehicles.

How long does it take to change license plates to numbers?

Roadguy clearly needed to get up to speed on license plates, so he called up our friends at the Department of Public Safety, and here’s what he learned. First, the letters-numbers thing: State officials say it takes about a decade to go through the letters-first series before they switch to the numbers-first format.