California "Black Plate"

[rvdv]

I noticed that some cars from California advertise that the car has black plates. (license plates i assume?) Being from Ontario Canada I have no idea what is the significance of these plates, can someone please explain.

Thanks
Rudy

[boxster03]

car might have originated/stayed in CA its whole life (maybe) thus reducing chance for rust.

[NeunElf]

In California, it's considered "cool" to have an original licenese plate on your car. For '62 and earlier cars, the state will (for a fee) authorize you to use any plates you acquire, if the numbers aren't claimed and the year (with sticker or tab) matches your car's year of manufacture.

For '63 and older, the car has to have been continuously registered in California with those plates.

California had yellow plates from '56 through '62, then came the black plates. The next plates were blue--I don't know the4 exact year, I think it was in the 1970s.

[Zeke]

In CA, the plate stays with the car unless it's a personal one and you want to keep it. In Nevada, by contrast, the plate stays with the owner, so you can always tell a long time NV resident by their old, faded plates.

He is right, the car would have to have been in CA for about 45 years continuously to have original black plates that came with the car new, or that were put on a car brought to CA . They stopped issuing them sometime in the year 1970 and went then to blue with yellow letters/nos.

Before black, it was a yellow plate with black numbers; that goes back to WWII and only to the very early 50's, IIRC.

However, there is a way to acquire black plates and have them registered for a car of the correct vintage. So, the actual anual registration slips are the only way to PROVE the car has been a CA car for 45 or more years.

[GreenT]

Ah, there's a science to it -

What they intend to mean in the ads that mention this is that the car was original to California, and has been continually actively registered in California. So one found on the east coast and brought here would not have a black plate. One pulled out of a junkyard in San Diego with no plates and painted last year to sell on Ebay would not have a black plate. Or you see an old car for sale here with a modern white reflective plate with seven numbers starting with a 4, and you wonder, "hmmm, just registered here last year, where was it before that...?"

Black plates ended in 69-70 when they ran out of combinations. Black plates had three letters followed by three numbers and went sequentially. So ABC000 was very early, and XYZ999 would have been at the very end. So if you saw a 1969 car with XYZ999, you could bet on the fact that it was sold new in California and has always been on the road here, being registered every year, or often enough to retain the tag.

Then they started with blue plates with 3 numbers followed by three letters, until they ran out of those combinations. Same good meaning as a black plate, just not black. So an original 1970 car with a blue plate reading 101AAA, or a 1972 with a 399ZZZ is just as likely to be an original California car.

I know people who have a car that has always been here, but the plates were lost in a sale, or the car was laid up for 20 years without a non-operation form filed with the DMV, so they don't have the originals anymore.
That's why often cars that have them are cherished one owner or few owner cars.

And some people have had to give them up. Some were dumb enough to do it when the state asked to have people exchange them for reflective plates or just because they wanted a new style of tag or a personalized tag. Some had to give them up when they didn't want to, like when a car was sold but the owner only had the rear plate because he didn't put a plate on the front and the DMV won't issue a new title without two plates on the car.

On the flip side, there is a cottage industry with a few guys who find 'dead' black or blue plates (or yellow, even earlier than the black ones - a yellow plate 356 is a choice find) and restore them and know how to play the paper game with the DMV, and then offer matched pairs of restored plates for sale. This is big with the hot rod guys who will build a kit '32 Ford highboy that isn't a '32, doesn't have a single real Ford part on it, and didn't exist until last March, but they can go to the DMV and get it registered as a 1932 car with black plates and make it look like an original hot rod that got built here in 1965. Pisses off the guys with real ones. And the DMV got tired of getting screwed out of the license fees they should be getting on a new $70,000 hot rod and raided about a dozen shops at the same time one day last year. Boyd Coddington's shop was one of them.

It's really funny, some people really nit on the whole thing. You hear conversations like "Hey - this car is a 1970, the plate should start with a 2 not a 5..." - "...yeah well, the first owner bought it new in Germany when he was stationed in Germany and didn't register it here until he got discharged in '72" .

[pwd72s]

In Oregon, the plate also goes with the car...they went to blue gold in the early 50's, with the "pacific wonderland" plates...stayed blue/gold when they changed to 3 letters, 3 numbers. I almost laughed @ the '78 pea-raid, when a California lady told me that Oregon had adopted "California colors" on their plates...I'm still running the plates that were on my car when I bought it in '74. Me? Go to a "vanity" plate? Not effing likely!

[72targa]

Good capture by GreenT...

For reference:

My dad had a '69 911E with California black plates in this series - Zxx ###

My '72 911S has blue California plates in this series - ### Fxx

My friend's '73 911E has blue California plates in this series - ### Hxx

[356robo]

For further reference, my 70 was brought in to the US in January 70 and received blue California plates mid year with number ending in BTT.

[NeunElf]

If I recall the California DMV regs correctly (and I checked them recently), you cannot legally put Year of Manufacture (YOM) plates on a kit car built after 1962. Nor can you get permission from the state to put black (post '62)or blue plates on a car from those years.

You can indeed call up a "license plate collector" and get a pair of plates and a year sticker (or tab) guaranteed to pass DMV muster (or your money back). That's precisely what I did for my 356A.

California bases its registration fees on what you payed for the car. The taxes I pay on that 356A are not the taxes on a $ 3,800 car.

By the way, Yellow plates started in '56. Before that the plates were black and had metal tabs bolted over a corner for the exact year (at least that's what was on a 356 Continental Coupe I saw last week). They were also slightly wider, less tall, and more rounded that the American standard plates.

[creator8]

I have a dilemna. The car I just bought had CA black plates continuously from 69 but most recently was briefly (4 weeks) registered in Missouri. When I went to the DMV to register the car I was categorically told I could not re-register it with the original CA black plates that I have both of. I then allowed the more than unfriendly 450lb monster DMV lady to bully me into taking new CA white plates.

I really want to get the OG CA plates back on the car. From advice I've gotten and this thread it sounds like there is a way since I do have the plates (complete w/ 30yrs of reg stickers). I'm going to go to a friendly DMV I've used successfully for complicated transactions in the past up in Bishop and throw myself on their mercy. But if anyone has somewhere else maybe more guaranteed to deal with it would be appreciated.