Reserved-Number Passenger Car License Plates

DCplates.net has created this page to address reserved-number plates because, especially in the past several years, they have been distinctive in their appearance (see below) as compared to other Washington, D.C. plates. Actually, however, low-number plates have been different, at least slightly, than regular plates for decades, so it makes sense to begin our discussion with a history of D.C. plate numbering.

Note that in addition to being discussed below, general-issue registration numbers are addressed elsewhere, in various contexts, on other pages of this site. For example, topics such as which numbers were assigned annually from 1907 through 1917 and the various general-issue formats of the 1960s are addressed on pages dedicated to those periods.

Registration Number Assignment from 1907 through 1934:
Most Numbers Randomly Assigned

The first city-issued plates were introduced in 1907. From then until 1917 (the "porcelain era") the same series of numbers was used. Registration numbers were assigned beginning with 1 in 1907 and progressed, on the same type of undated plate, through the end of 1917 when numbers are estimated to have reached approximately 60300.

There have historically been questions as to the starting point of D.C. plate numbers during the porcelain era (as well as later). Our best evidence of numbers having been issued starting at 1 in 1907 is a registration listing book published in 1912 in which the names of vehicle owners and businesses to whom plates numbered 1 through 11060 had been assigned. Most registrations through number 83 were issued to dealers for use on "demonstrating cars," and the first ten numbers were assigned to the Pope Automobile Company. Some numbers below 83 in the 1912 list have no registrant data associated with them presumably because the registrations were cancelled. Numbers were not reassigned during the porcelain era, but rather were simply abandoned. Three- and four-digit numbers were also assigned to vehicle dealers as the need arose throughout this era, and numbers 2501 through 3100 were set aside for assignment "to Motor Cycle owners only." Blocks of higher numbers were also set aside for use exclusively on motorcycle plates, but exactly how many of these blocks existed and at what numbers they began and ended is unknown. (Read more about this here.)

Because every number was issued only once between October 1907 and the end of 1917 there were likely none that were considered "reserved." That's not to say, however, that certain numbers were not considered desirable and were not therefore spoken for long before they came along in the sequence of assignment. As happened in other jurisdictions in later years, and even as the first registrations were issued, in the District of Columbia special numbers such as 50000, 55555, and 56789 were probably requested in advance of when they would have otherwise been issued.

1918-1926: All-Numeric Auto Registrations

The numbering format utilized from 1918 through 1926 does not necessarily lend itself to a group of numbers easily being identified as "low" because all registrations were comprised only of numbers. However, even if it was not easy (or in fact necessary) to differentiate between a "low" and "regular" number, as plate collectors are inclined to try to do today, it appears that some numbers were already being reserved.

Our best evidence of this is a set of 13 plates, one from each year from 1923 through 1935, all with the number 29. As discussed below we believe that a more formal system of reserving numbers year after year for certain vehicle owners was likely not put in place until 1935, yet this group of no. 29 plates is essentially direct evidence that at least by the 1924 renewal season, if not earlier (possibly back to the 1919 renewal season towards the end of 1918), certain numbers were issued to the same individual or business year after year.

Existence of the no. 29 plates also suggests that D.C. registration numbers began at 1 (not 100 as previously thought) annually from at least as early as 1923, and probably back to 1918. From 1918 through 1926 numbers for all motorists were assigned sequentially as high as necessary, reaching just over the 100-000 mark (in 1923) before the general-issue format was changed for 1927 to include a letter prefix, at which time plates with only numbers became more distinctive.

It is believed to have been in 1920, and possibly earlier, that plate numbers 100 through 105 (or at least 100 and 101, with the higher four numbers perhaps obtained slightly later) were first assigned exclusively to the White House. They were displayed with Maryland plates numbered 100-000 through 100-005 until 1924, when a vehicle registration reciprocity agreement with Maryland was reached, obviating the need for plates of that state. Prior to 1918 numbers assigned to the White House are known to have included 4505, 16405, 16471, 16472, 20574, and 22650. More information on this interesting subject will be added to this page or a separate one in the future.

At least some numbers perceived as low today, and probably also in the 1920s, were during this era set aside for particular groups of vehicle owners as opposed to being distributed randomly to rank-and-file D.C. residents. A December 1921 Washington Post article about the distribution of 1922 plates indicates that "Tags numbered from 200 to 500 have been reserved for the motor corps of the Home Defense league." On the day that 1922 plates first became available (the final day of November 1921), several three-digit plates were issued to foreign diplomats and embassies, such as 190 to 197 to the Russian embassy and 750 to the foreign minister of Ecuador.

1927-1934: Annually "A Splendid Scramble" for Preferred Plate Numbers

For 1927, instead of issuing general-issue auto plates numbered above 1000, letter prefixes were introduced after that number was assigned. Specifically, the highest all-number passenger registration assigned for 1927, 1928, and 1929 was 1000, and for 1930 through 1934 it was 9999. In other words, during the late 1920s it was apparently determined that the availability of only 1,000 all-number plates wasn't enough for status-seeking Washingtonians, so the field was increased to 9,999 numbers for remaining years during which most auto plates included a letter prefix.

Although most of the all-number combinations assigned from 1930 through 1934 (that is to say, the higher four-digit numbers) probably were not reserved for particular registrants, it was during this eight-year period that D.C. motorists probably began to distinguish between auto plates with various numbering formats, especially those with numbers below 1000. An Associated Press article of early 1929, published not long after the prized 1,000 all-number plates available for that year were assigned, gives us a sense of the cache they fostered in Washington. "The social and official character of this city is revealed in the allocation of automobile tags, to a greater extent perhaps than in any other city of the country. The first thousand numbers are for privileged personages. If you are without this limit, socially and officially you are a mere nobody." In early 1931 the Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner characterized Washingtonian's affinity for preferred registration numbers this way: "It is not commonly known that there is a sort of social precedence in license plate numbers on motor cars in Washington, as well as in places at dinner tables in Washington, but such is certainly the case. Annually at the beginning of each license plate year in Washington there is a splendid scramble for good plate numbers. A good number...is one that doesn't have any letter of the alphabet in it."

Articles referenced in the previous paragraph contain interesting information about the assignment of the lowest D.C. plates during this era. It confirms, for example, that the three D.C. commissioners were still receiving plates 1, 2, and 3 in (at least) 1929 and 1930, as we know they had in 1922. Other numbers below 100 were assigned to various D.C. government officials and VIPs, and number 50 was historically assigned to the chief justice of the supreme court, with numbers 51 and higher provided to the court's remaining justices in order of their seniority. By 1929, no. 50 had been assigned to Chief Justice (and former president) William Howard Taft "for many years," whereas Justice James Clark McReynolds used no. 62. Number 82 was assigned to House Speaker Nicholas Longworth. We must assume that all of the one- and two-digit numbers were used by individuals of high political and social status, for not until we reach number 100 on the roster do we find vehicles assigned to The White House. The presidential fleet in 1929 was registered with numbers 100 to 110, and number 111 was assigned to the vice president. Beginning with 112, higher numbers were assigned, at least in 1930 (and presumably other years of this era), to members of the cabinet based upon the longevity of their agency's existence. The Department of State was the oldest agency, so the secretary of state had the privilege of using registration number 112 "and whatever number[s] ensuing may be thought needed for state department cars," according to the aforementioned Ogden Standard-Examiner article.

"Then will come, in due official turn, the needs of the secretary of the treasury, whose department is historically and socially the second of the government departments and inferior to the state department only," continues the Standard Examiner, adding that in 1929 numbers 114, 115, and 116 were used by the Treasury Department. "After the secretary of the treasury, in strict order of historical establishment, come the claims of the other departments and their needs. This order is war, justice, post office, navy, interior, agriculture, commerce, and labor. It is wholly impossible for a secretary of labor to get an automobile license plate number lower than the number of the secretary of commerce. The commerce department was established before the labor department and hence its license plate numbers come before the numbers of the labor department, and are lower and smaller." "When the heads of the various departments have been satisfied and scientifically located in their proper number positions, the under secretaries and the assistant secretaries and the solicitor-general of the department of justice have to be put in their appropriate license plate ranking." The solicitor general was reportedly "demoted" from number 137 to 140 in the late 1920s in a reshuffling of numbers in order to adhere to protocol, indicating that all of the cabinet members and their immediate subordinates apparently utilized no more than 30 registrations.

Selected members of the diplomatic corps also received some of the preferred 1,000 registrations. "The other numbers up to 1000 are held by senators, representatives, subordinate government officials, ex-government officials of all varieties, presumably distinguished private citizens, and anyone else who has enough pull to get one," reported the Associated Press in 1929. A 1934 Oakland (Cal.) Tribune article indicates that "The diplomatic corps has from 200 to 425, and its ranking is determined by due precedence. The dean of the corps, Ahmet Muhtar, ambassador from Turkey, has 200."

Registration Number Assignment from 1935 through 1956:
Lowest Four-Digit Numbers Are Reserved

It was for 1935 that the formal practice of reserving certain registration numbers for certain motorists, year after year, is believed to have begun. Another noteworthy change that took effect in this year is the abandonment of letter prefixes on private auto (and non-passenger) plates in favor of a return to all-number plates.

From 1935 through the 1946 base (marked "3-31-47" and used, revalidated with a tab marked "48", through March 1948), passenger registration numbers began at 1 and proceeded sequentially through 9999, then picked up again at some undetermined number substantially higher than 10-000. Numbers 10-000 through an undetermined five-digit number were used for non-passenger registrations (as discussed in our section devoted to 1937-47 registration numbers). On the 1948 through 1953 (marked "3-31-54" and used, revalidated with a tab marked "55", through March 1955) plates, non-reserved plates were numbered 1-0000 through 9-9999, and plates with letter prefixes (in a series of A-1 through Z-9999) were assigned after plate 9-9999 was reached.

No information is known about which passenger registration numbers assigned from 1935 through the 1954 registration year were reserved and specially assigned by the Board of Commissioners. All-number plates issued for use on private autos began at 1 and proceeded sequentially through at least 9999 throughout this era, but it is doubtful that the assignment of all 9,999 was monitored annually. In fact, we know that only numbers 1 through 1000 were reserved for asignment by the commissioners for the 1955 registration year (as discussed separately in our 1955 plate section), so it is reasonable to assume that the same numbers, or a similar group, were reserved in 1954 and earlier registration years.

Prior to the 1955 registration year many plates that were not reserved displayed a registration number comprised of only numbers. Beginning in early 1955, however, the only all-number plates in use were in the reserved passenger series of 1 through 1000. All other auto plates issued for 1955 and 1956 are marked with two letters followed by four numbers, beginning at AA-10-00, so it was during these years that all-number plates, with the quantity issued now reduced significantly, became far more exclusive and distinctive than they had been previously.

Registration Number Assignment Since 1957:
The Modern System of D.C. Reserved-Number Registrations

Beginning with the 1957 ("3-31-58") plate, the quantity of reserved number registrations was increased by 200 so that numbers 1-1200 were assigned by the Board of Commissioners. At some later but undetermined point the quantity was increased again, this time by 50, to arrive at the present population of reserved numbers: 1 through 1250. Conversely, since 1957 five general-issue numbering formats have been used: AB-123 from 1957-63, 1A234 for 1964, 1AB23 for 1965, 123-456 from 1966 through 1997, and AB-1234 since 1997.

Reserved-Number License Plates

D.C. license plates upon which reserved numbers are displayed were identical in construction and appearance to general-issue plates through the 1968 registration year, which ended on March 31, 1969. For the 1969 registration year, each existing reserved plate was revalidated with a black-on-yellow sticker, to be placed in the upper right corner (as were general-issue auto plates), but motorists to whom new reserved registrations were assigned during the year received black-on-white plates with "3-31" and "70" stamped in the upper left and right corners, respectively.

For the next four registration years, 1970 (exp. 3-31-71) through 1973 (exp. 3-31-74), new dated black-on-white plates were issued annually (while general-issue plates were being validated with stickers). New reserved-number plates have been issued annually ever since, making this one of several plate- and registration-related details that makes Washington, D.C. unique. This is the only place in the United States where at least some passenger car owners still receive a new pair of license plates every year, and this now-unusual practice continues because it facilitates reassignment of the coveted numbers annually.

Beginning with the 1974 ("Bicentennial") base reserved-number plates were validated with stickers, making them look like multi-year plates, but none were used for more than a single twelve-month period and none should have ever had more than a single sticker applied to them. When the expiration of general-issue passenger registrations began to be staggered in 1983 reserved-number registrations continued to be issued annually using an April-March registration year, and this remains the practice today. Low-number plates followed the matching sticker serial number rule from 1967 through 1987 as described on the stickers page.

As for their design, reserved-number plates of the 1974 (exp. 3-31-75) to 2000 (exp 3-31-2001) registration years closely resemble the general-issue design. Since 2001 the D.C. government has taken advantage of the annual plate replacement to experiment with some interesting and unusual graphics.

1969 renewal (exp. 3-31-70)	1969 new reg. (exp. 3-31-70)	1970 (exp. 3-31-71)
1971 (exp. 3-31-72)	1972 (exp. 3-31-73)	1973 (exp. 3-31-74)
1974 (exp. 3-31-75)	1975 (exp. 3-31-76)	1976 (exp. 3-31-77)
1977 (exp. 3-31-78)	1978 (exp. 3-31-79)	1979 (exp. 3-31-80)
1980 (exp. 3-31-81)	1981 (exp. 3-31-82)	1982 (exp. 3-31-83)
1983 (exp. 3-31-84)	1984 (exp. 3-31-85)	1985 (exp. 3-31-86)
1986 (exp. 3-31-87)	1987 (exp. 3-31-88)	1988 (exp. 3-31-89)
1989 (exp. 3-31-90)	1990 (exp. 3-31-91)	1991 (exp. 3-31-92)
1991 optional (exp. 3-31-92)	1992 (exp. 3-31-93)	1993 (exp. 3-31-94)
1994 (exp. 3-31-95)	1995 (exp. 3-31-96)	1996 (exp. 3-31-97)
1997 (exp. 3-31-98)	1998 (exp. 3-31-99)	1999 (exp. 3-31-2000)
2000 (exp. 3-31-2001)	2001 (exp. 3-31-2002)	2002 (exp. 3-31-2003)
2003 (exp. 3-31-2004)	2004 (exp. 3-31-2005)	2005 (exp. 3-31-2006)
2006 (exp. 3-31-2007)	2007 (exp. 3-31-2008)	2008 (exp. 3-31-2009)

Click here to see photographs of reserved plates in use.

	This page last updated on February 28, 2010
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