The U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

began issuing license plates

Vehicle registration plate

A vehicle registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the vehicle within the issuing region's database...

in 1913.
Some plates were revalidated for multiple years. For example, the 1947-dated plate was revalidated with metal tabs until 1950.

All base plates from 1963 to present are still valid for use, assuming that the plate never left the vehicle and the vehicle maintained concurrent registration.



The use of Year of Manufacture plates is authorized by Section 5004.1 http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=veh&group=04001-05000&file=5000-5024 of the California Motor Vehicle Code.