page_title: Vehicle registration plates of Massachusetts
section_title: 1967 to present
hierarchical_section_title: Vehicle registration plates of Massachusetts / Passenger baseplates / 1967 to present
caption_attribution_description: English: Massachusetts 1966 vanity plate naming alcoholic beverages no longer permitted
context_page_description: Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to issue license plates, on September 1, 1903. Plates are currently issued by the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.
  All plates since 1978 are currently valid. Prior to 1993, only rear plates were required; since the first "Spirit of America" plate was issued in 1986, front and rear plates have been required since. As such, the 1978-1993 issues continue to only require the rear plate, while the "Spirit of America" issues since 1986 require front and rear plates.
context_section_description: Massachusetts implemented a monthly staggered registration system in 1969. Since then, serials on passenger plates have been coded by the month of expiration of the registration, determined by the last number in the serial (1 for January, 2 for February and so on up to 0 for October). From 1969 through 1977, serials with 'X' and 'Y' suffixes were used for November and December expirations respectively. Registrants are issued plates expiring the last day of the previous month (e.g. a motorist registering a vehicle in June will be issued May plates). If a vehicle is registered in December or January (so that November and December plates would be called for), leftover plates are issued from other months with manufacturing overruns.
  In addition to the standard serial formats, Massachusetts also issues "reserve" plates. Reserve plates permit the plate holder to receive the same serial number when new plate styles are issued, or to transfer the serial number to family members. These plates are either all-numeric (1 through 99999) or consist of a single letter followed or preceded by a number (A 1 through Z 9999 and 1 A through 9999 Z). Reserve serials may also be of the forms A#A, A##A, #A#, and #AA#, where # represents any number, and A represents any letter. Low-number reserve plates – now called "Lottery Plates" by the RMV – are of the forms #, ##, ###, ####, A#, A##, #A, and ##A only. When a registrant cancels a low-number reserve registration, the number is placed in an annual lottery. Registration for the lottery generally begins each June, and the drawing must be held by September 15. Prior to the institution of this annual lottery, low-number reserve plates were issued only to well-connected individuals, and it is widely believed that drivers with low registration numbers were given preferential treatment by law enforcement. The annual lottery was instituted in response to complaints about the politics behind the issuance of low-number registrations. As with standard registration plates, the final digit on low-number reserve plates indicates the month of expiration.
  Two-year registrations are mandatory, with the exception of vehicles initially registered during December or January. Vanity plates and motorcycle plates must be renewed annually. All vanity plate registrations expire on November 30, and all motorcycle and commercial registrations expire on December 31.
  Currently, the Livery plate is the only common license plate in Massachusetts that is allowed to have more than six characters in its serials. All Livery plate serials start with the letters "LV", even if not stamped.
  Because the RMV utilizes "Plate Type" to describe the type of registration, it is theoretically possible to have two plates issued with seemingly the same serial. Some of the plate types, and their three-letter codes, are listed below:
  PAN - Passenger: Normal
  PAR - Passenger: Reserved
  PAS - Passenger: Specialty (Antique, Veteran, Environmental, Sports, Spay & Neuter, Breast Cancer, United We Stand, etc.)
  PAV - Passenger: Vanity
  PAY - Passenger: Year of Manufacture (Antique plate with year stamped; AN gets added to the beginning of plate number on registration)
  CON - Commercial: Normal (plates starting SR are for snow removal; HR for Hearse)
  COR - Commercial: Reserved
  COV - Commercial: Vanity
  MCN - Motorcycle: Normal
  MCR - Motorcycle: Reserved
  MCS - Motorcycle: Specialty
  MCV - Motorcycle: Vanity
  AHN - Camper: Normal
  AHR - Camper: Reserved
  AHV - Camper: Vanity
  AMN - Ambulance: Normal (includes Animal Ambulance)
  AMR - Ambulance: Reserved
  LVN - Livery: Normal
  LVR - Livery: Reserved
  LVV - Livery: Vanity
  SPN - School Pupil: Normal
  TAN - Taxi: Normal
  TAR - Taxi: Reserved
  TRN - Trailer: Normal (not used on Camper trailers)
  TRR - Trailer: Reserved
  VPN - Van Pool: Normal
  SBN - School Bus: Normal
  SBR - School Bus: Reserved
  BUN - Bus: Normal
  BUR - Bus: Reserved
  BUV - Bus: Vanity
caption: 1966 vanity plate. Serials featuring the names of alcoholic beverages are no longer permitted.
exif: {}