Illustrated History of Connecticut License Plates

These plates are issued to commercial trucks, or vehicles used for business purposes.

In 1958, new blue on white plates were issued in the now standard 6x12 size. Old numbers were carried over to these new plates, and the plates were validated with tabs for 1958 and 1959. New registrations continued on in an A1234 format.

In 1960, new plates were issued in the reverse color scheme- white on blue. These plates were validated with tabs at first, and with decals beginning in 1963. They were used through 1966 and continued the A 1234 format (a space was added between the letter and numbers).

For 1967, new red on white plates were issued. These plates had tab slots, but only decals were used on these plates. The tab slots were discontinued somewhere between the W and Y series. Once Z 9999 was reached, a new format was started at A10000. When the narrower dies were introduced in 1977, a space was added between the letter and numbers. During the E series, this space was filled with a dot separator.

In 1987, the "map" plates were introduced. For some reason, rather than starting at H-10000, the H-1000 series was used. All series after this only used 5 numbers after the letter.

With the general reissue in 2000, the "Commercial" legend became a stacked "COMM" on the left side of the plate. These plates appear to have started in the K-series.


1958	Another 1958. A dot separator was used on plates with 5 digits.


1959	1960. The dot separator on 5-digit plates didn't make it to this base.


1962	1964. This was registered to a West Haven Company for use on a '55 Chevy truck.


ca. 1965 Commercial Blank. This is a curious plate. It certainly appears to be made in Connecticut, and there is a mailing label on the back from the Pennsylvania BMV to the Connecticut DMV. It appears as though there was another label underneath this one. Since this was about the time Pennsylvania started their "Commercial" type, did Connecticut make a few mock-ups for Pennsylvania? Or vice-versa?	Mailing label on the back of the plate to the left.


1966	1967 This plate was a remake of an old number on this base. Tab slots are there but never used, since this was made from leftover stock from the days of tabs


1968	1968 Low number


1969	Late 1960s/Early 1970s This plate has no tab slots, and a blue reverse side.


Late 1960s. Somewhere between the 'W' and 'Y' series tab slots no longer appeared on the plates.	1970


1971	1972


1973 The A10000 format started around 1970	1975


1976	1978 The dies were changed around plate number B 60000.


1979	1980


1980 After the B- series finished up, the numbering jumped to the E- series. 'C' is for Combination plates, and 'D' is for Used Dealer. (MJB Collection)	1982 A dot separator was added somewhere around E-50000.


1983 Low Number	1984


1986 The 'F' series was skipped	1987


1989 The map base started in 1987. I don't know why they went back to 4 numbers for this series.	1989


1990	1993


Purportedly a 1994 expiration. Although this plate likely could've been used in 1994, the decal does not belong to this plate. Commercial plates only carry April expirations. A little investigation reveals that this decal was lifted from a passenger vanity plate I happened to receive in the same batch of plates from a California collector. This was done for no other reason than to mis-represent the plate as a 'stickered' issue, and this practice should be condemned.	1996


2000	2000 1987 issue revalidated until 2001


Commercial plates received a "Replacement Sticker" like other types while awaiting new plates to be made on the reflective base	2004


ca. late 2000s. Date stickers are no longer used on Connecticut plates.

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