Complete Listing of All Delaware Plate Types

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Temporary

1955 - 2001

Manufacturer: Unknown
Material: Cardbord
Colors: Black on off-white/white
Dimensions: 6" x 12"
Pairs/singles?: Singles
Notes: The law that authorized temporary license plates was effective July 1, 1955. There is no clear pattern for font variation versus serial number, but three font variations are known and the bolt holes moved closer together shortly after temporary plates started to be issued in mid 1955, which lines up with the USA moving to a standard size/spec license plate in 1956.

5-digit numbers: Plates from 1955 - 1974 looked virtually the same but had three subtle differences in the layout on the top of the plate, seemingly unrelated to plate number. See fourth picture below.

6-digit numbers: Numbers 107208 and 123275 observed with thin font, all others with thicker font.

X + 6 numbers:Most plates have thicker font, several numbers observed with thin font but the numbers are seemingly random.

Serial range observed:
- 5 numbers: 12228 - 89022
- 6 digits: 107208 - 740380
- "X" plus 6 numbers: X149317 - X898324
- "XA" plus 6 numbers: XA001718 - XA516578

(Issued January 1959)
From Jordan Irazabal

(Issued December 1964)
From Jordan Irazabal

(Issued February 1967)
From Jordan Irazabal

(Comparison of top layouts)

(Thin font)
(Issued September 1974)
From Jordan Irazabal

(Normal/thicker font)
(Issued January 1976)
From Jordan Irazabal

(Normal/thicker font)
(Issued November 1987)
From Dave Lincoln

(Thin font)
(Issued November 1993)
From Brooks Keen

(Thin font)
(Issued October 1998)
From John Anshant

(Thicker font)
(Issued July 2001)
From Dave Lincoln

2002 - Present

Manufacturer: Unknown
Material: Cardbord, then thick stock paper
Colors: Black on white
Dimensions: 6" x 12"
Pairs/singles?: Singles
Notes: All temporary tags issued though 2014 (through the "XC" series) were provided to dealerships in quantity and distributed to customers upon the purchase of a vehicle. In 2014, an on-demand temporary tag program was started. These plates bore the "XP" prefix. These were printed out at participating dealerships and the 6-digit number was generated on the spot from the Delaware DMV database. The "XP" prefix was replaced with the "XQ" prefix once "XP" hit XP999999 around June 2021. Although the vast majority of dealers now issue temporary tags through the on-demand system, some smaller dealerships still do not participate in the on-demand program and continue to receive stacks of pre-printed temporary tags. The "XD" series replaced the "XC series sometime in 2016; #XD300924 was spotted with an issue date of March 14, 2024.

In 2017, the Delaware City DMV location piloted a program where temporary tags with the "XF" prefix were printed on the spot for each customer request, similar to dealership-issued "XP" tags. Most were 60-day tags but early "XF" tags were 30-day tags. All DMV locations now print on-demand temporary tags, all with the "XF" prefix. All temporary tags became 90-day tags as of August 29, 2023 due to extreme backlog of dealer-submitted titlework at DMV. Summary: Pre-printed and both categories of on-demand temporary tags are all being issued contemporaneously.

Serial range observed:
- Pre-printed
XA: XA699283 - XA868517 (covering issue dates from 12/2002 - 10/2003)
XB: XB363904 - XB895685 (covering issue dates from 6/2003 - 3/2009)
XC: XC002537 - XC947016 (covering issue dates from 5/2009 - 12/2014)
XD: XD175434 - current high (covering issue dates starting on 11/2016)

-On-demand (dealer-issued)
XP: XP100004 - XP999674 (covering issue dates from 9/2012 - 6/2021)
XQ: XQ100292 - current high (covering issue dates starting on 6/2021)

On-demand (DMV-issued)
XF: XF000033 - current high (covering issue dates starting on 5/2017)