09/21/08

Kansas

PASSENGER MONTH CODES

Kansas adopted staggered registration with the expiration of the 1970 plate on 12/31/70.  Only passenger registrations were covered and the spread was July 1971 through June 1972.  January is not used for passenger expirations, but rather is used as an open month in which to process calendar-year registrations:

Based on the owner's surname initial:

January: none
February: A
March: B
April: C, D
May: E, F, G
June: H
July: J, K, L
August: M, N, O
September: P, Q, R
October: S
November: T, V, W
December: U, X, Y, Z

Mid-1974 to 1980 expirations did not show monthly expiration dates on the plate, but rather indicated the month by means of a code letter immediately following the county code.  If the DMV ever ran out of a particular month's coded plate, it issued a plate with a "Z" in place of the code letter and a month sticker from 1971 through mid-1974 expirations.  This letter coding was used from late 1971 through 1988 expirations.  From 1981 through 1988 expirations, the month was embossed on the plate.  Since the "89" base plates, a month sticker is used.

Courtesy of ALPCA archives

Note from Charles Fregeau:

If the DMV ever ran out of a particular month's coded plate, it issued a plate with a "Z" in place of the code letter and a month sticker from 1971 through mid-1974 expirations.

Since only 76 plates were dated by year, they would have had to put a year and month on all 74 and 75 Z plates.  I'm told 76 Z plates were actually used through 1980, but I've not seen one of these yet.