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Official Use
It appears that Official plates were first introduced as early as 1924. The 1924 and '25 plates used the format described below. The remainder of the early plates thru 1935 followed the format shown in the 1926 and '27 plates shown below. In 1936 the format changed slightly and the plate legend became Official Use Only. In 1938 the format changed again with the appearance of the map outline and a return to Official as the legend. At least from 1940 to 1956 no plates had the term Official on them but there was a reserved block of numbers from the standard passenger series. In 1957 the legend again became Official Use Only. Plates were undated and had Pennsylvania within the top border. This series was used until 1965 or 66.
1956 - present
Text in red indicates changes from previous base/format.
Plates from 1939 thru 1955 were from a reserved number block of passenger plates and therefore had no distinguishing features to identify them as Official plates. All plates consisted of 5-digit serial numbers. See http://www.statetrooperplates.com/pennsylvania.html for a partial listing with images of these plates.
1956 - 1965
| Notes | Number Plate | Personalized Plate | Sample Plate |
|
Format 1 (Steel plate, wide dies) - Observed serial range: 3290 (only one plate known) |
 From Norm Ratcliff |
Not offered on this format |  |
|
Format 2 (Steel plate, thinner 1957 dies) - Observed serial range: 4322 (only one plate known) |
 From Clayton Moore |
Not offered on this format | |
|
Format 3 (Aluminum plate) - Observed serial range: 5322 - 9006 |
 From Kyle Kuser |
Not offered on this format | |
1965 - 1967
| Notes | Number Plate | Personalized Plate | Sample Plate |
|
- Observed serial range: PA-1000 - PA-9645 1000-PA - 9999-PA (none observed, format unconfirmed) |
 From Eric Conner (1000-PA format, unconfirmed)  (Front plate) From Worthpoint |
Not offered on this format | |
1968 - 1971
| Notes | Number Plate | Personalized Plate | Sample Plate |
|
- Observed serial range: PA-10000 - PA-20427 |
 From Eric Conner |
Not offered on this format | |
1971 - 1977
| Notes | Number Plate | Personalized Plate | Sample Plate |
|
- Observed serial range: PA-10000 - PA-37165 |
 From Worthpoint  (Front plate) From Chuck Harrington |
Not offered on this format |  From Eric Conner |
From here to the end, only the Non-Commercial variety of Official Use plates will be covered. To see the Commercial variety, go back to the Highs page and click "Official Use (Commercial)."
1977 - 1984
| Notes | Number Plate | Personalized Plate | Sample Plate |
|
- Observed serial range: PA-10000 - PA-11263 - Serial block for Commercial begins at PA-30000 |
 From John McDevitt |
Not offered on this format | |
1985 - 2021
| Notes | Number Plate | Personalized Plate | Sample Plate |
|
- Observed serial range: 10000-PA - 41272-PA |
 From Chuck Harrington |
Not offered on this format |  From unknown |
2021 - present
| Notes | Number Plate | Personalized Plate | Sample Plate |
|
- Observed serial range: 42026 P/A - current high |
 From Nick Tsilakis |
Not offered on this format |  From PennDOT |