Original series
Top row: Franklin, Albany, Monroe, and Erie; bottom row: Westchster, Seneca, Herkimer and Monroe.
Plates for 1930 are the first of the 'modern' era of New York plate design, a style that would remain largely unchanged until the advent of AAA-000 plates in the 1970s. Following on the unusually designed 1929 plates, with its stacked and reversed prefix, these seem remarkably 'normal'. But even a standard design has its anomalies, and 1930 plates have several of them.
The first of these is the alignment of the A 00-00 plates, as in the E 23-57 example at left. Rather than centered, like its lower numbered counterparts, the plate is flush right, as if the 'absent' first numeral has been given a space of its own. This seems to be standard across all plates in this configuration.
The next is the 0A-0 plate design, such as the 3 V 5 at left. Unlike later designs, there are no hyphens (be there one or two), only spaces between all the characters. This would continue for many years to come. As late as 1947 plates were issued in both 0A-0 and 0 A 0 formats.
Continuing the unusual variations for 1930 are plates in the 0A-00 format. Two types were issued, with the prefix flush left and the registration centered, as in 1A 43; or with the entire registration centered, as in 8U 25. I have not discovered whether the same format with a three-digit registration also has two designs. The 1X 607 example above has the flush-left prefix design.
1930 saw the introduction of the letter U to the existing letters in use, bringing the total to 21. (G, Q and W are still not yet in use.)
While most of the county allotments were straightforward, a creeping exceptionalism for New York City plates was already evident (other nearby allotments in parentheses):
B 1 - B 100, 5 B 1 - 5B 100 (Erie)
D 1 - D 100, 1 D 1 - 1 D 100, 2 D 1 - 2D 25 (Hudson Valley)
1 E 1 - 1E 100, 2 E 1 - 2E 100, 3 E 1 - 3E 100 (Erie)
F 1 - F 100, 1 F 1 - 1F 25 (Eastern New York)
H 1 - H 100 (Western New York)
J 1 - J 100 (Eastern New York)
1 L 1 - 1L 25 through 6 L 1 - 6L 25 (Brooklyn)
P 1 - P 100, 7 P 1 - 7P 25 (various)
R 1 - R 100 through 3 R 1 - 3R 25 (Long Island)
T 1 - T 100 through 9 T 1 - 9T 100 (Queens)
U 1 - U 100 through 6 U 1 - 6U 100 (various)
1 X 1 - 1X 25 (various)
Official all-numeric plates were numbered 1 to 12-00 for state cars and plates numbered 12-01 through 30-00 for city, county, and other local government cars.
Special ominbus vehicles were issued plates 4A 85-01 through 4A 99-99 and 1C 50-01 through 1C-99-99.
Snowmobile plates were evidently issued for 1930 but we don't know what numbers were used.
Suburbans, school buses and trailers were issued plates with a stacked SU, SB and TR (and TL?) prefixes respectively, with the larger 'commercial' numerals.
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