Massachusetts · sequential passenger map
Massachusetts license-plate format
Massachusetts passenger plates commonly use a digit, three letters, a space and two digits. In this atlas the pattern string uses A for a letter slot and 9 for a digit slot. Other characters are separators that appear on the metal but do not enlarge the combination space.
- Pattern
- 9AAA 99
- Classes
- 3 letters + 3 digits
- Alphabet size
- 26
- Skipped letters
- none modelled
- Combination count
- 17,576,000
- Model year
- 1987
How the map works
Each A slot independently takes one glyph from ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ. Each 9 slot takes 0–9. The product of those bases is 17,576,000 — the size of the sequential space taught here. Hyphens, spaces and dots in 9AAA 99 are display only.
Massachusetts ran numeric passenger plates for a very long time. The 9AAA 99 style is the modern sequential block on the white low-number-looking graphic.
Before this map, Massachusetts used 123-456 all-numeric passenger. Optional graphics (universities, military, environmental) can look nothing like the sequential passenger die and are not counted in the 17,576,000 figure.
Vanity and low-number numeric plates are a separate culture in Massachusetts and are not this serial.
Generated versus issued
A string that fits 9AAA 99 is in-class. It is not automatically an issued plate. Series can skip blocks, retire numbers, or reserve low digits. This essay never queries a motor-vehicle file. See also generated vs issued.