Finally found correct info for license plates issued during the black plate era in California...btw, my '67 Tiger had black plate starting with "V", so all is well. The plate years and letters are at the bottom:
The California black
plate was the first plate the
state has issued that has remained in
circulation, prior to that plates
were replaced every few years, 1951 and
1956 were the recent times. In
1963 every vehicle in the state was issued a new plate starting with
AAA000 for automobiles and A00000 for commercial (trucks). To see these plates on a vehicle use to signify that a vehicle is an original California Car and has been in the state its entire life (for the most part, more on that later).
There are a lot of misconceptions about these plates and I hope to clear some of those up. In 1963 every DMV office was sent a stack of plates to be issued as part of this replacement run, at that time one might have been able to determine a county based on the sequence but aside from that California does NOT have series assigned to particular counties. The initial release of plates used up everything from AAA to about RDA, it is virtually impossible to determine the proper sequence for a 1963 or 1964 vehicle as they were caught up in the mass reissue of plates.
In
general it is commonly accepted that the plates ran out near the end of 1969 so it might be possible to see a 1970 model year car with a black plate (trucks through 1971, more later.). On all plates in California regardless of where the letters fall the numbers change first then the letters so you have
AAA000 b AAA002 through AAA999 b AAB000.
In any system you will always see
vehicles that are
older that the sequence, this can happen when it is brought in from out of state or needed replacement plates for some other reason. You should never see a plate that is too old for the vehicle this is a problem that you will see with YOM (Year of Manufacture) programs where you can put old plates of vehicles that qualify.
Understanding the distribution one can
better select a plate that might have been issued to the vehicle when new.
This list outlines approximate sequences based on issue date not model year
*
1963 AAA thru RDA
1964 RDB thru SDR
1965 SDS thru TEH
1966 TEI thru UGC
1967 UGD thru WEI
1968 WEJ thru YCH
1969 YCI thru ZZZ
