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I, O, or Q not issued on any plates in Hawaii. Unlike some other county-coded states, Hawaii does not appear to require new plates when one moves from one county to another. There are many plates from other counties on each island.

Commercial plates are listed on the site as Truck plates, but in reality, they can on both cars and trucks as long as they are owned by a commercial entity. On the other hand, a personal pickup would not be issued these plates.

For a period of time around the late 1990s, a different font was used on plates in Hawaii. Most Hawaii plates have a font equivalent to that of Oregon, but for those few years the characters were shorter and fatter.

In Honolulu County, they start somewhere between FTR and FTV and run through GNZ. Plates from GPA forward are on the current font.

In Kauai, they run from KRD through KRZ. Plates up to KRC and from KSA onward are on the current font.

In Maui, they run from either MZL or MZM through MAE. Also, MUB, MUE, and MUF were seen with this font. However, MUA and MUC were seen with the current font?!? Maui trailer plates are in the MU- series, so perhaps they originally skipped some early MU- plates and then issued them after reaching MZZ.

In Hawaii, they run from HWN to HWZ, then from HUA to HUV. This is how it is known that HU- was issued after HW-.

Most plates issued before the font change (approximately 1991 through 1997) are very faded with the rainbow on the plate usually indiscernible. The exception to this is the Exx plates in Honolulu County which were replaced.

The Honolulu County Exx plates are only being replaced in Honolulu County. For those Exx plates on other islands, they continue to languish in their faded state. While it was reported that a similar replacement of older plates is underway in Hawaii County, there is no direct evidence of this, although some but not all HX- through HZ- plates look newer, but all HN-HW plates are still old and worn.

Stickers
11 - black on white
12 - white on black
Type Plate Notes Reporter
Honolulu RSC 553 In Honolulu County, series started with E, then F, G, J, N, P, and now R. Beyond the typical omission of I, O, and Q, there are no plates are issued in Honolulu County with the letters H, K, L, or M. These are, probably not coincidentally, the same letters that start the plates in the other counties of Hawaii. These letters are also not used on Commercial, Motorcycle, or Trailer plates in Honolulu County. In addition, the letters A, E, or U are not issued in the second position. A and E were issued in the middle position for the EA-, EE-, FA-, FE-, GA-, and GE- sets, but nothing after that. The U has never been in the middle position.
JNx series skipped.
In early 2006, vehicle owners in Honolulu were told that all E series plates (the lowest on the current base) were to be discarded because the reflectorization was failing due to age. Holders of E series plates were given the option of getting new plates (at the time in the N series) or having new plates made with their existing number. All E series plates now in use should be remakes of the originals still in use by the original registrant. Although not confirmed, it is believed that the F series was being similarly replaced in 2007, but Andy reports in early 2011 that the F series plates still in use are old.
Most series through RJE have been used, but nothing has been seen between RJE and RJN. 		Neal Evenhuis
1/12/12
Hawaii ZAE 940 In Hawaii County, plates started at HN-, then HP-, HR-, HS-, HT-, HV-, HW- then HU-, followed by HX through HZ-, then HA- through HM-. Based on the wear and tear seen on the plates of the Big Island, it is likely that the HZ- series was issued sometime later than its sequence would indicate; they looked much newer than HA-, for example. Other than HGA, no HG- plates were seen on the Big Island; not sure if they were ever issued. Unlike Kauai, both Hawaii and Maui Counties share letter series with their Motorcycle, Trailer, and Commercial plates. For example, HDP plates were issued on cars with the letters before the numbers and HDP plates were also issued on commercial vehicles with the letters after the numbers.

After reaching HZY, Hawaii Co. started over at HAA. HZZ ended up being issued in Honolulu Co. due to a shortage of plates. HBL may have been skipped. Everything through HMJ has been issued, but no HMK, HML, or HMM spotted yet. HMN and HMP are in use.

After HMZ 999 was issued the Z series began with ZAA 001 -- because some HNn plates still exist on the road. The lowest plate seen is HNB 172. There is no reissuing of plates as previously thought. Dates on the plates (a hologram with the last two digits of the year of issue in white on a black circle repeated down the center of the plate) correspond to chronological issuing. For example, shiny HZ plates (which were thought to be reissues) have an issue dates of "97" and "98", HX plates have "94" and HN has "91", HC has "01", etc. 		Neal Evenhuis
12/23/11
Kauai KAG 047 In Kauai County, they started with KH-, then KJ-, KK-, KP-, KR-,KS-, KT-, KV-, KW-, KY-,KZ-, and now KA-. Kauai issued KM- for Motorcycle, KX- for Trailer, and KB- for Commercial. KL- was skipped because the letter L is not used on any Kauai plates (except KSL was used for some reason); no obvious reason for why KN- was not used. KB- will likely be skipped because they are used on Commercial plates. Even though the Commercial, Trailer, and Motorcycle plates have the letters after the numbers, the letters sequences in these series are not duplicated with car plates. It takes about 2 years to use up each two letter sequence (for example KAA through KAZ) on Kauai. Andy DeCeunynck
2/09/11
Maui LCA 190 From Andy DeCeunynck:
In Maui County, plates started at MT-, proceeded through MZ-, then from MA- through MS-, and now LA- and LB- plates. Maui has an interesting way of issuing plates. Large blocks of several thousand plates are issued to rental car companies on the island and then similar large blocks are issued to residents of the county, including those on the islands of Lanai and Molokai. After a period of time -- probably about a year -- rental car series are no longer seen anywhere on the road. So the plates currently seen in Maui are only a fraction of what was originally issued. I saw a picture in a travel guide of a rental car in the MRZ series, which would only have been from a couple years back, but I didn't seen any cars on Maui between MRY and MSC the whole time I was there. On the other hand, plates between MMM and MMR, issued well prior to MRZ, are easily found because they were not given to rental cars. Currently, the newest rental cars are LBR through LBT and now LBZ. Plates for residents were issued in the LBN-LBP sets and now LBU through about 5xx-LBX. No higher LBX or LBY seen yet but they are either on other islands or will be issued in the very near future. Maui is the only county that issues its plates like this, other counties intersperse their rental and non-rental plates in much smaller blocks. 		Neal Evenhuis
12/23/11
Non-passenger Plates
City & County of Honolulu TRAILER C&C 536 "Trailer" stacked vertically on the left. C & C and three digits to the right. Neal Evenhuis
11/11/11
City & County of Honolulu C&C7912 City-County Government vehicles. No validation sticker used. Jim Sadler
4/13/10
Fleet Passenger 17103P Red on Yellow, the word FLEET is stacked vertically to left of number, HAWAII across the top of plate, ALOHA STATE across bottom. Issued in blocks by county.
Honolulu Fleet Cars are in the 12nnnP and 13nnnP range in Honolulu County (the highest seen there was 13671P), 15nnnP in Hawaii County, 16nnnP in Maui County, and the high 16nnnP and low 17nnnP on Kauai. 		Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Fleet Trailer 9063TR Fleet trailers are red on yellow background and separate from county trailers. They use the pattern nnnnTR after a vertically stacked FLEET. Almost all Fleet Trailer plates observed were on semis belonging to the Matson Company. Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Fleet Truck 24648T Red on Yellow, the word FLEET is stacked vertically to left of number, HAWAII across the top of plate, ALOHA STATE across bottom. Issued in blocks by county.
Honolulu Fleet Trucks are up to the high 19nnnT, but Hawaii County is currently using 20nnnT, Maui County is using 22nnnT, and Kauai County is in the 24nnnT series.
Oahu-based companies like Hawaiian Telcom have trucks on all islands, but all have fleet plates in the Honolulu County allocation. 		Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Foreign Organization 61 Issued to representatives of the republic of Taiwan as official members of the "Coordination Council for North American Affairs", who are the only ones to get these plates. Neal Evenhuis
2/25/11
Hawaii County Government CofH3100 Hawaii County Government plates have always been in the CofH pattern. Currently around CofH3100. No space between letters and numbers.
Hawaii County Government Motorcycle: CofH 21
Hawaii County Government Trailer: CofH 1321 Pattern is CofHnnnn after "Trailer' stacked vertically on left side. The former format was just CH, rather than CofH on Trailer plates.
Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Hawaii County Government MOTORCYCLE CofH 21 Neal Evenhuis
11/11/11
Hawaii County Government TRAILER CH 2190 "Trailer" stacked vertically on the left. CH and four digits to the right. Neal Evenhuis
11/11/11
Hawaii Department of Water Supply DWS 173 Similar to the BWS plates used on Oahu by the Board of Water Supply, Hawaii County has DWS series plates for the Department of Water Supply. Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Hawaii Fire Department HFD 508 On the island of Hawaii, the fire department vehicles (including county-owned ambulances) use HFD plates. Most are HFD 3nn and HFD 4nn but the newest are HFD 5nn.
Honolulu Fire Department also uses HFD but only for administrative vehicles (Fire Chief, Fire safety inspectors, etc.). The fire trucks use C&C plates. In Honolulu, there are only two digits for HFD vehicles; in Hawaii County they use three digits. 		Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Hawaii MOTORCYCLE 140 HNU Started at HNA Neal Evenhuis
12/23/11
Hawaii TRAILER 110HYZ Probably started at HYA, but nothing lower than HYB observed by Andy in Feb. 2011. Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Hawaii TRUCK 172 HDW Hawaii County Commercial plates started at HCA and ended at 999 HCZ. No truck plates in the HDx series were available at the time, so the TRD series was used. The TRE series is being used in Honolulu County. The HDA (and beyond) series is now being issued in Hawaii County. No HDT or HDU series Commercial plates were issued. Neal Evenhuis
12/23/11
Honolulu Board of Water Supply BWS 926 Same as standard Pass. design, but with BWS prefix. Neal Evenhuis
12/25/10
Honolulu MOTORCYCLE 755 XJZ Lowest seen in the XF- series, but could have started earlier. XG- and XJ- also seen. Neal Evenhuis
11/28/11
Honolulu Police Department HPD1350 In Honolulu and Maui, police departments have their own plates. Honolulu originally ran up through HPD 999 and now are 7 digit plates from HPD1000 up to somewhere around HPD1350. These are the only 7-digit plates in Hawaii and nearly all police cars on Oahu are 7 digits.
On Maui, the MPD letters are used for police cars.
On Kauai and Hawaii, police cars use regular county plates.
NEW! Honolulu Police Trailer: Black on white rainbow graphic, HAWAII across top, ALOHA STATE across bottom, TRAILER stacked vertically to left of "HPD". HPD in smaller size (about 2/3) than numbers in order to fit 7 digits on plate. These are used primarily for the LED radar-based speed notices on roads that say "You are going xx MPH". HPD1181 is the high on this type. 		Neal Evenhuis
2/06/11
Honolulu TRAILER nnnWEH Black on white, rainbow graphic, HAWAII across top, ALOHA STATE across bottom, TRAILER stacked vertically to left of number.
Possibly started at WAA, but unconfirmed. WD- and WE- plates up to WEH have been reported by Andy. WFP reported, but no details are available about that plate. 		Jim Sadler
2/05/11
Honolulu Transit System BUS 9nn Same as standard Pass. design, but with BUS prefix. Numbers observed ranging from the 001 block through the 900 block. Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Honolulu TRUCK xxx TTT Honolulu plates started at TGA, ran through TGZ, then TJ-, TN-, TP-, TR-, TS-, and now TT-. Again, no H, K, L, or M, plates in Honolulu County. Different font on TPY through TRC. Most plates in the TG- series are replacements (similar to those car plates beginning with E.) No Commercial (or any other non-pass types) plates with different font have been seen outside Honolulu County.

Upon reaching the end of the TPZ series, the issue advanced to the TRE series. Also, the TRD series was alloted to Hawaii County around the same time after they had reached the end of their HCZ series for trucks. It appears that no truck plates in the HDA series had been made yet, but they are now being issued in Hawaii County. Not all of the TRD series plates were issued in Hawaii County. At some point in the issuance of the TRD series in Hawaii County, they received and began issuing the HDA series, so later TRD series plates not issued by Hawaii County were issued by Honolulu County. Meanwhile, back in Honolulu County, it appears that they filled in from the TRA - TRC series, but the TRE series appeared first. Now the issue is back on track in the TT- series. No TTR or TTS series have been reported. 		Neal Evenhuis
2/04/11
Honorary Consul 108 Issued to officials of consular offices in Hawaii. Neal Evenhuis
2/25/11
Horseless Carriage 170 Red letters on yellow background; "Permanent" stacked vertically down the left side: "Horseless Carriage" on two separate lines to the left of the numbers. Neal Evenhuis
2/25/11
Kauai County Government CofK21nn Kauai County plates started with CK nnnn up to CK 2099, then CofK2100 and up. The 'of' in CofK is very small and takes on up only one space on the plates. There was a space between the letters and numbers up to CK 2099; no space above CofK2100. Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Kauai MOTORCYCLE 431 KMK Lowest seen was KMG, but could have started at KMA. Andy DeCeunynck
1/28/11
Kauai TRAILER 458KXW Probably started at KXA, but nothing under KXM observed by Andy in Feb. 2011. Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Kauai TRUCK 018 KBP Kauai Commercial plates started at KBA. No KBL or KBM seen (L not used in Kauai.) Andy DeCeunynck
1/29/11
Maui County Government CofM2400 Maui County plates have always been in the CofM pattern. Currently around CofM2400. No space between letters and numbers. Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Maui Fire Department MFD 156 Neal Evenhuis
2/23/09
Maui MOTORCYCLE 338 MVN Lowest seen was MVH, but could have started at MVA. Andy DeCeunynck
2/01/11
Maui Police Department MPD 614 In Honolulu and Maui, police departments have their own plates.
On Maui, the MPD letters are used for police cars. Currently, most are MPD 5nn and MPD 6nn.
On Kauai and Hawaii, police cars use regular county plates.
Maui Police Department motorcycles also use the combination MPDnnn, but on the smaller size motorcycle plates. 		Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Maui TRAILER 822MUP Probably started at MUA, but nothing lower than MUB observed by Andy in Feb. 2011. Andy DeCeunynck
2/05/11
Maui TRUCK xxx MEN Maui Commercial plates started at MCA. Neal Evenhuis
2/04/11
Motorcycle - Handicapped 6 Handicapped symbol on left, number on right. Neal Evenhuis
12/25/10
State Government E943 Black on white, rainbow, HAWAII across top, ALOHA STATE across botton, STATE to left of number stacked diagonally from top left. Neal Evenhuis
1/01/12
Specialty Plates
Combat Veteran 6466 Combat Veteran screened on separate lines before numbers.
Neal Evenhuis
9/27/11
Electric Vehicle 1635 Neal Evenhuis
1/20/12
Former Prisoner Of War 28 Neal Evenhuis
2/25/11
Gold Star Family GS002 Gold Star Family plates have been issued Oct. 10, 2011 and GS001 and GS002 have been put on cars belonging to families of fallen soldiers. Purple and gold emblem on the left with GOLD STAR printed above and FAMILY below the emblem - GS and three digits to the right of the gold star emblem. Neal Evenhuis
10/11/11
Handicapped 4150 Handicapped logo embossed before numbers. Handicapped plates are issued only in Hawaii County - none of the other islands; although the vehicles are seen on other islands Neal Evenhuis
1/20/12
Korean Veteran 341 Neal Evenhuis
12/25/10
Pearl Harbor Survivor 118 Pearl Harbor Survivor written out in separate lines to the left of the numbers. Neal Evenhuis
4/12/08
Persian Gulf Veteran 1322 Persian Gulf Veteran screened on separate lines before numbers. Ace
9/25/10
Purple Heart 2766 Combat Wounded, Purple Heart Neal Evenhuis
7/04/08
Specials DJ922 Stickers supporting various causes are placed at left of the AA000-format serial. This series was created to give non-profit organizations part of the proceeds from the registration of these plates. Neal Evenhuis
9/26/11
Veteran 754B "VETERAN" is below the flag. Upon reaching 9999, the series continued with A101 to Z999, then 101A. Andy DeCeunynck
1/24/11
Veteran Motorcycle V 628 Neal Evenhuis
4/12/08
Vietnam Veteran 3028 Neal Evenhuis
2/08/11
World War II Veteran 2061 Neal Evenhuis
8/18/11