• Home
• Wisconsin
• Passenger
  Disabled Amateur Radio Disabled Amateur Radio For Hire Human Services Vehicle
• Bicycle
• Bus Plates
  Bus School Bus School Bus Inspection Sticker City Bus BX Bus
• Dealers
  Dealer Motorcycle Dealer Mobile Home Dealer Recreational Vehicle Dealer Trailer Dealer Demonstrator Demonstrator Trailer Demonstrator Truck Demonstrator Tractor Distrubutor Motorcycle Distributor Finance Company Manufaturer Motorcycle Manufacturer Transporter Wholesaler Snowmobile Dealer ATV Dealer
• Motorcycles
  Motorcycles Sidecar Motorcycle Disabled Motorcycle Moped
• Municipal Vehicles
  Municipal Municipal Motorcycle Official State Patrol State Patrol Motorcycle State Patrol Taxi State Owned
• Trailers
  Trailer ZA Trailer Cabin Mobile Home RV Trailer Camping Trailer
• Trucks
  Truck Disabled Truck Disabled Veteran Truck Insert Truck Light Truck For Hire Farm Heavy Farm Truck Motor Home Disabled Motor Home Disabled Veteran Motor Home PSC Permit
• Semi Plates
  Apportioned Apportioned Trailer Permit Reciprocity Canadian Reciprocity Semi Trailer Contract Semi Trailer Private Semi Trailer Rental Semi Trailer Reciprocity Tax Only
• Special Plates
  Special X Special UX Special Z Special Interest Plates
• Vehicle Collectors
  Antique Antique Motorcycle Hobbyist Hobbyist Motorcycle Collector Collector (Main Vehicle) Collector Motorcycle Historic Historic Motorcycle
• Stickers
• Plate, Tab, and Sticker Colors
• Other Oddities
• License Plate Research Links and Credits

Dealer license plates were first issued in 1905, the same time that passenger license plates were issued.

Dealer license plates had the same colors as passenger plates until 1943. They had a solid star at the left to tell that it was a dealer plate.

It is IMPORTANT to note that the tables are the lows and highs of each dealer series, not how many of each variation there is. It is meant to say the highest/lowest suffixes and the highest/lowest dealers. If my observations are correct each dealer gets a unique dealer number and is reissued the same number as long as the dealership is in business; after that, I'm not sure what happens to the number. There are two likely things: the number gets recycled when a new dealer comes up, or the number just isn't used.

Three bases had variations: 1987 (border/no border), 1991 (narrow/wide dies), and 1997 (narrow/wide prefix). Since the numbers are not issued in order, the variations are not listed.

W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction

In 1920 dealer license plates were given letter codes, which allowed for more than one plate to be issued to a dealer. This way, instead of creating a new dealer number, the existing dealer number would be used and it would have a letter at the end of it. For example, 1899F would be the 6th plate issued to dealer 1899.

In 1932, dealer license plates were made larger, just like passenger plates. This was also the first year that double-letter plates were confirmed to exist, and dealer plates shared the same color cycles as passenger plates until 1943.

In 1943, dealer license plate color cycles changed from passenger license plate color cycles. At first, they just had diffrent colored tabs. After that, though, dealer plates never resembled passenger plates again.

W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction
W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction
W. Yoder Auction		W. Yoder Auctoin

In 1979, the first multiyear base was issued. Through 1988, bases were replaced every other year. From 1985 to 1991, Apportioned license plates followed Dealer plate colors, but not sticker colors.

A few bases' blanks were used for passenger plates, such as 1987 bases and 1989 bases.

W. Yoder Auction Wrong Sticker!	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction

In 1991, a new base was introduced, and it was the first base to stagger registrations. It was used until 1996. As far as I'm concerned (based on 1993 sticker styles and bi-yearly sticker stacks), a plate would be revalidated every 2 years; 1996 plates would have been issued in 1994, for example. No narrow die plates have been confirmed (yet), but Distributor AND Transporter plates both have had narrow dies on them, so as far as I'm concerned, they likely exist.

Leftover bases went to about 26,000 passenger plates, ranging from at least MHZ-318 to MJP-101. What doesn't make sense, though, is why there are narrow die plates for other types used the same range of time, yet the leftover blanks are used on wide die plates. Some things are mysteries...

W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction

W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auciton

In 1997, new plates were issued. They were the first (and only) reflective dealer plates. Plates were revalidated until 2013. These plates were the first to use the MV prefix, standing for "Motor Vehicle Dealer". The prefix is still used to this day.

W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction

W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction

In 2011, bare metal plates were issued. Since then, Dealer plates haven't had validation stickers. They didn't use suffix letters most of the time, so there is probably about 50 plates with the same number floating around some dealership. Until 2018, some plates would have suffix stickers, but most would have no suffix.

Mobile Home Dealer

Mobile Home Dealer plates are identical to Dealer plates, except for the constant "MH" prefix before the suffix.

W. Yoder Auction

Motorcycle Dealer

Motorcycle Dealer license plates have been issued since at least 1948. They follow Dealer license plate colors and replacement cycles.

"" by Ross Day, From Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0(original)	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction Prototype?	W. Yoder Auction

Recreational Vehicle Dealer

Trailer Dealer

Demonstrator

Demonstrator Trailer

Demonstrator Truck

Demonstrator Tractor

Distributor

Distributor plates are issued to entities that transport vehicles between manufacturers and dealers. Newer plates use numbers in the 7000 series.

W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction
W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction

Motorcycle Distributor

Motorcycle Distrubutor is probably the rarest motorcycle dealer plate type.

W. Yoder Auction

Finance Company

Finance Company plates are used for finance companies moving/demonstrating repossessed vehicles. Numbers as far back as 1968 have used numbers in the 5000 series.

W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction

Manufacturer

Manufacturer plates are used for manufacturers demonstrating and testing vehicles. For a little while, plates used numbers in the 6000 series, but they now use just numbers.

W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction

Motorcycle Manufacturer

Wisconsin is the only state that currently issues Motorcycle Manufacturer license plates... such as Harley-Davidson.

W. Yoder Auction

Transporter/In Transit

Originally captioned as In Transit plates, Transporter plates are used for vehicles transported between dealers, distributors, and manufacturers. According to the DOT guide, transporter plates are for vehicles transported "under their own power" or "in tow on their own wheels."

W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction	W. Yoder Auction

Wholesaler

Created November 22, 2018. Updated February 19, 2019