Have you noticed? I reacted with a strange sadness when I noticed that our license plates have now gone to seven characters instead of six. A sign of progress, I suppose. Where all our standard issue license plates used to be three numbers / three letters or three letters / three numbers (there used to be a little saguaro cactus in between them when the plates were red) now they are three letters and four numbers. I started seeing the plates beginning with AA a couple of months ago. I've already seen some AB plates.

The red plates were replaced by the Arizona landscape design in 1995. It took 13 years to run out of configurations. On a related topic, I received an email from Jeffrey:

After having my first choice declined (?) for reasons undetermined, I received my plate about a month ago and it is not embossed-the letters are not raised! Is this the standard now? I feel a little ripped off.

Yes, that was another change. According to my friends at the Arizona Department of Transportation, "A new flat-style environmentally-friendly license plate is now being issued as our current embossed plate inventories are depleted. The new digital imagining process provides some key improvements over the traditional plate manufacturing process. The system is capable of producing full-color plates, but the elimination of solvent-based inks means there is no longer any hazardous waste or environmental emissions from the process. Eliminating inks also saves energy because digital plates do not require a special drying process in gas-fueled ovens. Digital plates also use lighter gauge aluminum."

I agree with you, Jeffrey, that they look somewhat cardboard-ish, but I suppose I can get over it knowing that they are greener, and probably cheaper to make. As for your personalized plate request, you can request an appeal of the denial as long as the plate you requested isn't on their standard decline list. We can probably imagine some of the items on that list.

Speaking of personalized plates, here's another 25 that I've seen recently.