Collecting Ontario licence plates for 40 years
THE
BACK
BUMPER
1933 ONTARIO PLATE ALLOCATION
Click here to skip to the allocation data table below.
All-numeric plates numbered 1-500 were reserved for Members of Provincial Parliament.
Ontario passenger plates started with either one or two letters from 1930 to 1936, and contained one to four trailing numerals, up to a maximum of five characters. Ontario omitted the letters G, I and Q in 1933. The reserved single-letter, D-prefix series for doctors is believed to have started by 1933 (I once purchased a run of Ontario plates that was confirmed to have been used by a doctor, and the earliest plate in that collection was 1933). However, the single-D prefixed plates are simply included in the Toronto distribution. It is probable that they were issued out of Toronto directly to medical doctors as a courtesy.
The Ontario Motor League Manual lists the serial numbers in a different order from what I believe to be the actual issuance. The OML Manual starts with single-letter prefixes, and then goes immediately to the double-letter prefixes of the same letter.
A1 to A9999
AA1 to AZ999
B1 to B9999
BA1 to BZ999 ...
However, the city of Toronto was consistently assigned plates with a single letter prefix only. As Toronto was issued several runs of these single-letter prefixes, other major cities like Hamilton, Ottawa and London also received single letter prefixes. Generally, the smaller centres received plates with a two-letter prefix. Given that the two-letter prefixes only progress partway through the alphabet before ending at the MZ series, it is likely that the order of issuance is as follows:
A1 to A9999
B1 to B9999
C1 to C9999 ... continuing through
Y1 to Y9999
Z1 to Z9999
AA1 to AZ999
BA1 to BZ999 ... etc.
Based on this pattern, the highest number produced would have been MZ-999, which was designated as a reserve plate in case of issuing office shortages. No two-letter prefixes were issued beyond this point, and there are no such prefixes mentioned in the OML list. I have included non-produced dual-prefix ranges in the table below, in order to make it clearer as to which sequences were issued, and which were not. Interestingly, the OML manual specifically notes that the MM and MW series were omitted from production. I have inserted virtual OML / Issue order values for those ranges so they appear where they might be expected to be if they were issued. My best guess for that would be that both dies together might have been too wide to fit the hydraulic press. I guess I'll have to measure the next M and W characters I see on a 1933 plate to determine how much wider those characters might be.
You can view the table in the original OML manual order, or switch to my hypothesized order of single-letter prefixes issued first, followed by double-letter prefixes. Just click the headings "OML Order" and "Issue Order" to rearrange the table. You can also put the cities in alphabetical order, if you like. Any order can be reversed by clicking a heading a second time.