DMV to take orders for retro license plates

This post has been corrected. See note at bottom for details.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles will start taking orders Jan. 1 for license plates that mirror ones issued from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The state needs 7,500 orders by Jan. 1, 2015, to print the "legacy license plates," which have either blue, black or yellow backgrounds. Drivers must fill out a form, which is available on the DMV website, and pay $50. If the state does not meet the order threshold, it will refund the application fees.

The start-up cost for the program, should it move forward, will be $385,000, which will be covered by application fees, according to a legislative analysis.

The program is intended, in part, to give classic car collectors a way to get plates that match the era of their vehicles, the analysis said.

[For the Record, Dec. 28, 2012, 11:16 a.m.: A previous version of this post and its headline stated incorrectly that the DMV was taking orders for the retro license plates. The state agency will begin taking orders Jan. 1.]

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Image: Examples of the 1950s-,1960s-, and 1970s-style plates offered by the DMV. Credit: DMV