Arizona County Codes

County 1922-28 1930-31 1932-36 1937-38 1939-44 1947-58
Maricopa 1 A 1-7 A-E A A,V,Y,M
Cochise 2 B 8-9 G C E
Pima 3 C A-E J,K B C,R
Gila 4 D F,G M F L
Yavapai 5 E H,J,K N D J
Yuma 6 F L,N R E H
Pinal 7 G P,R S G K
Graham 8 H S T K S
Santa Cruz 9 J T U N X
Mohave 10 K U V L T
Coconino 11 L V W H P
Navajo 12 M X X J N
Apache 14 N Y Y P Z
Greenlee 13,15 P Z Z R U


Oddball. Click for more info.

  • 1922-28 -- County 13 used by Greenlee County for 2 years then became
    County 15 in 1924. Arizona only had 14 counties at this time.
    By omitting County 13 from 1925-28, Arizona became the only state to ever skip that County.
    Prefix 13 used for sample plates 1925, 1927, 1928, ( 13-0000 )
    Other sources (including the ALPCA archives), INCORRECTLY list Apache as 13 and Greenlee as County 14.
  • 1929 -- No county-coding used, however, believed to have used number blocks identical to the 1930-31 plates which are county-coded.
  • 1930-31 -- Counties are revealed by the small letters appearing in the upper-left corner. Letters I and O skipped.
  • 1932-36 -- Letters I, M, O, Q, and W not used. Zeroes also not used. By not using zeroes, Arizona is the only state to use a 9 numeral system. All plates had exactly 4 characters. Pima, for example, started with AA11.
  • 1937-38 -- Several letters not used.
  • 1939-44 -- Several letters not used. T plates from 1942 are still a mystery. Highest spotted is 28T 547.
  • 1945 -- Only year in which county-coding is unknown.
  • 1947-48 -- Stacked letters used, top letter represents the county.
  • 1950-51 -- Maricopa County shared the X prefix with Santa Cruz. Plate # X-29091 is known. This far exceeds Santa Cruz registrations.
  • 1956 -- The only base year that the letter R was used by Pima and the only year Maricopa used the Y, M.

The 1930 plates were issued in blocks as follows:

  Maricopa (A)..................... 500 to 70,000
Cochise (B)....................70,000 to 85,000
Pima (C)...................... 85,000 to 105,000
Gila (D)..................... 105,000 to 120,000
Yavapai (E)............... 120,000 to 130,000
Yuma (F)................... 130,000 to 140,000
Pinal (G).................... 140,000 to 150,000
Graham (H)............... 150,000 to 155,000
Santa Cruz (J)........... 155,000 to 160,000
Mohave (K).............. 160,000 to 165,000
Coconino (L)............. 165,000 to 170,000
Navajo (M)............... 170,000 to 175,000
Apache (N)................ 175,000 to 180,000
Greenlee (P)............. 180,000 ... and up


Commercial plates (solid tires) from each county were issued
with the lowest numbers. Plate above is just the 19th issued in Mohave County.
Following the commercials, trailers, etc. were
the passenger plates with the higher numbers.
Most counties did not reach their full range of reserved numbers.

The 1929, 1930 and 1931 plates are believed to have used the identical system.


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