Batch Codes
The batch codes are the letters in the middle of the hologram on each licence plate. These were introduced in late 2015 after peeling plate issues were raised to the government. The new sheeting has codes that can tell us when and where the sheeting was produced.
The way to read these codes is as follows:
B is the first letter and represents Brownwood Texas. This is where 3M produces their sheeting for the different jurisdictions.
The second letter tells us the year. The letter corresponded with the last number in the year. This is recycled every decade. This is laid out in a the following chart:
C O M P L A I N T S
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
The third letter tells us the month. Similar to the year, it is laid out in this chart:
S T E N O G R A P H I C
J F M A M J J A S O N D
The final digit is a number. This tells us the week the sheeting was made. The Canadian sheeting is always made in the first week of the month, so this number is always 1.