vehicles 0.4.1 → 0.8.0

data/data/plates/us-nm.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,574 @@
+# plates/us-nm.yml — New Mexico (PRD-PLATES gate L2, mountain group).
+#
+# THREE STANDARD PLATES, THREE DIFFERENT SERIAL LENGTHS, ALL CURRENT. New
+# Mexico's Motor Vehicle Division lists a "Standard Red and Yellow License
+# Plate", a "Standard Centennial License Plate" (turquoise) and a "Chile Plate"
+# as its standard issue, and they take 6, 6 and 6 characters in three DIFFERENT
+# arrangements — 123-ABC, ABC-123 and ABCD12 — while their PERSONALIZED
+# counterparts take 1-7, 1-8 and 1-6 characters respectively. A consumer that
+# assumes one current standard arrangement per US state is wrong about New
+# Mexico three ways at once, and the MVD states all six limits itself.
+#
+# THE SEPARATOR FINDING, AND IT IS THE BEST ONE IN THIS GROUP: the glyph
+# between the serial groups on the yellow and turquoise plates is the ZIA SUN
+# SYMBOL — the emblem on the state flag. It is a design element occupying a
+# separator position, and the MVD says so in the only way that really settles
+# it, by forbidding it in a serial: "Special characters such as the Zia symbol,
+# hash tag, asterisk, dash, underscore, space, or any other special characters
+# are not allowed." The authority itself lists the Zia alongside the dash and
+# the space as a NON-CHARACTER. See `design.serial_separator_glyph` on
+# us-nm-standard-yucca and the note to _meta/separators.yml in the group
+# dossier.
+#
+# NEW MEXICO ALSO PUTS "USA" ON ITS PLATES, to stop the state being mistaken
+# for the country it borders. That is not trivia here: it is why the legend
+# fields below carry "NEW MEXICO USA" and not "NEW MEXICO".
+#
+# SOURCING: New Mexico authorises its special plates ONE STATUTE AT A TIME, and
+# the MVD's own plate pages cite the NMSA 1978 section for nearly every plate
+# they describe. That makes the specialty index unusually well-founded even
+# though NMSA itself could not be fetched in this pass (nmonesource.com returned
+# 403/404 to every attempt) — the section NUMBERS come from the agency, and are
+# recorded as pointers rather than quoted.
+jurisdiction: us-nm
+authority:
+  name: New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, Motor Vehicle Division (MVD)
+  url: "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/"
+binding: vehicle
+statute_edition: >-
+  NOT READ. The Motor Vehicle Code is NMSA 1978 Chapter 66; the plate sections
+  cited throughout are those the MVD itself cites. nmonesource.com (the New
+  Mexico Compilation Commission's official service) returned 403 and 404 to
+  every path attempted, and no statutory text is quoted anywhere in this file.
+  Section numbers are pointers, not sources.
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# artwork_risk — required per jurisdiction by PRD-PLATES §4.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+artwork_risk:
+  posture: unresearched
+  basis: >-
+    NO EVIDENCE EITHER WAY WAS FOUND, AND NONE IS INVENTED. New Mexico does not
+    appear in the survey of state copyright postures the US research dossier
+    relied on — the Wikipedia article on the copyright status of works by
+    subnational governments has a New Mexico heading and NOTHING UNDER IT, the
+    same empty-section result as Nevada. No New Mexico public-records provision
+    was read and no state agency policy asserting or disclaiming copyright was
+    located. Under the governing rule (17 U.S.C. § 105 does not reach the
+    states) the default for a US state design is copyrighted unless that state
+    says otherwise, so New Mexico must be treated as default-copyrighted until
+    researched.
+  a_specific_extra_hazard: >-
+    THE ZIA SUN SYMBOL IS NOT AN ORDINARY GRAPHIC and must not be treated as
+    one. It is the emblem of the Zia Pueblo, appears on the New Mexico state
+    flag, and is the subject of a long-running and well-documented dispute
+    between the Pueblo and the state over its use — a controversy that is about
+    cultural appropriation and state emblem law, NOT copyright, and that
+    therefore would survive any favourable copyright finding. The Zia sits in
+    the separator position of two of the three current standard plates, so a
+    faithful New Mexico render cannot avoid it. THIS IS THE STRONGEST
+    PLACEHOLDER CASE IN THE ENTIRE MOUNTAIN GROUP: render the separator position
+    as a neutral gap or a neutral glyph, never as the Zia, and do not treat the
+    §3 emblem rule as satisfied by a copyright analysis alone. The dispute is
+    recorded here as a FLAGGED, UNRESEARCHED legal question — no source for it
+    was fetched in this pass and none is cited.
+  emblem_rule: >-
+    PRD-PLATES §3 placeholder default applies, with the Zia carve-out above
+    treated as non-negotiable. New Mexico state seal and state symbol statutes
+    are UNRESEARCHED (standing gap, US dossier §4.5), and New Mexico is the one
+    state in this group where that gap is known in advance to be load-bearing.
+  photograph_caution: >-
+    Standard finding: a Commons CC BY-SA tag on a New Mexico plate photograph
+    licenses the PHOTOGRAPH, not the design, and never reaches a render
+    generated from the spec. Note that it also would not reach the Zia question,
+    which is not a copyright question at all.
+  sources:
+    - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by_subnational_governments_of_the_United_States  # LOCATOR ONLY (PRD-PLATES §4): consulted, and recorded because its New Mexico section is EMPTY — the negative result is the claim"
+    - "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/  # New Mexico MVD, on personalized plates: 'Special characters such as the Zia symbol, hash tag, asterisk, dash, underscore, space, or any other special characters are not allowed.' Cited here because it is the state's own statement that the Zia is not a serial character."
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# The US standards chain.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+us_standards:
+  no_federal_mandate: true
+  chain: "SAE J686 -> AAMVA License Plate Standard Edition 3 (September 2025) -> voluntary state adoption."
+  aamva_edition_3:
+    dimensions_delegated: "AAMVA §3.1 sends dimensions and bolt holes to SAE J686, PAYWALLED and UNPINNED. No J686 dimension is quoted."
+    character_layout: "AAMVA §2.2: characters at least 2.5 in high, spaced at least 0.25 in apart, stroke weight 0.2-0.4 in, at least 1.25 in clear of top and bottom edges."
+    jurisdiction_name_layout: >-
+      AAMVA §2.1 recommends the jurisdiction name in the TOP CENTRE between the
+      bolt holes. NEW MEXICO'S CURRENT PLATES DEPART FROM THIS: on the turquoise
+      and chile designs the state name sits BELOW the serial, with the slogan
+      above. A render engine that hard-codes AAMVA §2.1 will place New Mexico's
+      state name wrongly — which is the practical reason the standard is
+      recorded as RECOMMENDED PRACTICE and not as a requirement.
+    retroreflectivity: "AAMVA §3.3: readable in daylight and at night from at least 75 feet; ASTM D4956-19 and ISO 7591:1982 clause 3; 45 cd/lx/m2 minimum. No New Mexico counterpart was read."
+    replacement_cycle: "AAMVA §1.1 recommends a cycle not to exceed 7 to 10 years. No New Mexico replacement cycle was read (recorded gap). New Mexico DOES set a five-year revalidation cycle for horseless-carriage plates — see that series."
+    source: "https://www.aamva.org/getmedia/646bcc8a-219b-47d8-b5cd-726240473163/License-Plate-Standard-Edition-3_September-2025-Update.pdf"
+  manufacture_note: >-
+    New Mexico's plates are reported by a locator to be manufactured by Waldale
+    Manufacturing Limited of Amherst, Nova Scotia — i.e. by a FOREIGN COMMERCIAL
+    CONTRACTOR rather than by a prison industry, which is the arrangement in
+    Colorado (Colorado Correctional Industries) and Nevada (Northern Nevada
+    Correctional Center, by statutory command in NRS 482.267). Locator-grade,
+    recorded because a commercial manufacturer changes the design-IP picture:
+    where a vendor designs, a vendor may claim.
+  folklore_caution: >-
+    The "1956 agreement" sentence appears in the Wikipedia New Mexico article
+    with the same Christopher Garrish, "Reconsidering the Standard Plate Size",
+    Plates (ALPCA, October 2016) footnote carried by the Utah, Nevada and
+    Colorado articles — a hobbyist magazine whose title announces that it
+    reconsiders the claim, attached to four articles as though it supported it.
+    COMMONLY REPEATED, UNSOURCED.
+
+display_rules:
+  default: "ONE plate, rear. Rear plates only have been required since 1961 (locator-grade; no New Mexico instrument was read)."
+  state_name_legend: >-
+    "NEW MEXICO USA", not "NEW MEXICO". New Mexico is the only US state that
+    puts USA on its plates, to avoid confusion with the neighbouring country. A
+    render must carry the USA, and a jurisdiction-name matcher that expects the
+    bare state name will miss it.
+  sources:
+    - "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/  # New Mexico MVD's own plate index and the standard/personalized/collegiate/handicapped/historical/military/organization/police/motorcycle category structure"
+    - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_New_Mexico  # LOCATOR ONLY (PRD-PLATES §4): rear-only since 1961; the USA legend and its rationale; the Waldale manufacture; the design descriptions and serial ranges cited per series below"
+
+series:
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # CURRENT STANDARD (1) — the yellow "Land of Enchantment" base. The oldest
+  # continuously issued design in this group's five states.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-nm-standard-yucca-1991
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+    period: { start: 1991 }
+    period_evidence: corroboration-only
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "999-LLL"
+      regex: '\A\d{3}[- ]?[A-Z]{3}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A\d{3}[- ]?[A-DF-HJ-NPR-TW-Z]{3}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          SIX LETTERS ARE EXCLUDED FROM NEW MEXICO SERIALS — E, I, O, Q, U and
+          V — which is the widest exclusion set found in the mountain group and
+          twice the size of Nevada's. It is what `regex_strict` encodes; the
+          round-trip forbids `regex` from carrying it (PRD-PLATES §2.7). The
+          exclusion is CORROBORATION-GRADE, from a collector reference reached
+          through a locator, and the locator additionally records that E was
+          separately withheld from the 123-ABC arrangement when it began. No New
+          Mexico instrument stating the alphabet was read.
+      pattern_note: >-
+        The separator is spelled as the sanctioned separator-only class `[- ]`
+        (PRD-PLATES §2.8) rather than as a bare hyphen, and DELIBERATELY: the
+        plate does not print a hyphen at all. It prints the Zia sun symbol. The
+        class is the honest encoding of a gap whose printed glyph is not in the
+        emitted set, exactly as `es-consular-cc-1999` uses it for a gap whose
+        glyph the Spanish authority never specified. `pattern` shows the
+        canonical printed separator, per §2.8's final rule.
+      progression: "sequential; the locator has the arrangement running from 001-AAA in early 1991 to 275-XJX as of 18 January 2025 — thirty-four years and not yet exhausted"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, w_mm: 304.8, h_mm: 152.4 }
+      plate_dimension_note: "no New Mexico instrument was read; the 12x6 figure is the North American convention from the AAMVA/SAE chain and is not attributed to New Mexico (recorded gap)"
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      colour_note: >-
+        NO HEX IS CLAIMED and no New Mexico colour specification was read.
+        Locator description: an embossed red serial on a yellow plate with a
+        light blue yucca graphic screened at the lower left, Native American
+        zigzag bands screened at the top corners, "New Mexico USA" screened in
+        red below the serial and "Land of Enchantment" screened in light blue at
+        the bottom. From early 1999 the dies are smaller and the stamped
+        indentation for a county-name sticker is gone.
+      serial_separator_glyph: >-
+        THE ZIA SUN SYMBOL. Embossed between the numeric and alphabetic groups.
+        It is NOT a serial character and the MVD says so by listing it with the
+        dash and the space among the "special characters" that may not appear in
+        a personalized serial. Under PRD-PLATES §2.6 the dataset may emit only
+        '-' and ' ', so the regexes spell the position with the separator-only
+        class `[- ]` and this field records what is printed. New Mexico and
+        Nevada together are the US cases that should be added to
+        _meta/separators.yml's never_separator discussion by PR — a state emblem
+        in a separator position, on plates issued by the million.
+      legend_bottom: "Land of Enchantment"
+      legend_state_name: "New Mexico USA"
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "yucca (the state flower) at lower left; zigzag bands at the top corners; Zia sun symbol as separator — SEE artwork_risk, the Zia is a flagged non-copyright hazard" }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      rear_differs: false
+    region_encoding: >-
+      NONE IN THE SERIAL, BUT NEW MEXICO ONCE PUT THE COUNTY ON THE PLATE AS A
+      STICKER. The 1990-97 issue carries "a stamped indentation at top center
+      for county-name sticker", and county-name stickers were discontinued
+      sometime after 1996 (locator-grade). That is a third mechanism alongside
+      Florida's printed county LEGEND and Nevada's county-coded SERIAL: a
+      physically recessed slot for a removable county label. Worth recording
+      because it means a New Mexico plate of that vintage may carry county
+      information that is not in its serial and not in its printed legend.
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/  # New Mexico MVD lists 'Standard Red and Yellow License Plate' among its current standard plates, and states the Zia-symbol exclusion from personalized serials"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_New_Mexico  # LOCATOR ONLY (PRD-PLATES §4): the late-1990 base introduction, the 123-ABC arrangement from early 1991, the 001-AAA to 275-XJX range as of January 2025, the E/I/O/Q/U/V exclusion, the design description and the county-sticker indentation. None is asserted as sourced."
+    notes: >-
+      NEW MEXICO'S YELLOW BASE — THE LONGEST-RUNNING CURRENT DESIGN IN THE
+      MOUNTAIN GROUP, and by a distance: continuously issued since late 1990 in
+      an arrangement unchanged since early 1991, still short of exhaustion after
+      thirty-four years. Set that against the US dossier's list of the five
+      oldest US designs still in use (Delaware 1959, Colorado 1960 continuously
+      since 1978, DC 1975, Minnesota 1978, North Carolina 1982) — New Mexico's
+      is younger than all five, but its SERIAL ARRANGEMENT has outlasted every
+      arrangement in this group by a decade. `period_evidence:
+      corroboration-only`: 1991 is a locator date and no New Mexico instrument
+      was read.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # CURRENT STANDARD (2) — the turquoise Centennial base.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-nm-standard-turquoise-2010
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+    period: { start: 2010 }
+    period_evidence: corroboration-only
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL-999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{3}[- ]?\d{3}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[A-DF-HJ-NPR-TW-Z]{3}[- ]?\d{3}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "the same E/I/O/Q/U/V exclusion, corroboration-grade, encoded in the strict twin only" }
+      pattern_note: "separator spelled as the sanctioned separator-only class `[- ]` for the same reason as the yellow base: the printed glyph is the Zia sun symbol, not a hyphen"
+      progression: "sequential; LGR-001 in 2010 through NZT-499, then NZT-500 onward on the post-2016 variant, reaching SBC-521 as of 28 January 2025 (locator-grade). A 'W' series is used on mail-order plates."
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      colour_note: >-
+        NO HEX CLAIMED. Locator description: an embossed yellow serial on a
+        turquoise plate with a border line, a yellow-and-red Zia sun symbol
+        embossed in the centre, and "NEW MEXICO" screened in white below the
+        serial. The 2010-16 issue carries "CENTENNIAL 1912-2012" screened in
+        white at the top and "LAND OF ENCHANTMENT" in yellow at the bottom;
+        from 2016 the centennial slogan is dropped, "NEW MEXICO USA" appears
+        below the serial and the slogan moves to the top.
+      serial_separator_glyph: "the Zia sun symbol, embossed at the centre of the plate between the serial groups — see the yellow base's note and artwork_risk"
+      legend_state_name: "NEW MEXICO USA (post-2016 variant; 'NEW MEXICO' on the 2010-16 centennial variant)"
+      legend_slogan: "LAND OF ENCHANTMENT"
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/  # New Mexico MVD lists 'Standard Centennial License Plate' among its current standard plates, and offers a matching 'Centennial Vanity Plate'"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_New_Mexico  # LOCATOR ONLY: the 2010 introduction, the 2016 slogan/legend change, the ABC-123 arrangement, the LGR-001 to SBC-521 range, the mail-order W series and the ALPCA 'Plate of the Year' award for 2010"
+    notes: >-
+      THE TURQUOISE CENTENNIAL BASE, and the reason New Mexico is the schema
+      stressor for CONCURRENT STANDARD DESIGNS. It was introduced for the 1912
+      statehood centennial, kept after the centennial passed with only the
+      slogan changed, and now runs alongside the yellow base and the chile base
+      as an equally standard option. The 2016 change — slogan moved, "USA"
+      added — is a DESIGN change on an unchanged arrangement, which under
+      PRD-PLATES §2.3 argues for a separate series; it is recorded as a variant
+      inside this entry instead, because no primary establishes the boundary and
+      minting a dated id on a locator date would be exactly the folklore
+      boundary the PRD warns against. A verifier with a primary should split it.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # CURRENT STANDARD (3) — the chile base. Six characters, no separator, and
+  # the only one of the three whose serial has no group break at all.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-nm-standard-chile-2017
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+    period: { start: 2017 }
+    period_evidence: corroboration-only
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLL99"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{4}\d{2}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[A-DF-HJ-NPR-TW-Z]{4}\d{2}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "the same E/I/O/Q/U/V exclusion, corroboration-grade, in the strict twin only. FOUR letters then two digits — the only four-letter arrangement in the mountain group." }
+      progression: "sequential from AAAA01 in July 2017, reaching CAFX50 as of 2 February 2025 (locator-grade); a 'W' series is used on mail-order plates"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      colour_note: >-
+        NO HEX CLAIMED. Locator description: an embossed yellow serial on a
+        black plate with a border line, green and red chili peppers screened at
+        the left, "New Mexico USA" screened in red below the serial, "CHILE
+        CAPITAL OF THE WORLD" screened in yellow at the top and "Land of
+        Enchantment" screened in green at the bottom.
+      serial_separator_glyph: "NONE — the chile plate prints an unbroken six-character serial, which is why its regex carries no separator class while the other two standards do"
+      legend_state_name: "New Mexico USA"
+      legend_top: "CHILE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD"
+      legend_bottom: "Land of Enchantment"
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "green and red chili peppers at left" }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/  # New Mexico MVD lists the 'Chile Plate' among its current standard plates and gives its personalized character limits (1-6, or 1-5 for a motorcycle)"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_New_Mexico  # LOCATOR ONLY: the July 2017 introduction, the ABCD12 arrangement, the AAAA01 to CAFX50 range, the mail-order W series and the ALPCA 'Plate of the Year' award for 2017"
+    notes: >-
+      THE CHILE BASE. Its value to the dataset is that it breaks two patterns at
+      once: it is the only current mountain-group standard with FOUR consecutive
+      letters, and the only New Mexico standard with NO separator position, so
+      it is the control case proving that the Zia on the other two plates is a
+      design choice rather than a structural necessity. `period_evidence:
+      corroboration-only`; the MVD confirms the plate exists and is standard,
+      the July 2017 date is a locator.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # ONE BASE BACK — the 1999-2010 hot-air-balloon base.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-nm-standard-balloon-1999
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+    period: { start: 1999, end: 2010 }
+    period_evidence: corroboration-only
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{3}\d{3}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[A-DF-HJ-NPR-TW-Z]{3}\d{3}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "the same E/I/O/Q/U/V exclusion applies to the alternative passenger plates of this era (corroboration-grade)" }
+      pattern_note: >-
+        SEVEN ARRANGEMENTS RAN ON THIS ONE BASE and the regex covers only the
+        last. The locator records NM1234, 1NM234, 12NM34, 123NM4, 1234NM,
+        AB 123 and finally ABC123 — the first five embedding the literal letters
+        NM at a MIGRATING POSITION inside the serial, which is a serial-design
+        idea found nowhere else in this group and arguably nowhere else in the
+        US. They are not given series of their own because no primary
+        establishes their boundaries, and they are recorded here so that a
+        parser meeting `123NM4` knows it is looking at a real New Mexico plate
+        and not a corruption.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      colour_note: >-
+        NO HEX CLAIMED. Locator description: an embossed red serial on a white,
+        yellow and orange gradient plate with a green, yellow, orange and red
+        hot-air-balloon graphic screened at the left carrying a red Zia sun
+        symbol on its yellow section, "NEW MEXICO USA" screened in yellow at the
+        bottom and "Land of Enchantment" in yellow above the state name.
+      legend_state_name: "NEW MEXICO USA"
+      legend_slogan: "Land of Enchantment"
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "hot-air balloon at left, carrying a Zia sun symbol" }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_New_Mexico  # LOCATOR ONLY: the 1999-2010 window, the seven arrangements with their ranges, and the balloon design description"
+    notes: >-
+      THE PREVIOUS BASE, and the reason to keep it is the MIGRATING NM DIGRAPH.
+      A base that spends its serial space by moving a fixed two-letter token
+      along the string — NM1234, 1NM234, 12NM34, 123NM4, 1234NM — is a distinct
+      exhaustion strategy, different from Arizona's (add a character), Nevada's
+      (change the arrangement) and Colorado's (reuse retired serials). Four
+      states, four answers to the same problem, all in this one group; that
+      comparison is the sort of thing the encyclopedia section exists to make.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # PERSONALIZED ("prestige") — the MVD states all six character limits.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-nm-personalized
+    class: personalized
+    categories: [car, van, truck, motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 2026 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force-upper-bound
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLLLLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9]{1,8}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          THE AUTHORITY STATES THE LIMITS ITSELF, per design and per vehicle
+          type, which no other state in this group does: "A yellow prestige
+          plate may have 1-7 characters (1-6 characters for a motorcycle). A
+          turquoise prestige plate may have 1-8 characters (1-6 characters for a
+          motorcycle). A Chile prestige plate may have 1-6 characters (1-5
+          characters for a motorcycle). The characters can include any
+          combination of letters and numbers." The regex is the UNION of those
+          six sourced ranges — 1 to 8 — and is `strict` because the union is
+          exactly what New Mexico issues across the three designs, not wider.
+          A consumer needing the per-design bound must read this note; the
+          series does not split, because the three designs share one programme,
+          one fee and one refusal rule.
+        alphabet: >-
+          "Only alphanumeric characters (letters and numbers) can be used" and
+          "Special characters such as the Zia symbol, hash tag, asterisk, dash,
+          underscore, space, or any other special characters are not allowed."
+          THE STATE LISTS ITS OWN EMBLEM AMONG THE FORBIDDEN NON-CHARACTERS,
+          which is the cleanest authority statement in the whole dataset that a
+          glyph in a separator position is not part of a serial.
+        refusal_criteria: >-
+          A requested set may be rejected if it duplicates an existing plate, if
+          the division finds it derogatory or obscene, or if it "falsely states
+          or implies that the vehicle or the driver represents the authority of
+          a governmental agency or official" (MVD).
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      note: "available on all three standard designs — the MVD offers 'Centennial Vanity Plate' and 'Red & Yellow Prestige (Vanity)' alongside the chile option, for both regular and motorcycle plates"
+    fee: "$17.00 initially and on each regular registration renewal (MVD)"
+    ordering: "orderable online with free shipping through the MVD's Personalized Plate Application, as well as in person"
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/  # New Mexico MVD: the per-design and per-vehicle-type character limits, the alphanumeric-only rule, the forbidden special characters INCLUDING THE ZIA SYMBOL, the three refusal grounds, the $17.00 fee and the online ordering route"
+    notes: >-
+      PRESTIGE (PERSONALIZED) PLATES — THE BEST-SOURCED CHARACTER CONSTRAINT IN
+      THE MOUNTAIN GROUP. Colorado's two-to-seven range comes from statute and
+      is one range; New Mexico's comes from the agency and is SIX ranges, split
+      by design and by vehicle type, all stated in one paragraph. It is also the
+      entry that supplies this file's separator finding, which is why the
+      alphabet note is quoted at length rather than summarised: the MVD's
+      sentence is the authority for a claim the dataset makes structurally.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # HISTORIC — horseless carriage, and the year-of-manufacture programme,
+  # which is a genuinely different idea.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-nm-year-of-manufacture
+    class: historic
+    categories: [car]
+    period: { start: 2026 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force-upper-bound
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "999999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9]+(?:[- ][A-Z0-9]+)*\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          THERE IS NO FORMAT, AND THAT IS THE POINT. A New Mexico
+          year-of-manufacture plate is "an AUTHENTIC plate issued in New Mexico
+          during the motor vehicle's model year" (MVD, citing NMSA 1978
+          § 66-3-423), inspected by the division for condition and for
+          non-duplication of a number already assigned or in use. Its serial is
+          therefore whatever New Mexico was issuing in that year — the union of
+          every historic New Mexico arrangement back to 1912. `recall-only` is
+          the only honest grade: a match says the string has a shape New Mexico
+          has issued at some point, and nothing more. This is the same case as
+          `nl-export`, which carries the vehicle's existing registration, and it
+          is the second-cleanest recall-only in the dataset.
+    design:
+      note: "the design is the ORIGINAL PLATE, whatever it was; there is nothing to render and nothing to specify"
+      background: {}
+    eligibility: "motor vehicles 30 or more years old; the plate must be authentic to the vehicle's model year, in good condition, and its number must not already be assigned or in use (MVD, citing NMSA 1978 § 66-3-423)"
+    transfer: "on sale or transfer the plate may remain with the vehicle and pass to the new owner on payment of a $10.00 fee in addition to regular registration fees"
+    fee: "$27.00 on initial registration; $12.00 on transfer to a new owner"
+    region_encoding: "whatever the original plate encoded — which for a mid-century New Mexico plate is nothing, and for a plate of some other era may be a county"
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/  # New Mexico MVD on year-of-manufacture plates, citing Motor Vehicle Code Section 66-3-423 NMSA 1978: the 30-year threshold, the authenticity and inspection requirements, the non-duplication rule, the transfer rule and the fees"
+    notes: >-
+      YEAR-OF-MANUFACTURE PLATES — THE SERIES THAT BREAKS THE SCHEMA MOST
+      INTERESTINGLY. Nevada's Circa 1982 Replica is a NEW plate made to an old
+      design; New Mexico's year-of-manufacture plate is the OLD PLATE ITSELF,
+      re-registered. One is a manufacturing programme, the other is an
+      authentication programme, and a dataset that models both has to be able to
+      say that a currently valid registration carries a serial from a series
+      that ended decades ago. Recorded here rather than omitted precisely
+      because it is the case that shows why `period` on a SERIES and validity of
+      a PLATE are different facts.
+
+  - id: us-nm-horseless-carriage
+    class: historic
+    categories: [car]
+    period: { start: 2026 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force-upper-bound
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "999999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9]+(?:[- ][A-Z0-9]+)*\z'
+      charset: { notes: "NO FORMAT WAS OBTAINED. The MVD describes the eligibility and the revalidation cycle and says nothing about the serial; NMSA 1978 § 66-3-27 was not read. The regex makes no width or arrangement claim and the series is `recall-only` for that reason — a recorded gap wearing its grade openly rather than an invented pattern." }
+    eligibility: >-
+      "A 'horseless carriage' is a motor vehicle at least 35 years old, owned as
+      a collector's item, and used solely for exhibition and educational
+      purposes" (MVD, citing NMSA 1978 § 66-3-27). A ROLLING 35-year threshold
+      with a USE RESTRICTION — contrast Florida's fixed 1945 model-year cutoff
+      for its horseless carriage plate and its rolling 30-year antique
+      threshold, and New Mexico's own 30-year year-of-manufacture threshold in
+      the entry above. Three different thresholds in two states, and New Mexico
+      runs two of them side by side.
+    validity: "the plate remains with the vehicle on transfer of ownership; it must be REVALIDATED EVERY FIVE YEARS — $17.50 initially, then $7.50 every five years"
+    design:
+      note: "no design description was obtained (recorded gap)"
+      background: {}
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/  # New Mexico MVD on horseless carriage plates, citing Motor Vehicle Code Section 66-3-27 NMSA 1978: the 35-year rolling threshold, the collector's-item and exhibition/educational-use conditions, the plate-stays-with-the-vehicle rule and the five-year revalidation at $7.50"
+    notes: >-
+      HORSELESS CARRIAGE. Included despite having no sourced format because the
+      ELIGIBILITY RULE is the fact worth having: a five-year revalidation cycle
+      on a historic plate is unusual (Florida's equivalent is permanent, "valid
+      for use without renewal so long as the vehicle is in existence"), and a
+      rolling 35-year threshold silently changes the eligible fleet every year
+      in a way a fixed cutoff never does. The format gap is recorded, not
+      papered over.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # SPECIALTY — THE PROGRAM INDEX, per PRD-PLATES §2.5. New Mexico's is
+  # statute-per-plate, and the MVD cites the section for nearly every entry.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-nm-special-plate-index
+    class: specialty
+    categories: [car, van, truck, motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 2026 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force-upper-bound
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9]+(?:[- ][A-Z0-9]+)*\z'
+      charset: { notes: "arrangements vary per programme and were not obtained; the Amateur Radio plate is expressly inscribed with the holder's FCC call letters rather than an assigned serial, which alone makes any single arrangement claim false. Recall bound, no width claim." }
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      note: "one design per authorised programme; the designs themselves are L4 scope (PRD-PLATES §2.5) and none is described here"
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+    program_index:
+      structure: >-
+        NEW MEXICO AUTHORISES EACH SPECIAL PLATE BY ITS OWN STATUTE, and the MVD
+        cites the section for nearly every plate it describes — which makes this
+        the best-founded specialty index in the mountain group even though NMSA
+        itself could not be fetched. TWENTY-SIX distinct NMSA 1978 sections are
+        cited across the MVD's plate pages, of which EIGHTEEN sit in the
+        66-3-424.x special-plate block: 66-3-424.3, .5, .6, .8, .9, .13, .15,
+        .16, .17, .18, .19, .22, .23, .24, .27, .30, .33, .37. The remaining
+        eight are 66-3-16 (disabled person), 66-3-27 (horseless carriage),
+        66-3-413 (national guard), 66-3-417 (amateur radio operator), 66-3-420
+        and 66-3-420.1 (children's trust fund), 66-3-422 and 66-3-423
+        (year of manufacture).
+      count_measured: 18
+      count_basis: >-
+        EIGHTEEN sections in the 66-3-424.x block, counted mechanically from the
+        NMSA citations the MVD prints on its own plate pages as archived 27 May
+        2025. This is a FLOOR, not a total: the block certainly contains
+        sections for plates the MVD page does not describe, the collegiate
+        programme adds ten institutions with no section cited, and eight
+        military-service designs and four city/limited-run designs are listed
+        without sections. Stated as a floor on purpose.
+      categories_offered: >-
+        The MVD organises the catalogue as: Standard, Personalized, Collegiate
+        (ten institutions — Eastern New Mexico, New Mexico, New Mexico Military
+        Institute, New Mexico Highlands, New Mexico State, New Mexico Tech,
+        Western New Mexico, Northern New Mexico College, Central New Mexico
+        Community College, New Mexico Junior College), Handicapped, Historical
+        and Vintage, Military and Veterans, Organizations and Causes, Police /
+        Firefighters / EMT, and Motorcycle.
+      dead_programmes: >-
+        The MVD's own page keeps discontinued entries visible: the "Santa Fe
+        400th Anniversary" city plate is marked "Limited Run Plate - Discontinued
+        as of 6/30/12". A specialty index that silently drops dead programmes
+        loses exactly the fact a plate-spotter needs.
+      one_of_a_kind: >-
+        The Amateur Radio Operator plate (§ 66-3-417) is inscribed with the
+        applicant's official FCC call letters, with the words "amateur radio
+        operator" added on request; its stated legislative purpose is "to
+        readily identify personnel in aid of the performance of necessary duties
+        for civil defense in the communications field", and CB licensees are
+        ineligible. A plate whose serial is issued by a DIFFERENT authority
+        entirely — the FCC — is a real modelling wrinkle and worth flagging for
+        the parse layer.
+      official_list_url: "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/"
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.mvd.newmexico.gov/vehicles/license-plates/  # New Mexico MVD's plate catalogue: the category structure, the ten collegiate institutions, the per-plate NMSA 1978 citations counted above, the Amateur Radio call-letter rule and its civil-defence purpose, and the discontinued Santa Fe 400th Anniversary plate"
+    notes: >-
+      THE SPECIAL-PLATE PROGRAM INDEX — one entry for the whole programme, per
+      PRD-PLATES §2.5. What makes New Mexico's worth returning to is that the
+      catalogue is a LIST OF STATUTE SECTIONS, published as such by the agency:
+      a future pass with access to NMSA can enumerate the 66-3-424.x block
+      directly and get a complete, dated, primary-sourced specialty index — the
+      first in the dataset — because each section carries its own enactment
+      history. Colorado and Nevada have the same structural advantage; New
+      Mexico is the one where the agency has already done the cross-referencing.