vehicles 0.6.1 → 0.8.0

data/data/plates/us-ga.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,644 @@
+# plates/us-ga.yml — Georgia (PRD-PLATES gate L2, group southeast-a).
+#
+# THE GEORGIA FINDING, AND IT IS THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL artwork_risk RESULT OF
+# THIS GROUP: GEORGIA IS A PUBLIC-DOMAIN STATE THAT HAS CARVED LICENSE PLATE
+# DESIGNS OUT BY STATUTE. Under the Georgia Constitution and its public-records
+# statutes the State and its agents may NOT claim copyright over public records
+# or works unless the legislature specifically permits it, and Wikimedia Commons
+# accordingly maintains {{PD-GAGov}} — Georgia is one of only five US
+# jurisdictions Commons lists as public domain (with California, Florida,
+# Massachusetts and Puerto Rico). The legislature has permitted copyright to a
+# short list of agencies, and THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE IS ON IT, FOR
+# LICENSE PLATE DESIGNS, at O.C.G.A. §§ 40-2-60.1, 40-2-85.3 and 40-2-86.1.
+#
+# § 40-2-60.1 says it in terms: "The design of the initial edition of any
+# special license plate, as well as the design of subsequent editions and
+# excepting only any part or parts of the designs owned by others and licensed
+# to the state, SHALL BE OWNED SOLELY BY THE STATE OF GEORGIA FOR ITS EXCLUSIVE
+# USE AND CONTROL, except as authorized by the commissioner."
+#
+# That is a stronger, more specific adverse signal than anything the US/world
+# dossier found for Arizona. Arizona asserts copyright GENERALLY, in a website
+# notice. Georgia asserts ownership of PLATE DESIGNS SPECIFICALLY, in the PLATE
+# STATUTE, in a state that is otherwise affirmatively public domain. The
+# dossier's per-state table should be amended: "AZ asserts copyright" is no
+# longer the most adverse plate-specific posture located in the US pass.
+#
+# THE SPLIT MATTERS AND IS MODELLED: Georgia's plate FACTS — dimensions,
+# retroreflectivity, county designation, service life, display rules — live in
+# O.C.G.A. Title 40 and are EDICTS OF GOVERNMENT, public domain at every level
+# and unaffected by § 40-2-60.1. What § 40-2-60.1 reaches is the ARTWORK. So
+# Georgia is simultaneously the best-sourced and the most render-restricted
+# state in this group, and this file reflects both.
+#
+# SOURCING PATH DISCLOSURE: Georgia's official code is served through a
+# LexisNexis container that does not answer automated fetches, and both
+# law.justia.com and the ga.elaws.us mirror failed (403 / stale-to-2013).
+# O.C.G.A. §§ 40-2-31, 40-2-41 and 40-2-60.1 were read through
+# codes.findlaw.com, disclosed at every citation as "[via FindLaw]". Verbatim
+# quotations below are marked; everything else is a description of text that was
+# read but not quoted back in full. A verifier should re-derive all three
+# sections from the official code before this file is applied.
+#
+# EVIDENCE GRADES — the four defined in us-va.yml.
+jurisdiction: us-ga
+authority:
+  name: Georgia Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division (MVD)
+  url: "https://dor.georgia.gov/motor-vehicles/vehicle-registration-license-plates"
+binding: vehicle
+statute_edition: "Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Title 40 (Motor Vehicles and Traffic), Chapter 2 — §§ 40-2-31, 40-2-41 and 40-2-60.1 as reproduced by codes.findlaw.com and read 2026-08-01"
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# artwork_risk — required per jurisdiction by PRD-PLATES §4. THE HEADLINE.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+artwork_risk:
+  posture: split-public-domain-state-with-statutory-plate-design-carve-out
+  basis: >-
+    GEORGIA IS PUBLIC DOMAIN BY DEFAULT AND ADVERSE ON PLATE ARTWORK BY
+    STATUTE, and both halves are sourced. THE DEFAULT: under the Georgia
+    Constitution and its public-records statutes the State and its agents may
+    not claim copyright over, or prevent disclosure of, public records or works
+    unless the legislature specifically permits it (O.C.G.A. § 50-18-71); a
+    public work is anything "created or received in the performance of duty and
+    paid for by public funds" (§ 50-18-102). Wikimedia Commons maintains
+    {{PD-GAGov}} on that basis and lists Georgia among the five US
+    jurisdictions whose government works are public domain. THE CARVE-OUT: the
+    legislature has specifically permitted copyright to a named short list —
+    the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court for their official reports
+    (§ 50-18-34), the Georgia Lottery (§ 50-27-9), the Department of Economic
+    Development (§ 50-7-8), and THE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE FOR CERTAIN LICENSE
+    PLATE DESIGNS (§§ 40-2-60.1, 40-2-85.3, 40-2-86.1). The plate-design entry
+    was verified directly against § 40-2-60.1, which reads: "The design of the
+    initial edition of any special license plate, as well as the design of
+    subsequent editions and excepting only any part or parts of the designs
+    owned by others and licensed to the state, shall be owned solely by the
+    State of Georgia for its exclusive use and control, except as authorized by
+    the commissioner."
+  scope_of_the_carve_out: >-
+    READ THE CARVE-OUT NARROWLY AND SAY SO. § 40-2-60.1 as read speaks of
+    "any SPECIAL license plate", within a section about special plates that
+    commemorate events or support agencies, funds or nonprofit programmes. Two
+    consequences. (1) The SPECIALTY catalogue is squarely inside the carve-out
+    — Georgia claims sole ownership and exclusive control of every specialty
+    design and every subsequent edition of it. (2) Whether the carve-out
+    reaches the STANDARD Peach, Peach Orchard and America 250 designs was NOT
+    established: §§ 40-2-85.3 and 40-2-86.1 are the other two cited sections
+    and were NOT read in this pass (recorded gap, and the highest-value single
+    follow-up for Georgia). Until they are read, treat standard-plate artwork
+    as UNRESOLVED and specialty artwork as OWNED.
+  practical_rule: >-
+    Render Georgia from the STATUTE, never from the design. Dimensions,
+    retroreflectivity, the county designation, the required plate contents and
+    the display rules are edicts and are free. The peach graphic, the peach
+    orchard scene, the America 250 artwork and every specialty emblem are the
+    risk surface. `emblem: {present: true, rendered: placeholder}` is not a
+    default here, it is a requirement. Do not trace; do not approximate closely;
+    do not derive from a photograph.
+  america250_extra_caution: >-
+    THE AMERICA 250 DESIGN HAS A NAMED INDIVIDUAL AUTHOR. Georgia DOR states
+    that the plate "features a design created by Georgia middle school students
+    as part of a statewide civics education initiative" and that "the winning
+    design was submitted by Eden Pethel, a student and member of the Children
+    of the American Revolution." A design authored by a private individual and
+    adopted by the State engages § 40-2-60.1's own exception — "excepting only
+    any part or parts of the designs owned by others and licensed to the state"
+    — which means the ownership position on this particular plate may be split
+    between the State and a third party. That is the WORST possible posture for
+    a renderer and the strongest possible argument for the placeholder rule.
+  emblem_rule: "PRD-PLATES §3's placeholder default, applied without exception. The Georgia state seal, if used on any plate, additionally carries seal-misuse protection independent of copyright, which is unresearched."
+  photograph_caution: "Commons photographs of Georgia plates carry the photographer's licence on the photograph, not on the design — and in Georgia the design is affirmatively owned by the State. A CC BY-SA tag on a Georgia plate photo licenses nothing you need and clears nothing you actually risk. Our renders are generated from the statute and never derived from a photograph."
+  sources:
+    - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-60-1.html  # O.C.G.A. § 40-2-60.1 [via FindLaw]: the verbatim state-ownership sentence over special license plate designs and subsequent editions, with the licensed-from-others exception and the commissioner's authorisation power"
+    - "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-GAGov  # the Georgia public-domain tag, its § 50-18-71 / § 50-18-102 basis, and its EXPLICIT list of agencies permitted to claim copyright — including 'Georgia Department of Revenue - O.C.G.A §§ 40-2-60.1, 85.3, 86.1 (certain license plate designs)'"
+    - "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Copyright_rules_by_territory/United_States  # 'most works by government agencies in California, Florida and Georgia are in public domain, EXCEPT SPECIFIED AGENCIES AS STATED'"
+    - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by_subnational_governments_of_the_United_States  # LOCATOR ONLY: the same agency list, which is what pointed this pass at § 40-2-60.1 in the first place"
+    - "https://dor.georgia.gov/georgia-standard-license-plate-designs  # Georgia DOR: the America 250 design's origin in a student design competition and its named individual author"
+
+us_standards:
+  no_federal_mandate: true
+  chain: "SAE J686 -> AAMVA License Plate Standard Edition 3 (September 2025) -> voluntary state adoption; AAMVA's declarative present is RECOMMENDED PRACTICE."
+  aamva_edition_3:
+    dimensions_delegated: "AAMVA §3.1 delegates dimensions and bolt holes to SAE J686, whose text is paywalled and was NOT obtained. No J686 dimension is quoted — and Georgia does not need one, because § 40-2-31(b) legislates minima for both the standard and the motorcycle plate."
+    retroreflectivity: "AAMVA §3.3 recommends readability from at least 75 feet day and night. O.C.G.A. § 40-2-31(c) requires the plate face be 'treated completely with a retroreflective material which will increase the nighttime visibility and legibility' — the same formula South Carolina uses in § 56-3-1230(B), almost word for word. Two neighbouring states with near-identical statutory language is worth noting for anyone tracing where US plate law was copied from."
+    replacement_cycle: "AAMVA §1.1 recommends a cycle not to exceed 7 to 10 years. Georgia legislates a MATERIALS floor rather than a reissue clock: § 40-2-31(b) requires that the 'plate shall provide a minimum service period of at least five years' — the same five-year durability floor South Carolina writes into § 56-3-1230(A), and again with no reissue interval attached in the text read."
+    source: "https://www.aamva.org/getmedia/646bcc8a-219b-47d8-b5cd-726240473163/License-Plate-Standard-Edition-3_September-2025-Update.pdf"
+  folklore_caution: "The '1956 AMA standardization agreement' remains COMMONLY REPEATED AND NOT PRIMARY-SOURCED; see us-va.yml. Georgia does not need it: § 40-2-31(b) states the minima in law."
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# DIGITAL LICENSE PLATES — recorded at file level because it is a fact about
+# GEORGIA'S PLATE LAW, not about any one series, and because it is the only
+# instance found anywhere in group southeast-a.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+digital_plates:
+  statutory_hook: >-
+    O.C.G.A. § 40-2-31(a) [via FindLaw] provides for the commissioner to issue
+    plates bearing "a distinctive number OR A DISTINCTIVE NUMBER TO BE
+    DISPLAYED ELECTRONICALLY UPON A LICENSE PLATE BY A DIGITAL LICENSE PLATE
+    PROVIDER."
+  why_it_matters: >-
+    Every schema assumption in this dataset — retroreflective sheeting, stamped
+    or screened characters, a physical validation decal, a fixed design for a
+    period — presumes a metal plate. Georgia has legislated a second kind of
+    thing: a registration number RENDERED ON A DISPLAY by a third-party
+    provider. Its "design" is software, its "colours" are emitted rather than
+    printed, and its content can change without a base change. PRD-PLATES has
+    no field for it and needs none yet, but the dataset should know the case
+    exists before it meets a jurisdiction that has gone digital at scale.
+  scope_gap: "the extent of Georgia's digital-plate programme — which vehicle classes, which providers, whether the digital plate carries the same serial as a metal one — was NOT established in this pass (recorded gap)"
+  source: "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-31.html  # § 40-2-31(a) [via FindLaw]: the digital license plate provider clause"
+
+display_rules:
+  default: "ONE plate, REAR. § 40-2-41 [via FindLaw], verbatim fragments: 'the plate shall be fastened to the rear of the vehicle in a position so as not to swing' and it 'shall be at all times plainly visible'."
+  legibility_duty: "§ 40-2-41: 'It shall be the duty of the operator of any vehicle to keep the license plate legible at all times.' A duty on the OPERATOR, continuing, rather than a condition on the plate — Georgia frames legibility as conduct."
+  covering_rule: "§ 40-2-41, verbatim: 'No license plate shall be covered with any material unless the material is colorless and transparent.' Tighter and simpler than Virginia's four-limb obscuring test in § 46.2-716(B), and it bans tinted covers outright rather than by effect."
+  obstruction: "§ 40-2-41: 'No apparatus that obstructs or hinders the clear display and legibility of a license plate shall be attached to the rear of any motor vehicle.'"
+  sources:
+    - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-41.html  # O.C.G.A. § 40-2-41 [via FindLaw]: rear mounting without swing, continuous plain visibility, the operator's legibility duty, the colorless-and-transparent covering rule, and the rear-apparatus obstruction ban"
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# COUNTY DESIGNATION — Georgia's region encoding, and it is a DECAL, which
+# makes it different in kind from Florida's printed county legend.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+county_designation:
+  statutory_requirement: "§ 40-2-31(b) [via FindLaw]: the plate must 'designate the county from which the license plate was issued'. The county designation is MANDATORY in law."
+  mechanism: "a county name DECAL applied to the plate, not printed into it. § 40-2-31(d) provides for replacement county decals where a vehicle is registered in a different county; §§ 40-2-31(e) and (g) provide that agents offer either a county name decal OR an 'In God We Trust' decal with a new metal plate."
+  opt_out: >-
+    THE REGISTRANT CHOOSES. Where Florida makes the county legend a
+    COUNTY-COMMISSION opt-out (§ 320.06(3)(a): a county may vote to remove the
+    county name and print the state motto or 'Sunshine State' instead),
+    Georgia makes it an INDIVIDUAL opt-out at the counter: county name decal or
+    'In God We Trust' decal, per plate, per registrant. Same visible outcome, a
+    completely different decision-maker, and a modelling problem in both
+    directions — the bottom legend is a property of neither the series nor the
+    jurisdiction.
+  decode_value: >-
+    NONE IN THE SERIAL. Like Florida, Georgia's county information is a LEGEND,
+    not a code: nothing in the plate string encodes geography. And because the
+    Georgia designation is a peelable decal that is replaced on a move and can
+    be declined outright, it is WEAKER evidence of origin than Florida's
+    printed legend. A parse API must not infer county from a Georgia plate
+    string, and should not infer it from an observed decal either.
+  sources:
+    - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-31.html  # § 40-2-31(b) the mandatory county designation; (d) revalidation decals showing the year and month through which registration is valid, and replacement county decals on registering in a different county; (e) and (g) the county-name-or-'In God We Trust' decal election offered with new metal plates"
+
+series:
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # CURRENT STANDARD ISSUE — GEORGIA OFFERS THREE, BY AGENCY ELECTION.
+  # DOR: "Georgia vehicle owners may select either the current Peach Plate,
+  # Peach Orchard Plate, or the new USA Semiquincentennial/America 250 plate".
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-ga-standard-peach
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck]
+    period: { start: 2012 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-locator-unverified
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL9999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{3} ?\d{4}\z'
+      format_evidence: secondary-locator-unverified
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          No exclusion is sourced for this base. Georgia's documented
+          exclusions are all on EARLIER bases and they move around: the
+          1997-2001 '123 ABC' format excluded I and O, admitting Q, U and V
+          only from 2000; the '1234 AB' format excluded I, O, U and V; the
+          2001-2003 '1234 ABC' format excluded I, O, Q, U and V; and the
+          2003-2012 'ABC 1234' bases excluded O alone. The trajectory is a
+          state progressively RELEASING letters as blocks exhaust, which means
+          a charset exclusion in Georgia is a property of a FORMAT AND A
+          PERIOD, never of the state.
+      progression: "reported: exclusively PFA1000 to PLZ9999 and QFA1000 to QFP6449 on this plain-peach base, running alongside the Peach Orchard base's own blocks. LOCATOR-GRADE."
+      separator_note: "Georgia prints this serial with a small gap and no glyph; the locator writes it closed up ('ABC1234'). `pattern` uses the closed form and `regex` admits an optional space, so both readings match and neither is asserted."
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, w_min_in: 12, h_min_in: 6, dimension_evidence: statutory-minimum }
+      plate_dimension_rule: "§ 40-2-31(b) [via FindLaw]: standard plates 'at least six inches wide and not less than 12 inches in length'. STATUTORY MINIMA — Georgia is one of two states in this group (with South Carolina) that legislates its plate size."
+      material_rule: "§ 40-2-31(b): the 'plate shall provide a minimum service period of at least five years'"
+      retroreflectivity_rule: "§ 40-2-31(c): the plate face must be 'treated completely with a retroreflective material which will increase the nighttime visibility and legibility'"
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      colour_note: "NO COLOUR VALUE IS IN § 40-2-31, which mandates retroreflectivity and boldface characters and stops. Screened black serial on reflective white with a peach graphic at the centre is `hex_basis: observed` from a locator description."
+      legend_top: "Georgia"
+      legend_bottom_options: ["<county name decal>", "In God We Trust decal"]
+      slogan: null
+      statutory_content: "§ 40-2-31(b): the plate must show 'in boldface characters the month and year of expiration, the serial number, and either the full name or the abbreviation of the name of the state', and must designate the issuing county"
+      peach_state_authority: "§ 40-2-31(b) also permits the plate to bear 'figures, characters, letters, or combinations thereof as in the judgment of the commissioner will to the best advantage advertise ... Georgia as the \"Peach State\"' — a statutory ADVERTISING mandate for the state's own brand, which is the legal root of the peach that has been on Georgia plates for thirty years"
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "peach graphic at the centre — OWNED ARTWORK, see artwork_risk" }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      rear_differs: false
+    region_encoding: "county designation by DECAL, mandatory in law but electable between the county name and 'In God We Trust'; nothing geographic in the serial. See the file-level county_designation block."
+    sources:
+      - "https://dor.georgia.gov/georgia-standard-license-plate-designs  # Georgia DOR names the three current standard elections: 'Georgia vehicle owners may select either the current Peach Plate, Peach Orchard Plate, or the new USA Semiquincentennial/America 250 plate'"
+      - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-31.html  # § 40-2-31(a) the distinctive number and the digital-plate clause; (b) the 6 x 12 in minima, the boldface required contents, the county designation, the 'Peach State' advertising authority and the five-year service floor; (c) complete retroreflective treatment; (d)-(g) the decals"
+      - "https://dor.georgia.gov/motor-vehicles/vehicle-registration-license-plates/specialty-prestige-license-plates  # DOR: 'Prestige license plates are only issued on the STANDARD PEACH PLATE BACKGROUND' — which identifies this base, by the agency's own name for it, as Georgia's canonical standard"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Georgia_(U.S._state)  # LOCATOR ONLY (PRD-PLATES §4): the May 2012 start, the ABC1234 arrangement, the PFA1000/QFA1000 blocks, the historical charset exclusions, and the note that 'In God We Trust' can be printed at the bottom in place of the county name"
+    notes: >-
+      GEORGIA'S PLAIN PEACH PLATE — the canonical standard base, and the one
+      the agency itself treats as canonical: DOR states that prestige (vanity)
+      plates issue ONLY on "the standard peach plate background", which
+      distinguishes it from its Peach Orchard sibling as a matter of official
+      practice rather than of appearance. The two run concurrently from the same
+      base change and differ only in the graphic, which under PRD-PLATES §2.3
+      (design difference is sufficient) makes them two series. The statutory
+      "Peach State" advertising clause is the entry's best find: Georgia does
+      not merely permit a peach on its plate, it directs the commissioner to
+      use the plate to advertise the state, which is a legislative theory of
+      what a license plate is FOR and one no other state in this group states.
+
+  - id: us-ga-standard-peach-orchard
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck]
+    period: { start: 2012 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-locator-unverified
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL9999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{3} ?\d{4}\z'
+      format_evidence: secondary-locator-unverified
+      charset: { notes: "no exclusion is sourced for this base; see us-ga-standard-peach for Georgia's period-bound exclusion history" }
+      progression: "reported: exclusively PAA1000 to PEZ9999 and PMA1000 to QBT1499, and alternating with the plain peach plate across CAA1000 to approximately DEC9999, RAA0001 to approximately SMR9999, and TAA0001 to TGW0701. Note ALTERNATING allocation — the two concurrent designs share blocks rather than partitioning them, which is the opposite of North Carolina's practice. LOCATOR-GRADE."
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, w_min_in: 12, h_min_in: 6, dimension_evidence: statutory-minimum }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      legend_top: "Georgia"
+      legend_bottom_options: ["<county name decal>", "In God We Trust decal"]
+      slogan: "Peach State"
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "rolling hills, peach tree and peaches — OWNED ARTWORK, see artwork_risk" }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      rear_differs: false
+    region_encoding: "county designation by decal; nothing geographic in the serial. See the file-level county_designation block."
+    sources:
+      - "https://dor.georgia.gov/georgia-standard-license-plate-designs  # Georgia DOR names the 'Peach Orchard Plate' as one of the three current standard elections"
+      - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-31.html  # § 40-2-31(b)-(c): the same statutory frame governs both peach bases — minima, contents, county designation, 'Peach State' advertising authority, five-year service floor, retroreflectivity"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Georgia_(U.S._state)  # LOCATOR ONLY: the May 2012 start, the rolling-hills/peach-tree graphic, the 'Peach State' slogan, and the alternating serial blocks shared with the plain peach base"
+    notes: >-
+      GEORGIA'S PEACH ORCHARD PLATE — the graphic sibling of the plain peach
+      base, concurrent with it since the same 2012 change, and the reason
+      Georgia is harder to parse than North Carolina despite looking similar.
+      North Carolina's three concurrent designs run in DISJOINT letter blocks,
+      so the serial identifies the design. Georgia's two peach bases ALTERNATE
+      through shared blocks, so the serial identifies nothing about which
+      design a plate carries. Two states, the same structural situation, and
+      opposite consequences for a parse API — which is exactly the sort of
+      thing that only becomes visible once serial-block allocation is recorded
+      as data rather than as prose.
+
+  - id: us-ga-standard-america250
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck]
+    period:
+      start: 2026
+      scheduled_end: 2030
+      scheduled_end_note: >-
+        Georgia DOR: "This new license plate will remain available for issuance
+        THROUGH 2030." `period.end` is absent because the series is currently
+        issuing and because the lint's period rail rejects an end beyond the
+        current year plus one; `scheduled_end` carries the agency's announced
+        sunset. The same schema gap South Carolina's 2032 statutory sunset
+        exposes — see us-sc.yml and the group dossier.
+    period_evidence: official-agency-date
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL9LL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{3} ?\d[A-Z]{2}\z'
+      format_evidence: secondary-locator-unverified
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          A NEW SERIAL SHAPE, NOT JUST A NEW DESIGN. Georgia's peach bases run
+          three letters and four digits; this one runs three letters, one digit
+          and two letters. Georgia is not extending a block, it is opening a
+          new alphabet-heavy space — the standard response of a state whose
+          letter-digit combinations are exhausting, and the same move Brazil
+          made converting the fifth character of its serials for Mercosul. No
+          charset exclusion is sourced.
+      progression: "reported: AAA1AA to ABD6ZG as of 20 April 2026. LOCATOR-GRADE."
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, w_min_in: 12, h_min_in: 6, dimension_evidence: statutory-minimum }
+      background: { color: "#E6D3A3", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      colour_note: "screened black on a reflective TAN graphic ground — the only non-white standard ground in group southeast-a. `hex_basis: observed` from a locator description; no colour value is in Georgia law."
+      legend_top: "GEORGIA"
+      legend_secondary: "250 Year Anniversary Revolutionary War"
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "state map at the left with a US flag behind it and 1776 over the top; red stars marking Georgia Revolutionary War sites — OWNED ARTWORK WITH A NAMED INDIVIDUAL AUTHOR, see artwork_risk.america250_extra_caution" }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      design_origin: >-
+        Georgia DOR: the plate "features a design created by Georgia middle
+        school students as part of a statewide civics education initiative
+        undertaken in partnership with the Georgia Department of Education",
+        supported by the Georgia Commission on Civics Education, the Georgia
+        Center for Civic Engagement and the Georgia Historical Society; the
+        winning design was submitted by Eden Pethel. The designer's own
+        description of the red stars, quoted by DOR: they "represent the
+        following Georgia Revolutionary War sites from north to south: Fight at
+        Van's Creek/Hornet's Nest, Battle of Kettle Creek, Sieges of Augusta,
+        Battle of Brier Creek, Battles of Savannah, Fort Morris, and the
+        Frederica Naval Action." SEVEN NAMED SITES, geographically ordered —
+        which is a decode table for a GRAPHIC rather than for a serial, and a
+        nice illustration that not all encoded information on a plate lives in
+        the number.
+      rear_differs: false
+    availability: "DOR: choose the plate when titling and registering, or exchange a current plate at a local tag office. Standard fees apply: during the renewal period the standard $20 renewal fee with no additional charge for the new plate; outside the renewal window a $20 exchange fee. It is a STANDARD plate at the standard fee, not a specialty plate."
+    region_encoding: "county designation by decal; nothing geographic in the serial. See the file-level county_designation block."
+    sources:
+      - "https://dor.georgia.gov/georgia-standard-license-plate-designs  # Georgia DOR: 'Available January 1, 2026'; 'This new license plate will remain available for issuance through 2030'; the three-way standard election; the $20 renewal / $20 exchange fees; the student design competition, its partners, the named designer, and the seven Revolutionary War sites the red stars mark"
+      - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-31.html  # § 40-2-31(b)-(c): the statutory minima, required contents, county designation and retroreflectivity that this base carries like any other"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Georgia_(U.S._state)  # LOCATOR ONLY: the ABC1DE serial arrangement, the AAA1AA to ABD6ZG range as of April 2026, and the tan/state-map/1776 design description"
+    notes: >-
+      GEORGIA'S AMERICA 250 STANDARD PLATE. Both period endpoints come from the
+      agency itself — 1 January 2026 available, issuance through 2030 — which
+      makes this the only series in the Georgia file with a real date grade.
+      COMPARE THE THREE SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL RESPONSES NOW IN THIS DATASET, because
+      they are three different constitutional postures on the same anniversary:
+      SOUTH CAROLINA legislated that its ENTIRE regular passenger plate shall
+      commemorate the anniversary from 2026 to 2032, with the artwork minimum in
+      the statute; GEORGIA made it one of three OPTIONAL standard designs
+      through 2030, by agency action, from a schoolchildren's competition;
+      FLORIDA offers "America 250" as one of four standard legend variants
+      within a single statutory design. Same event, same years, three completely
+      different mechanisms — and the dataset can show it, which is the sort of
+      thing the encyclopedia section exists for.
+
+  - id: us-ga-standard-america250-alt
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck]
+    period:
+      start: 2026
+      scheduled_end: 2030
+      scheduled_end_note: "same DOR-announced sunset as us-ga-standard-america250; see that entry"
+    period_evidence: secondary-locator-unverified
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL9LLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d[A-Z]{3}\z'
+      format_evidence: secondary-locator-unverified
+      charset: { notes: "two letters, one digit, three letters — a second new shape opened on the same base two months after the first. No charset exclusion is sourced." }
+      progression: "reported: AA1AAA to AA1ADB as of 20 April 2026, i.e. barely started. LOCATOR-GRADE."
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, w_min_in: 12, h_min_in: 6, dimension_evidence: statutory-minimum }
+      background: { color: "#E6D3A3", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      legend_top: "GEORGIA"
+      legend_secondary: "250 Year Anniversary Revolutionary War"
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "identical to us-ga-standard-america250 — OWNED ARTWORK, see artwork_risk" }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      rear_differs: false
+    region_encoding: "county designation by decal; nothing geographic in the serial"
+    sources:
+      - "https://dor.georgia.gov/georgia-standard-license-plate-designs  # Georgia DOR: the America 250 plate, available 1 January 2026 through 2030 — the design this serial arrangement sits on"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Georgia_(U.S._state)  # LOCATOR ONLY: a second serial arrangement, AB1CDE, reported from March 2026 on the same base, running AA1AAA to AA1ADB as of April 2026"
+    notes: >-
+      A SECOND SERIAL ARRANGEMENT ON THE AMERICA 250 BASE, GIVEN ITS OWN SERIES
+      BECAUSE PRD-PLATES §2.3 SAYS FORMAT DIFFERENCE IS SUFFICIENT — and it is
+      worth pausing on how odd this is. Georgia opened a new alphabet-heavy
+      format (LLL9LL) in January 2026 and then, two months later, opened a
+      SECOND one (LL9LLL) on the same design. Two readings are possible: the
+      first block is exhausting far faster than planned, or the two arrangements
+      are allocated to different vehicle populations. NEITHER IS ESTABLISHED,
+      and the honest record is both readings and no choice between them
+      (PRD-PLATES §5.3: record disagreements, never average them). This is the
+      thinnest-sourced series in the Georgia file and should be verified before
+      the parse API relies on it.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # ONE SERIES BACK.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-ga-standard-georgiagov-2007
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck]
+    period: { start: 2007, end: 2012 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-locator-unverified
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL 9999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{3} ?\d{4}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[A-NP-Z]{3} ?\d{4}\z'
+      format_evidence: secondary-locator-unverified
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          THE LETTER O IS NOT USED IN THIS SERIAL FORMAT — reported for both
+          the December 2003 and May 2007 executions of the ABC 1234 shape, and
+          that is what `regex_strict` encodes as [A-NP-Z]. It is the classic
+          O-versus-zero lookalike exclusion, and it is the ONLY Georgia
+          exclusion that survives into the period this file's one-series-back
+          entry covers; the richer exclusions (I, Q, U, V) belong to the
+          1997-2003 formats and are recorded in us-ga-standard-peach's charset
+          notes rather than encoded, because no series here covers them.
+      progression: "reported: intermittently from AVN 0001 to approximately AWB 1750, then exclusively AWB 1751 to approximately CAQ 9999, with the CAA-CAQ range appearing intermittently across this base and its successor. LOCATOR-GRADE."
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 12, h: 6, unit: in, w_min_in: 12, h_min_in: 6, dimension_evidence: statutory-minimum }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      legend_top: "Georgia"
+      slogan: "GEORGIA.gov"
+      legend_note: "embossed black on reflective white; peach graphic containing a green state shape at the centre; county name on a sticker at the bottom. The immediately preceding execution (December 2003 - April 2007) was the same design on a gradient grey-and-white ground with the slogan written 'www.GEORGIA.gov'; dropping the 'www.' is the only difference between them, which is a delightfully precise way to date a Georgia plate."
+      graphic: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, description: "peach containing a green state shape — OWNED ARTWORK, see artwork_risk" }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      rear_differs: false
+    region_encoding: "county name on a sticker at the bottom — the same decal mechanism as the current bases"
+    sources:
+      - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-31.html  # § 40-2-31(b)-(c): the same statutory frame governed this base; Georgia's plate law did not change at the boundary"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Georgia_(U.S._state)  # LOCATOR ONLY: May 2007 - April 2012, the GEORGIA.gov slogan, the peach-with-state-shape graphic, the county sticker, the O exclusion, and the AVN/AWB/CAQ blocks"
+    notes: >-
+      THE PREVIOUS GEORGIA STANDARD BASE. Two things earn it a place beyond
+      being the predecessor. First, it carries the only encodable Georgia
+      charset rule in this file — no letter O — which gives the dataset a real
+      `regex_strict` for Georgia where the current bases give none. Second, it
+      is a URL: a US state put its own web address on its standard plate for
+      nine years, and changed the plate when the 'www.' fell out of fashion.
+      Design elements that date themselves that precisely are rare and worth
+      recording, because they let a plate photograph be dated without any
+      serial-range table at all. The 2012 overlap year is the rollout, with old
+      stock issuing on.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # CORE CLASSES.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-ga-motorcycle
+    class: motorcycle
+    categories: [motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 2026 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force-upper-bound
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLLLLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9](?: ?[A-Z0-9]){0,6}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "recall-only; § 40-2-31 legislates the motorcycle plate's SIZE but states no serial arrangement for it, and DOR publishes none" }
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 7, h: 4, unit: in, w_min_in: 7, h_min_in: 4, dimension_evidence: statutory-minimum }
+      plate_dimension_rule: >-
+          § 40-2-31(b) [via FindLaw]: motorcycle plates 'at least four inches
+          wide and not less than seven inches in length'. A SEPARATE STATUTORY
+          MINIMUM FOR MOTORCYCLES — Georgia is the only state in group
+          southeast-a that legislates one for permanent plates (South Carolina
+          legislates 4 x 7 in for TEMPORARY motorcycle plates only, at
+          § 56-3-210(A)(3), and the two figures coincide exactly, which is
+          either convergence on the North American motorcycle convention or
+          one legislature reading the other's statute).
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      retroreflectivity_rule: "§ 40-2-31(c) applies to motorcycle plates as to any other"
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+    other_sizes: "§ 40-2-31(b) also provides that the size of plates for LOW-SPEED VEHICLES and MULTIPURPOSE OFF-HIGHWAY VEHICLES is determined by the commissioner rather than by statute — so Georgia legislates two plate sizes and delegates a third"
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-31.html  # § 40-2-31(b) [via FindLaw]: the 4 x 7 in motorcycle minimum, the 6 x 12 in standard minimum, and the commissioner-determined sizes for low-speed and multipurpose vehicles; (c) retroreflectivity"
+      - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-41.html  # § 40-2-41: rear mounting without swing applies to motorcycles as to other vehicles"
+    notes: >-
+      GEORGIA MOTORCYCLE. Modelled separately because Georgia gives the class
+      its own STATUTORY DIMENSION, which is a design difference established by
+      edict rather than inferred from photographs — the strongest kind of
+      evidence a plate dataset can have for a size claim, and the only one of
+      its kind for permanent motorcycle plates in this group. The serial
+      arrangement is a recorded gap.
+
+  - id: us-ga-dealer
+    class: dealer
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, trailer]
+    period: { start: 2026 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force-upper-bound
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLLLLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9](?: ?[A-Z0-9]){0,6}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "recall-only. The governing Georgia dealer-plate section was NOT obtained in this pass; what is sourced is that Georgia MVD operates DEALER, TRANSPORTER and MANUFACTURER OR DISTRIBUTOR registration as three distinct, separately administered programmes." }
+    design:
+      plate: { unit: in }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+    binding: business
+    programmes: "Georgia MVD lists Dealer Registration, Transporter Registration, and Manufacturer or Distributor Registration as three separate registration programmes under 'Dealers & Business Partners' — a THREE-WAY split where Virginia and South Carolina split two ways (dealer / manufacturer) and where our _meta/classes.yml has a single `dealer` value"
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://dor.georgia.gov/motor-vehicles/vehicle-registration-license-plates  # Georgia MVD's own navigation, under 'Dealers & Business Partners': Dealer Registration, Transporter Registration, Manufacturer or Distributor Registration — sourcing the EXISTENCE and the three-way split, and nothing more"
+    notes: >-
+      GEORGIA DEALER, TRANSPORTER AND MANUFACTURER PLATES — DELIBERATELY THIN
+      AND LABELLED AS SUCH. The citation supports exactly one claim: Georgia
+      runs three distinct business-plate programmes. Eligibility, quotas, fees,
+      legends and serials are all recorded gaps, because the governing O.C.G.A.
+      sections were not reached before this pass closed. CLASS VOCABULARY
+      SIGNAL, now recorded from a third state: `dealer` is being asked to carry
+      manufacturer plates (Florida, South Carolina, Georgia) and transporter
+      plates (Virginia, Georgia) as well as dealer plates, with different
+      caps, fees, validity and permitted uses in each case. That is an argument
+      for growing _meta/classes.yml, made in the group dossier and not here.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # PRESTIGE (VANITY) + SPECIALTY INDEX.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: us-ga-prestige
+    class: personalized
+    categories: [car, van, truck]
+    period: { start: 2026 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force-upper-bound
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLLLLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9](?: ?[A-Z0-9]){0,6}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          recall-only. Georgia MVD describes a prestige plate as displaying "a
+          combination of letters or numbers selected by the customer" and
+          publishes no character limit or permitted-character list that this
+          pass located. Given that Virginia officially permits an ampersand and
+          North Carolina officially permits ? & $ @ inside a serial, Georgia's
+          permitted set must be checked before any strict regex is written.
+    design:
+      plate: { unit: in }
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      background_restriction: >-
+          THE DISTINCTIVE FACT: Georgia MVD states that "Prestige license
+          plates are ONLY issued on the STANDARD PEACH PLATE BACKGROUND." So
+          Georgia decouples the two personalisation axes that Florida and North
+          Carolina couple — in Florida any standard or specialty design may be
+          personalized, and in North Carolina both may be, with a reduced
+          four-space limit on specialty plates. In Georgia you may choose your
+          characters or you may choose your design, not both. That single
+          sentence collapses the entire Georgia vanity space onto one base,
+          which is exactly the kind of constraint a parse API can exploit.
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+    region_encoding: "county designation by decal, as on any standard Georgia plate"
+    sources:
+      - "https://dor.georgia.gov/motor-vehicles/vehicle-registration-license-plates/specialty-prestige-license-plates  # Georgia MVD: 'Prestige license plates (or vanity plates) display a combination of letters or numbers selected by the customer. Prestige license plates are only issued on the standard peach plate background.'"
+      - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-31.html  # § 40-2-31(a)-(b): the commissioner issues a distinctive number, and the plate's required boldface contents apply to a prestige plate as to any other"
+    notes: >-
+      GEORGIA PRESTIGE (VANITY) PLATES. Modelled as its own series because the
+      serial source differs — customer-chosen rather than commissioner-assigned.
+      The one strong fact is the background restriction, and it is worth stating
+      the comparison plainly: Georgia is the only state in group southeast-a
+      that forbids personalising a specialty design. Character limits, permitted
+      characters and refusal criteria are all recorded gaps.
+
+  - id: us-ga-specialty-index
+    class: specialty
+    categories: [car, van, truck, motorcycle, trailer]
+    period: { start: 2026 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force-upper-bound
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLLLLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9](?: ?[A-Z0-9]){0,6}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "specialty serials are not uniform across programmes; the index makes no arrangement claim and is deliberately recall-only" }
+    design:
+      plate: { 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 }
+      ownership_warning: >-
+          UNIQUE TO GEORGIA IN THIS GROUP, AND IT BELONGS ON THE DESIGN BLOCK
+          RATHER THAN BURIED IN artwork_risk: every design in this index is
+          claimed by the State. O.C.G.A. § 40-2-60.1: "The design of the initial
+          edition of any special license plate, as well as the design of
+          subsequent editions ... shall be owned solely by the State of Georgia
+          for its exclusive use and control, except as authorized by the
+          commissioner." An L4 specialty-design pass over Georgia is therefore
+          a legal question before it is a research question. Index the
+          programmes; do not reproduce the designs.
+    program_index:
+      count_official: "hundreds"
+      count_official_quote: "Georgia DOR, in its own words: 'Georgia offers hundreds of specialty plate designs to choose from including veterans, colleges, special interest groups and more.'"
+      count_enumerated: 340
+      count_enumerated_method: >-
+        Georgia MVD publishes a plate-design search that renders its full list
+        in one page; enumerating that list gives 340 named designs, running
+        alphabetically from "Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College" to "ZOO
+        Atlanta". This is an ENUMERATION of the agency's own published list,
+        not an agency-stated count, and it is recorded separately from DOR's
+        "hundreds" rather than being presented as if the agency had said 340.
+        (Coincidentally Virginia's DMV facet total is also 340, reconciled from
+        four facets. Two independent states arriving at the same number is
+        noted so that a later reader does not suspect one figure of being
+        copied from the other — they were counted from different services on
+        different days.)
+      discontinued_marked: 14
+      discontinued_note: >-
+        THE BEST CHURN SIGNAL IN THIS GROUP AFTER VIRGINIA'S REPEALED CODE
+        SECTIONS: 14 of the 340 entries carry the suffix "New plates are no
+        longer available" IN THE AGENCY'S OWN LIST (observed examples: Abraham
+        Baldwin Agricultural College, Armstrong Atlantic State University,
+        Brenau University). Georgia therefore publishes, first-party and
+        inline, the distinction between an authorised programme and an
+        obtainable one — the same distinction North Carolina describes in prose
+        ("some may be discontinued") without marking per-programme. An L4 pass
+        can lift Georgia's dead-programme list mechanically.
+      official_list_url: "https://mvd.dor.ga.gov/motor/plates/PlateSelection.aspx"
+      official_programme_url: "https://dor.georgia.gov/motor-vehicles/vehicle-registration-license-plates/specialty-prestige-license-plates"
+      composition_observed: "the enumerated list spans military decorations at fine granularity (Air Medal split per service branch — Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine, Navy — and per body style, with separate motorcycle variants), colleges and universities including OUT-OF-STATE ones (Alabama A&M, Alabama State, University of Mississippi alumni), professional sports foundations (Atlanta Braves Foundation, Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Hawks Foundation, Atlanta United), civic and fraternal bodies, conservation causes, and functional plates that are not really specialty at all (Alternative Fuel, Amateur Radio, Ambulance)"
+      motorcycle_variants: "many programmes carry a SEPARATE MOTORCYCLE ENTRY in the same list (e.g. 'Air Force Cross - Motorcycle', 'Bronze Star - Motorcycle'), so the 340 figure counts body-style variants as distinct designs — which is a real reason two honest counts of 'Georgia specialty plates' can differ by a large factor depending on whether variants are collapsed"
+      statutory_hook: "O.C.G.A. § 40-2-60.1 governs special license plates commemorating events or supporting agencies, funds or nonprofit programmes beneficial to Georgia residents, and vests their designs in the State"
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://dor.georgia.gov/motor-vehicles/vehicle-registration-license-plates/specialty-prestige-license-plates  # Georgia DOR: 'Georgia offers hundreds of specialty plate designs'; the prestige-plate background restriction"
+      - "https://mvd.dor.ga.gov/motor/plates/PlateSelection.aspx  # Georgia MVD's Search License Plate Designs service: the full alphabetical list enumerated at 340 entries, the 14 'New plates are no longer available' markers, and the per-branch/per-body-style military and motorcycle variants"
+      - "https://codes.findlaw.com/ga/title-40-motor-vehicles-and-traffic/ga-code-sect-40-2-60-1.html  # O.C.G.A. § 40-2-60.1 [via FindLaw]: what a special license plate is for, and the State's sole ownership of the designs"
+    notes: >-
+      THE GEORGIA SPECIALTY PROGRAM INDEX — per PRD-PLATES §2.5, a count and a
+      programme-list reference with source URLs, and no individual designs.
+      Three findings worth carrying. FIRST, the count is given twice and
+      honestly: the agency says "hundreds", the agency's own list enumerates to
+      340, and the two are recorded separately rather than blended. SECOND,
+      Georgia marks dead programmes inline, so authorised-versus-obtainable is
+      first-party data here rather than an inference. THIRD, and this is the
+      one that constrains future work: Georgia OWNS these designs by statute.
+      Of all the specialty catalogues in the US pass, this is the one where the
+      §2.5 discipline — index the programmes, never the designs — stops being a
+      scope decision and becomes a legal one.