Calling all "Old California License Plate" experts

[MBdude]

My 1969 280SL was originally sold in Chico, California but spent most of its life in Palo Alto.
I want to buy on eBay a single or set of California license plates for display purposes that would have been correct for this car.
I have been told that the letters on the license plate denote where the car was titled or purchased or something like that.
I have seem black plates and blue plates for sale that say they are for 1969.
Can someone tell me what I want to look for and give me some California license plate history?
Thanks
Sid in idaho

[49er]

 My '69 SL's black plate's first letter is "X" and the car was delivered in Southern California in September '68. License plates were issued by the local DMV offices and the sequence varied from different areas through out the state but still in roughly the same alphabetical order. When that sequence hit "ZZZ999" in early '69 they switched over to the blue plate "000AAA". If you know when the car was first registered in Chico, you should be able to decide what color and an approximate letter/number sequence. For reference my '67 250SL's black plate delivered in May '67, also in Southern California, was VAY408 so the sequence didn't climb quite as fast as does these days.

John

[Alan Smithee]

It would take some serious investigation to come up with a definitive sequence issued from the Chico DMV office in 1969.  As John mentioned, any black plates beginning with Z would have been correct for a new 1969 car.  Probably Y would be correct as well; my grandmother's 1969 Chevy wagon purchased in San Francisco started with YIA.  It would have to be a very early 1969 to have an X, as John's below; I know of two 1968 cars that had plates starting with X.  And a 1970 with A sequence blue plates.

Personally, I sought out a pair of nice black Z plates for my 1969 and registered them through the CA DMV DOM plate program.  Like an original Becker or waffle pattern firewall pad, it really completes the classic look.

[scoot]

Since you aren't actually going to register the car, I would go with a single black plate beginning with X, Y, or Z.    It shouldn't cost too much as a single plate is useless for people who actually want to register their car with the YOM plate in California.    Perhaps you could find a nice "Mercedes Benz of Sacramento" license plate frame to go with it, or from any other California SF Bay Area MB dealer...