When I see a PT Cruiser driving around with one of these "Legacy Black Plates" the word Tarnish will definitely come to mind
Of course this is a possibility... a bad one. It kind of messes up the YOM (year of manufacture) program that CA DMV already has - you can put year-correct plates on your car if you have a good pair that are out of the system. Can't do that on a PT Cruiser...
But as the previous post said, "original black plates" is kind of a scam anyway because for years you have been able to put YOM plates on your car if you bought a set. I have black plates on my 250SL that have the correct letters for the year, etc. but I bought them on ebay and no one is the wiser unless they look at my vehicle registration bill and see that I have a $10 charge per year for the special plates.
There is another program that is more interesting -- if you have the old plates for your car even if they are not currently the plates on the car, if you can prove through records that they at one point were the plates for the car you can put them on with some paperwork...