SPRINGFIELD—Effingham County Tax Commissioner Linda McDaniel has announced the Georgia Department of Revenue has begun to issue new license plates, available in all 159 counties.

The new tags are manufactured and distributed in a process that will significantly decrease the amount of time it takes Georgia taxpayers to receive their license plate. The new plates, which are digitally printed, also will allow the department to reduce its inventory carrying cost due to the new on-demand process, according to the Department of Revenue.

With the new plates, older plates will begin to be phased out. Any license plate issued prior to December 1, 2003 and having the plate heading "Georgia…on my mind", will be replaced at the time of registration renewal or a vehicle registered in Georgia for the first time at the county tag office.

Registered vehicle owners having a license plate issued after December 1, 2003 and having the plate heading www.Georgia.gov including any vanity, prestige, veteran, college or university, or any other specialty license plate will be replaced beginning May 2013.

Registered vehicle owners will be able to choose between a traditional plate and the new plate designed by Linda Sosebee. The new license plate depicts a colorful landscape with a peach tree and peaches. Sosebee’s design was chosen by Gov. Nathan Deal as the winner of the 2011 Georgia License Plate Design Contest in July.

For more information contact the tax commissioner’s office at 754-2121.