The state of Maine will replace thousands of newly issued license plates after a printing error, the Department of the Secretary of State said.

About 3,600 pairs of license plates were printed with the wrong amount of space between numbers and letters, office spokesperson Jana Spaulding said on a Friday evening phone call. She said the erroneous license plates were all printed within the same time frame.

“It could potentially cause an issue with E-ZPass and other things that do that character reading,” she said. “Obviously an inconvenience, which is unfortunate, but was caught quickly.”

The new plates, which feature a pine tree reminiscent of the 1901 state flag, are being manufactured in Canada. They began replacing Maine’s time-honored chickadee plates last month.

The 3,600 drivers who were issued the faulty plates are being notified by letter.

The office will mail impacted drivers replacement plates and sticker tags at no cost. They should arrive in August, though the timeline may change, the bureau said in its letter.

In the meantime, drivers are asked to use the errant plates and notify the Bureau of Motor Vehicles of any issues related to scanning, Spaulding said.

“It’s a relatively minor, short-term error,” she said, adding that the issue affected only “3,600 out of a few million” that the agency intends to distribute this year.

Those who receive replacement plates can return the faulty ones to the BMV or hold onto them as a keepsake, but they should not be used on a vehicle, Spaulding said.