A few days ago, Edward Snitkoff posted this article about how the state of New York is getting a new license plate design. At the end, Edward asked the readers of this fine site to vote on the five proposed designs and to show our favorite license plates of all time. As I read through the comments, taking in the lively conversation about various license plate designs both good and bad, I thought, well why not do a QOTD about license plates? Maybe ask what license plates look like in CC readers’ home states? Or provinces? Or… whatever, you know what I mean! And here we are!
Here’s my answer to today’s QOTD. This, friends, is the license plate that adorns many (but not all) cars registered in the most glorious state of Ohio. The man on the left is then-governor John Kasich, and on the right is Aaron Roberts, a student at the Columbus College of Art & Design. A senior majoring in Advertising & Graphic Design, Roberts was the designer who designed the design of what is now the current Ohio license plate. At first glance, it looks like a nice (if plain) plate. However, there’s something else about this license plate. Drive closer. What? You still can’t see it? Then drive closer still. What? You’re confused? Just keep moving closer.
For God’s sake! Not THAT close!! You’ll get us into a wreck!!
Maybe your state has a slogan on its license plate, like Illinois’ “Land of Lincoln” –
or Hawaii’s “Aloha State” –
Well folks, Ohio is better than your state. Do you know why? Because we don’t have merely one puny slogan. We have 46!
I kid you not, friends. The official license plate of Ohio contains 46 bits of information that relate to the state in some way. Check them out! The plate is supposed to be “…like a mobile visitors guide.” There are facts you never knew you wanted to know, like did you know the white trillium is the state wildflower? Not to be confused with the state flower, the red carnation. Or that the walleye is the state fish? There are destinations like Hocking Hills and Lake Erie. There are also phrases like “Ohio Has It All” and “Polymer Capital of the World”. Or how about this one – “State of Perfect Balance.” Seriously? State of Perfect Balance? What does that even mean?
Anyway, the problem with having so many phrases on a license plate is that in order to fit them all, they have to be small. If they are small, then it becomes rather tricky to actually be able to read them at any sort of reasonable distance. This therefore makes them pointless as what’s the point of slogans that cannot be read? You might as well make the whole plate blank (and if you changed it so it actually was blank most people wouldn’t even notice)!
This is a previous license plate of Ohio that can still be seen on many cars. I like it, some may say it’s “busy” or whatever but I think it looks nice.
Here are all of Ohio’s license plates going back to 1970.
And because why not, this is one of the first Ohio license plates, issued in 1908. I love how even back then they decided to be fancy with the OH state identifier.
Okay, now over to you. What do the license plates look like where you live? I look forward to reading your comments and seeing your pictures.
Representin’ from the easy-to-draw, hard-to-spell province.
We have that saying “Easy to draw, Hard to spell” on a T-shirt that we picked up for my kid at your welcome center a few years ago on a roadtrip. Best kid shirt ever!
The Oklahoma license plate is sky blue, with a subtle mesa silhouette and the state bird (a scissor-tailed flycatcher) in the background and black lettering. I think it looks awful compared to the old one, but it was designed by a very reputable local agency…and the story I hear is that the state basically dictated the design, and the agency had no real input.
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I’m a sucker for Eurostile Extended Bold, so I actually like these. Reminds me of the Illinois plates when I was a kid. (Bonus points to anyone who recognizes this particular one.)
Oh yeah.
I wish they’d rerelease this exact plate for Illinois like CA did for the black plates. The antique vehicle plates clearly mimick the creamy background of these but that typeface in that deep blue color is missing
I like this one. I think the blue color looks good.
Living near the Oklahoma border in a neighboring state, I’ll admit that the current plate was a bit of a head scratcher when it first came out.
But in addition to the specialty plates, I’m amazed at the number of Oklahomans who have access to tribal plates, some of which are beautiful, not to mention far less expensive.
However, we offer a number of specialty plates. I have the “Pioneers of the Prairie” plate, featuring a beautiful depiction of a bison. The annual registration fee of $39.50 benefits the Nature Conservancy. You can order the plate in either sequential form, which gets you the letters “N-C” and four digits, or with a vanity message of up to six characters.
Here’s New Jersey: Refreshingly, no attempt to be “artsy” or “cutesy”. Black letters, “straw” colored reflectorized yellow background obtained by a special process (dipping them in toxic waste 😉 ) A strand of DNA (?) down the middle. Motto: “The Garden State”. (Yes, large portions of the state still live up to that motto.)
The letters are now flat, not embossed, so DMV can print them out on computers While-U-Wait. I think this makes the plates look less elegant, but it is more convenient.
Keep ’em as long as you like (just keep paying your yearly registration). No annual stickers required. “Mark of the Beast” barcode lower right.
In New Jersey, you also have the option to order plates such as these commemorating the battleship USS New Jersey. There are other plates celebrating the Jersey shore, Law Enforcement, Liberty State Park, Cancer research, Combat Wounded, etc.
I thank the maker that we here in NJ no longer have those terrible light blue plates with straw colored letters from the 80’s. Unreadable from more than 2 feet away and look crappy on any car. The old beige with black stamped letters were the best. Still see a few out there
Nevada went from debossed plates to printed ones, then back to debossed. All in a span of 5 years!
I’m not sure why, but I have a feeling that anyone with a scanner, color laser printer, and a copy of Photoshop could make a phony plate in about half an hour.
In direct sunlight and high temps the UV was burning/browning the printed ones. Most every day I notice a few examples of browned out printed era ones.
Reno/Tahoe/Carson City has tons of UV that beats on paint and interiors with some snow & ice thrown in for winter. High altitude with almost no humidity to diffuse sunlight.
I recently replaced my 8 year old printed plates because the printed part became brittle and began to peel off and flake off.
Here in Virginia we have a standard-issue plate, and then dozens of optional plates to choose from. Here are the ones that I’ve selected for my three cars.
First, I’m showing Virginia’s standard-issue plate in the image below – plain white background, blue lettering, with the asinine tourism slogan “Virginia Is For Lovers.” While the plain plate is unobjectionable, I can’t stand the slogan (which has been on the plates since 2014). Many of Virginia’s optional plates are available for a $25 one-time fee, which I’d gladly spend not to be advertising a slogan I don’t like. Still more plates are available for an annual fee… but no thanks. My generosity towards the state’s coffers has its limitations.
Since I’ve lived in Virginia, I’ve had the “Great Seal” plate (bottom-left in the image below) on three of my cars, including one of my current cars. This plate has no slogan, has the state seal in the center, and the plate sequence is all-numeric (no letters, which is unusual for US plates). I like this plate, and I find the state seal interesting too. I have this plate on our Sedona, which we bought last year
For my Odyssey, I ordered the “In God We Trust” plate, which features the national motto, and a red/white/blue waving flag background. I like the design, and the motto, and when it first came out, it was available for a one-time fee, but now unfortunately Virginia charges an annual fee for these plates.
On our Thunderbird, we have the “Scenic” plate (on right below). This is a great design for a license plate… it’s distinctive and legible, but is more interesting than a plain white background. My wife chose this for her Thunderbird when she moved to Virginia 19 years ago; we still have it on the car.
There are tons of other plates available in Virginia… it would take way too long to list them all. We’re one of those states that has gone a little wild in this regard.
Sounds like I as a single dude should stay away from Virginia then!
I like the bottom right license plate as well! The top one is as boring as you can get.
I have these (obviously not my plate number.) On a black car they look amazing, and they’re about as simple as you can get.
Interesting (perhaps only to me) trivia about the WS plates- notice how the “Land of Lincoln” motto is kind of shoved in the corner and is in a different typeface than the rest of the plate? To save money, the state reused the silkscreen from the Chicago Blackhawks plates.
Our standard California plate is simple and easy to read, though I’m not sure why we we need to show the URL of the DMV. However, there are quite a few specialty plates that add graphics ranging from “OK” to pretty awful and hard to distinguish at a distance. My biggest beef, aside from poor graphic design and illegibility, is that many designs ignore the ubiquity of license plate frames. Now personally, I don’t get advertising a dealer on your car, so I usually remove the frame, or add a narrow aftermarket frame to hide the rough edge of the plate. But many dealer frames hide a lot of the perimeter of the plate. Is that an E or an F?
Recently I followed a truck with Montana plates, and wondered why the dealer frame was upside down. Perhaps the reason was to expose more of the license plate, which that orientation seemed to do, though I would have just tossed the frame.
I’m not a huge fan of URLs on license plates but California’s is the worst – not the general state govt portal, not a tourism website, but the DMV. They make up for it for not having had a general reissue (make everyone buy new plates) since 1963.
I have a Bmw-branded frame from the 80s that just covers the silly url.
Upside down dealership frames often are displayed when the vehicle owner is not happy with the dealership.
Here’s one of our specialty plates. Food, Fiber, Fuel, Flora. Hmmm. I live in a major ag area but don’t think I’ve seen any of these.
I have seen exactly one and that was in Roseburg, OR.
I think the plate looks neat and I might consider buying one, but I like the Florida version better.
https://myfloridaspecialtyplate.com/agriculture.html
One more Illinois plate… we had these on 2 different Mini Coopers. (This was the day I took delivery of the second, so I hadn’t removed the frame yet.)
Here in California, we have a bunch of different available plates.
Column 1:
– Environmental Plate (also the standard plate that gets issued)
– Breast Cancer Awareness
– California Museums
Column 2:
– 1960 Legacy (Black Plate)
– Pet Lovers
– Agricultural
– Kids
Column 3:
– Memorial
– Coastal
– Tahoe
Column 4:
-Yosemite
-Arts
-Veteran
The original black plate actually was issued in 1963, not 1960, previous issue was a yellow plate in 1956. It was designed for an annual metal year tag, but stickers were used instead.
In 1956, the U.S. government came to an agreement with the Automobile Manufacturers Association that fixed the size for license plates for automobiles at six inches by twelve inches with standardized mounting holes, and set a 6-digit registration number format.
Indiana has a standard plate that is replaced every five (and now every seven) years. The “In God We Trust” plate is a standard option. Beyond that there is an uncountable batch of plates that reference groups or colleges, all of which require an additional fee and each of which has a unique design. So, a mess.
The new plate – ugh, a covered bridge? Really?
Our system used to include a two number county identifier followed by four more numbers. Then they just wrote the county on it. Now the county is identified on the teeny sticker and nowhere else.
This one is currently on my car but will probably be replaced in the next year or so with the covered bridge.
This is the plate that we have on our cars. The covered bridge plate came out a few years ago and some people got them right away while the rest of us carry on with the bicentennial plate. I’m sure that the BMV used some sort of top secret algorithm to decide who got the new plates and who continued using the old one.
I’m going to take this opportunity to say that my dealings with the Indiana BMV has been top notch. You hear horror stories all of the time about them being difficult to deal with, etc., and I’m sure that is true in many cases. Whether it is has been the luck of the draw or whatever I have always found that the employees in the branch office I have used have been professional and helpful. Perhaps being able to renew registrations online or via mail has cut down the number of interactions with the public and the BMV employees feel less stressed.
“my dealings with the Indiana BMV has been top notch.”
I would agree – in terms of retail transactions involving licensing and registrations. In some more specialty areas it has become terrible – such as for folks trying to get license reinstatements after a legal process. There used to be centers where folks could walk in, present documents and walk out with a reinstatement. Now the process is totally opaque and relies on courts sending things when and where they are supposed to go. When there is a question, there is not a published telephone number of an office that deals with these things. Instead there is a general “help desk” staffed by people who know little about reinstatements. It has been a very difficult system to navigate. But it is cheaper, and all the money is being spent on “normal” transactions where most people (or voters) will have a good experience.
I have always had a good experience at the Indiana DMV.
But I’m always doing a simple transaction like a renewal.
In February I went to renew my plates and driver’s license.
There was a new machine in the foyer.
An employee came around to offer the use of the new machine but nobody was going, so I said okay.
The automated process took two minutes. Put my license in, entered a few numbers and out came a new license (using my previous photo) and
my new plate tags.
I’m glad it used my existing photo ’cause I ain’t got no better lookin’.
It was fantastically easy and fast.
The friendly lady who showed me the machine was showing me her replacement.
All of their replacements.
(Except maybe one person to reset the breaker in the building if it trips)
I wonder if they know it yet.
I have been replaced by new tech before.
Those jobs don’t come back.
I will miss the people there. They were nice.
My favorite plate of recent decades was this one that came out for use in 2007.
I have to disagree with you. I much prefer the light blue/green plate you showed above. This just looks dull to me.
Just moved to Indiana in March…and apparently the numbers/letters are randomly assigned and the plates are made in a central facility as needed. No plates given out at local BMV branches, which sucks. That means you have a quickly biodegradable temporary registration to keep up until you get your “real” plate.
Here, they came amazingly close to giving me my initials on the letters!
(EDIT: And, of course, the intended photo DIDN’T upload!)
I like this one – so bright and colorful! And recyclable too? Who knew?
The old “Amber Waves of Grain” plate was my favorite. I miss the county coding in the plate number. Made them more distinctive.
I can’t believe none of you guys have mentioned the infamous Wander Indiana plate of a few years ago? That one was the subject of a lot of jokes back then. My job at the time involved a lot of driving around the state so, of course I always told people that I was wandering around Indiana.
I have one or two hanging in my garage but have never figured out how to post pictures with my posts.
Here in Germany (like all of Europe really) number plate design isn’t particularly interesting. However, all plates have a location identifier; the first one, two or sometimes three letters are the code for the city or district in which the car is (or was last) registered. B stands for Berlin, F for Frankfurt, DO for Dortmund, FFB for Fürstenfeldbrück and so on. Besides being a source of local pride, they also allow for humorous combinations, as seen below. Letter/number combinations can be requested at cost, name & birthday combos and funny words and abbreviations are common. Some combinations are not issued for having offensive or racist connotations (NS 88 for ex).
I live in Aachen (AC) nowadays but my car still carries Munich (M) plates since I registered it there, there’s no requirement to get new plates anymore. The first combination below is very common and apparently not offensive. The drivers always seem to be blissfully unaware elderly people…
Reminds me of this one from the last discussion
Few motor vehicles here in Arizona have custom plates, perhaps because the state’s custom license plates are ugly, costly, and largely restricted to qualified groups. The general public has a small choice. You’d think that the state would want to raise revenue by making a wide range of attractive license plates at attractive prices, but the opposite seems to be the case. The website itself is a mess: https://servicearizona.com/webapp/vehicle/plates/startChoice.do
Missouri is transitioning plates at this time to celebrate the state’s bicentennial. So far the pickup has these plates, the VW will get them in January, and the van next July.
It is nicer that some plates in times past, one in particular that had a wavy underline under the state’s name (which was in a goofy font) which was to represent the number of rivers here. Whatever.
Plate on my son’s old car, a few years ago (his online handle is Flying Ferret)
You can also get plates here with most Indiana college/university logos on them. Here’s the one for my alma mater, though this isn’t my car.
Are Europeans allowed?
In Portugal, there is no way of customizing plates. Just an alphanumeric combination and a yellow strip with the month and year of first registration. The letters, up to 1992 were in the beginning (but plates weren’t given in alphabetical order), between 1992 and 2005 the letters were in the end, and started being sorted alphabetically, and between 2005 and 2019 they were in the middle.
Starting this year, plates will have four letters instead of two, and only two algarisms
Btw, the plates stay on the car as long as it’s registered in here, and the most information you can get for free is the make, model and engine. Anything else, you need to go to the IMT (equivalent of the DMV) or the authorities.
Portugal is also an apologist of plate-covering in photos.
License plates have gone from informational to bumper sticker slogans. Thanks to graphic artists, we can choose a license plate that is supposed to reflect our style, tastes, beliefs and more. Then there are the additional money raised through these graphic auto statements. We are told that buying one with a school on it will get extra money to public schools, a license plate with a dove on it will get extra money to non-profits helping domestic abuse victims, a license plate with the rendering of a kid’s crayon drawing goes to fighting pediatric cancer, so you aren’t just promoting your virtue, you are sending actual dollar or two towards your designated virtue or cause.
Then there are the license plates that brag about the occupant’s alma mater. You can let strangers know that you attended the state’s universities, root for the home team, or show how proud you are for spending tens of thousands of dollars, post high school.
It is remarkable how something as dull as a current auto registration has morphed into public statements and social commentaries. We’re driving vehicles with brand logos as big as dinner plates, and painted in nearly identical neutral colors shades of black and white. Yesterday, I road in the slow lane as a dozen cars and trucks passed me, all in some shade of silver or gray. The only thing differentiating them was those graphic license plates proudly announcing their pet causes, team, and universities.
As for me, I don’t even know what my license number is. It’s a bunch of numbers that was at the top of the pile twenty years ago when I stood in line at the Secretary of State’s office. Something with a couple of 9s in it, and some other numbers. Perhaps that is a problem – I don’t know. It hasn’t been a problem for a couple of decades, and no one quizzes me except when I check into a hotel. It is a standard issue license plate and the State of Illinois just sent me a new one to replace the perfectly good plate on the car now.
With all the rental cars on the road around here, you really can’t assume that the car in front of you, with the Florida license plates is actually being driven by someone who lives in Florida, right? It has gotten to a point where a license plate tells you about where a driver is from, about as well as a U-Haul truck tells you what is rolling around inside.
There was a time when I traveled across the US daily and when I returned home to Chicago to wash clothes, I would catch myself seeing the car ahead of me and think – “Hey, they’re from Illinois!”
Great comments! From a design perspective the ones here show that compromise usually is not pretty. Another colour, another typeface, another local reference, sure – add em in. Good for everything except what I thought number plates were for which is identification. Makes our simple and clean New Zealand plates look wonderful.
I just checked the Nevada DMV website. There are at least 44 license plate backgrounds available. I think it’s kind of ridiculous.
Here’s the “Maryland Pride” plate that is the current standard plate in our state.
This is the one on my Mustang.
As I mentioned in the comments section of Edward’s post the other day, I like to color coordinate, so I have other Maryland tags on the other cars in my fleet.
Here’s the “War of 1812” or “Star Spangled Banner” plate. It receives a lot of derision around here, and was our last standard tag, but it didn’t last long, perhaps due to that, or due to the fact we’re past that bicentennial celebration.
As I said the other day, I really don’t care for it either, but it goes so well with my red Civic, that I see no need to replace it.
As a former resident of Maryland I may be biased, but Maryland has the coolest state flag.
I have to agree. It even looks cool on a Boeing 737…
Wow, that 737 looks awesome in that livery!
Southwest Airlines did quite a few unusual liveries a few years back.
I’ve actually see the one that looks like a Texas flag in the metal, as well as the one painted like an Orca.
I think the latter nicknamed the Shamu or Killer Whale livery was some sort of cross promotional thing they had going with SeaWorld.
As to the state flags, I’m not sure how many of them Southwest did, but 50 kinda makes sense. 😉
Not gonna argue with you on that! Looks like something you’d see at a medieval castle!
Considering one of the dudes was referred to as Lord Baltimore, and the other guy Lord Calvert, you’re not too far off the mark.
I think Lord Baltimore’s flag (and coat of arms) involve the black and gold, while Lord Calvert’s colors were the red and white.
An art critic with the Chicago Tribune called the new Illinois plate with half of Lincoln’s Head “busy and banal” – couldn’t agree more!
Regarding the previous post about NY’s new plate, the first time I saw the orange/yellow one, I scratched my head and then thought “that’s a color scheme that was used before”, which is kind of cool. It’s also interesting that NY & CA have often used similar colors at the same time over the years.
Delaware use to be the only state without embossed letters, I prefer designs with embossing used on letters.
Why do some Canadian Provinces use the same design for decades, like Ontario? The Maritime Provinces seem to be the only ones to switch up designs.
I love the busy (but not banal) Maryland Coat of Arms – too bad it’s been missing.
This, black on yellow, since 1978. Euro-flag and NL on the left. The plates stay on the car as long as it’s around in the Netherlands. There’s a chronological system in the combination of letters and digits, a new series was introduced recently
Information about the car can be looked up on a website of the authorities, yet nothing about the (previous) owner.
No references to political parties, WW2 (like SA and SS) or otherwise (KGB). Commercial vehicles start with a V or B in the letter combination.
I wonder why the European countries haven’t really adopted the trendy slogans and what not. Just plain and simple – numbers and letters, here you go! I guess it’s not really a bad thing though. Makes it really legible.
Here in the US (or at least in Ohio) you get a temporary license plate when you buy your car, then you go and get an actual plate that stays with the car for as long as you own it. You also have to renew your registration every year with stickers on the plate (or you can do every two years I think). The next owner then has to repeat the whole process etc. Looks like your plates don’t even have stickers.
Is it a European thing for the plate to stay on the car for life or just a Dutch thing?
Well, our southern neighbors in Belgium have personal plates, so the plate stays with you.
Don’t know about other countries, not by heart that is.
Official (small) stickers on a plate are something of past times.
The closest thing is Ireland having the Gaelic county name in full across the top. Depending on the font and spacing used (they’re third-party supplied) it can look really jammed in.
This is the current plate for the province of Ontario. Ontario has used the blue on white colour scheme since 1972. With a myriad variety of graphic plates currently available, each with the same blue on white scheme, with the graphic positioned to the left.
This is the new design the province will be adopting. Featuring the Trillium graphic (provincial flower) replacing the crown. The Trillium icon has been used on provincial government branding since the 1970s. Ontario plates featured the centrally placed crown for decades. It goes to the lower right corner. The new plates will no longer have stamped embossed letters and numbers as they have featured for decades. The plates go from using a serif font for the lettering, to san serif for all typography. The background medium blue watermark represents a corner of the Trillium icon enlarged and cropped.
The slogan ‘A Place to Grow’ comes from the theme song the province used for the Ontario Pavilion at the Expo 67 World’s Fair in Montreal. It’s a *very* catchy tune. 🙂
Wow… when I first saw the “A Place to Grow” motto on this plate design, I assumed it made up by some overpaid marketing consultant. I like it more knowing the history.
You’re right, that IS a very catchy song.
These are absolutely gorgeous.
I agree. There’s a lot of world-class design talent in the province.
I stand corrected, the province has used the ‘Trillium’ branding since 1964.
Electric and plugin-hybrid cars in Ontario get these plates, which have green text, the slogan replaced with “green vehicle”, the crown in the lower right corner, and a silk-screened trillium. The word is that the design of these plates will not be changing to match the new blue plates, at least not right away.
Attachment didn’t work, so here’s a second try.
British Columbia has had the same basic plate design since 1986 – possibly a record in North America? They’ve gone from AAA 111 through 111 AAA, and about 5 years ago switched to AA1 11A, which will apparently last another 5 years. I’ve always the liked the colour, simplicity, the upper & lower case lettering, and the use of the word ‘Beautiful’ as if it were part of the name of the province. Oh, and the stylized BC flag in the centre too. Is that everything?? But maybe I’m just used to it. 🙂
Massachusetts still has green on white plates on some cars that were the standard issue plate beginning in 1977. They haven’t been issued since the late 80’s I believe. The state never mandated their retirement and the people who have them proudly cling to them. It’s sort of an “I want you to know that I was here before you” thing. Most of them are beat and look like crap.
The state has been making an effort to reduce the number of green on white Mass plates on the road however in recent years.
I’ve known people to have been pulled over because their green plates are so ratty to the point that the digits are nearly indistinguishable from a reasonable distance. Technically you can’t be ticketed for this, but some cops pull folks over just to make it a big enough issue.
Now too with the stricter annual state inspections, cars with really beaten plates won’t pass inspection. To get around this, some proud green plate owners are turning to having their plates restored and repainted. This is actually illegal but I haven’t found anyone who has done so to have an issue.
If you really want to rain on their green license plate parade, just tell them that you’re a direct descendant of Myles Standish. All of a sudden license plates aren’t so significant.
I’m in BC too. The plate is okay. They started using that stylized flag symbol around 1986 because we had Expo then. They hardly use it now.
I think the honor for the longest-running North American plate design would go to Delaware, which has had an identical design since 1962:
It’s been those colors for that long Eric, but there are variances in the font as more digits were added. There are also older black with gold characters and even black with white characters floating around.
I don’t quite understand this, and I hope a CCurbivore chimes in from The First State, but apparently it’s a badge of honor in Delaware to have a really low tag number. I’ve seen them with as few as 3 digits.
My wife and I had a little place down there near Rehoboth and there were a few in the community with low numbers. When I asked, the response was like that scene from “JAWS” where Chief Brody’s wife asks when they would be come islanders… Apparently, as an outsider, I’m not supposed to understand.
I think the governor’s tag is like 3 or something. 😂
Yes, there have been a few font changes, most notably in 2002 when the state changed suppliers, and the new company used a different (narrower) font for the numbers. This, apparently, caused outrage among Delawareans, who take their license plate traditionalism very seriously. Within a few years, that supplier changed to a wider font that more resembled the original one.
Regarding the low-number Delaware plates, I think the numbers themselves are auctioned off (at astonishing prices). And then most of them are placed on small black plates like the one below, which themselves can be bought for an extra fee — though not everyone who gets a black plate gets a very low number.
The black plates are reproductions of early porcelain plates, and notably, are small. Most people think that the US gov’t requires that license plates are 6×12, but there’s actually no such requirement. The 6×12 size was reached in the 1950s by a gentleman’s agreement among the major automakers to standardize bolt hole placement in new cars. So Delaware is alone in offering smaller-than-6×12 plates. But like you said, the intricacies of how these are made available, and with what numbers, are things that only Delaware insiders know. People like us can only guess.
“I think the governor’s tag is like 3 or something.”
The governor’s is 1, the lieutenant governor’s is 2, and the secretary of state’s is 3.
A guy by the name of Jordan Irazabal has located, photographed, and catalogued all but 100 or so of the 3,000 low-digit Delaware tags, and has posted the photos at thedelaware3000.org.
My parents when buying their 09 fit decided to go for the cool looking olympics plate
I love that they came out with a license plate just for the Olympics
We got the B.C. Parks plate, one of 3 different designs…
Very nice.
Delaware has had the same design since the forties; Yellow on Blue.
In Israel, since June 2017 the licence plates are 8 digits in black over a yellow reflective background with blue stripe containing the national flag, the country code (IL) and the country’s name in the two official languages: Hebrew and Arabic. The digits are in the XXX-XX-XXX format and are assigned by the Ministry of transport to the vehicle importers is batches of numbers, which are sequential.
License plate numbers are assigned to a vehicle upon it’s first registration and normally are for the whole life of the vehicle. Numbers can be changed if, for example, a car is written off and then repaired and re-registered after a technical inspection.
Most Israeli license plates are in the Euro format, dimensions wise, but US standard and motorcycle sized plates are available for the vehicles that need them.
From 1990 until June 2017 the plates were the same size and color, but only had 7 digits in the XX-XXX-XX format.
Here is a sample of a current Israeli plate.
I think the standard Oregon plate (upper left) is very good looking. It came from a state-wide competition about 20 years ago.
Maybe half a dozen of these special plates are commonly seen.
Plates stay with the car, custom plates stay with the owner. When they ran through ABC-123 they switched to 123-ABC, which is now up to the “L”s. So the plate number is an indication of how old the car is, or at least when the car came into Oregon.
Massachusetts has used the standard “Spirit of America” plates with red registration digits and blue state/slogan script on white background since 1993. Like many states, Mass has an ever increasing number of special design plates, with a portion of their more expensive registration fees going to whatever cause they support.
I went with the Cape Cod & Islands plates on both my cars for several reasons. I like having a more interesting design than “the standard” and the Cape is a special place in my heart as my grandparents owned a house there which we summered at every year until I was 18. Furthermore, my late aunt Kathy and godmother, whom I was very close with, had this unexplained love for lighthouses, which I’ve inherited. And now in fact, the lighthouse is even more special to me because it’s where I was proposed to.
I find it worth it to pay $20 extra bucks every two years.
Massachusetts’ most “out there” design, at least to me personally, has to be the Freemasonry plate, whose proceeds go to support “Masonic Charities”.
Caught the very last comment!
Congratulations Brendan!
Have you set a date yet?🤗😍🤗
Omg congrats Brendan!!!
Thank you Mya! 🙂
Thank you William! 🙂
Nothing set in stone yet but we are planning for fall of 2021 and want to do a destination wedding followed by a casual party when we return. We’re actually thinking of going back to the Ice Q restaurant on top of the Gaislachkoglbahn mountain in Solden, Austria. Got an estimate and it’s pennies compared to having a formal wedding here in the U.S. Then we’ll just begin our honeymoon in Europe from there. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more!
I liked the way license plates used to look when colors were solid and contrasting. It seems like since the late seventies, states have been slowly adding noise…little designs, background patterns, etc. Now that states have a myriad of themed plates, I can no longer ID a car by state… not that it really matters.
The old Michigan license plates, solid blue with white type is just simple and gorgeous; I think old Vermont plates were a primary green with white typeface as well. The 1964 Illinois plate is a knockout: purple(!) with white lettering. There are many more that don’t come to mind.
This is NC’s most common plate and has been so since I moved here in 2004. They added two slight variations…one says “First In Freedom” and the most recent one says “In God We Trust” (surprising).
Here’s that 1964 Illinois tag. Why can’t plates look like this again?
Standard Victorian plate, 1976-about 2015 or so. They used to have a slogan ‘The Garden State’ down the bottom, but this repop came without. Successive state governments came out with a variety of slogans, mostly awful. At some point the garden green was changed to an insipid dark blue. Repop plate? The original faded to unreadability, and my daughter was instructed by a member of the constabulary that a replacement was required.
Replaced by this design.
With this alternative.
Which is a throwback to the 1952-1976 series (here a ’74).
My US Mini color and plate are better. 😉
Fresh off the gone car….I think it’s pretty much perfect as is and none of the extra cost options are better.
Always loved the Colorado plates. The inverted color ones of the 90s were my favorite.
Here you get to keep the plates as long as you use them over again within a year of getting rid of a car. After a year though they go in the garage for good, never to be seen/used again. There’s still a very large number of the older (Green mountains, white sky) ones around though.
The coolest thing about the old Colorado plates was that they’d invert them every year on the same stamping so you’d have mountains at the bottom/numbers in the sky one year and the next mountains at the top/numbers in the mountain with the colors inverted by flipping the base upside down. Really clever, distinctive to the state, and easy to read.
I live in Las Vegas. The top photo is what I have on my 1979 MGB. The bottom photo is on my daily driver.
I had a Challenger – Columbia memorial plate when I lived in Florida
We get a reflective white plate three letters three numbers in black very plain and functional, personal plates are restricted to six letters or numerals or combinations.
I have to recommend the now-discontinued optional Michigan orange plate with white letters – almost invisible from 20 ft or more. When I pass through US Customs the plate reader can’t read it either. It has been replaced with an orange plate with black letters.
The most difficult-to-read plate I recall is Pennsylvania’s Flagship Niagara plate issued to commemorate Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory in the War of 1812’s Battle of Lake Erie.
Even when new (these were issued in the mid 1990s), the low contrast made the numbers virtually illegible, but amazingly, Pennsylvania issued these for several years. I think at some point the background was darkened, but even that didn’t help much.
These are still valid plates — I saw a car with one of these a few months ago. If I had one, I’d never get rid of it.
Yikes that’s pretty bad. Maybe it was popular with people who didn’t want to be detected by the law!
Still my favorite.
That’s a nice one!
And then there’s this one. Having been there, the colors just scream MAINE.
Love it up there!
Those of us who grew up in NC have heard Charlotte (our largest city) referred to as the “State of Mecklenburg” for most of our lives, which is the story behind the “First in Freedom” plate design. That was the only plate when I was growing up.
https://www.meckdec.org/declaration
Been saving this curbside photo after taking it a few months ago, did consider posting this in the new New York plate design post as I’m guessing middle Americans consider it a very New York subject matter and its also close to the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York after NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar.
Its a New Zealand personalised plate with a golf graphic/sports motif which seems to be no longer available.
Is that an actual in use plate? I’m kinda surprised that’s legal. I would’ve assumed that would make it on the list of banned serial numbers!
My favorite California plate design. Sadly it’s no longer offered.
Mine too. This was the first reflectorized California plate and the only one with The Golden State slogan. It was an extra cost option to the standard gold on blue non reflector one when I bought the ’84 Toyota.
I’m not sure how to attach an image, but I think our standard plates here in Minnesota are excellent. The design has been nearly unchanged since the late 1970s and has held up well, with just a change from embossed to flat letters and numbers a few years ago, with a subtle “.com” added after the state name at the same time. The plates stay with the car, and are replaced every 7 years. They alternate between XXX-### and ###-XXX. The tiny silhouette of MN instead of a hyphen is a nice touch too.
A shocking number of special plates though. See this pdf from the state for all 15 pages of them (the best part is the column showing how many of each are actually in use): https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/dvs/forms-documents/Documents/Special-Plates-Brochure.pdf
Neighboring Wisconsin’s “sailing farmer” plates are good too, but look off-balance to me since they added an extra number (XXX-####). Both MN and WI standard plates are highly legible too.
Same base since 1985, they went to the narrower font in 1990 (the old ones maxed out at 5 characters). The newer renewal stickers are less colorful, all black-on-white instead of changing every year. Note that the green around the numbers is a little less green than the top and bottom, these are debossed and the center painted on the high spots – there was a run of ones that fade badly in the mid ’00s which are replaced free of charge (the supplier refunded to the state), but with whatever number they have on hand.
Lived in Illinois my whole life but I always thought Wyoming had cool looking plates.
Oregon’s standard plate is the tree plate which replaced the plain blue on orange design in 1988. There are also a slew of special edition plates and organization plates like Crater Lake, Cultural Trust, Share the Road, military veteran and state university plates. Oregon also started reissuing the “Pacific Wonderland” plates as an extra cost option
Crater Lake
Share the Road (I have these, the fee goes to the BTA)
One of many Manitoba plates available.
The standard Arkansas plate has not changed much during the 21 years I’ve lived in the state, and the same design (with minor variations) has been used since 1978. In 1989, the slogan changed from “Land of Opportunity” to “The Natural State.”
And if you don’t like the rather plain standard plate, there are no less than 23 specialty plates featuring fish and game, or the outdoors (shown in image, along with the standard plate). That’s in addition to affinity plates for everything from teachers, to 4H, to a number of colleges and universities.
This is the current Victorian (Aus) standard issue plate, not sure why we are the education state, but I don’t think it applys to me.
Pennsylvania license plates (which are called “registration plates”)…and for all I know, those in some other states too…stay with the owner, not the car. So if your Pennsylvania-registered Blitzkrieg Four has rusted away under you, and you buy a new Blitzkrieg Hybrid, you take the (aluminum, no rust) rear registration plate (PA has no front plates) off your old car and put them on the new. It could have been the same plate that used to be on your Blitzkrieg Eight that rusted away under you, and the Blitzkrieg Six that rusted away under you. However, at long intervals the Commonwealth does require new plates to replace the oldest ones.
I’m from California, but I adore vintage Wisconsin plates
In the State of Victoria, Australia, they don’t actually use license plates, despite jonco43’s comment above. Here, the appropriate departments refer to them under Sub-Rule 279(2)(1)(2)(iii) of the Finance Act as RRI’s, or revenue raising inventions.
Some doubt this, and maybe I invented that, but in at least partial proof I can offer the fact that they are currently the second largest source of independent State revenue. Here, everybody is fined at some point. Everybody. That includes my 84 yo never-sped-meaningfully- anywhere-ever dad, and his sister the likewise nun. Here, 3.1 mph over a given limit will get you a $250+ fine from one of many moveable hidden speed cameras. (Despite my habits, neither of those assertions is a lie). And it goes up from there: 15.5 mph over, even on an empty 2am freeway, will lose your license for a month and relieve you of about $600. Here, FFS, you get fined (and points) if your plate is too dirty to read.
Old Pete above mentions getting a new plate to replace an old, but forgets to mention that the millions of ’80”s/’90’s ones all failed and faded because the prisoner makers pissed in the paint. Supposedly. But whatever the cause, it being a revenue issue, you had to pay more to keep the same number as of old (despite the fade being nothing to do with you), otherwise, the fee was only modest. How generous they are.
Australia has got a whole heap of societal vs individual compromises very right, but on some stuff like this, let’s just say Americans would quite rightly just not only not put up with such crap, but wouldn’t have to!
Oh justy, “the prisoners pissed in the paint” I never heard that one, but I’ll never forget it now.
I miss the old Garden State plates, for once a state motto was fairly accurate, my Mum had a very nice garden.
Iowa’s new default plate is horrendously ugly so I opt for the older DNR plate on my truck and the wife’s car. My Supra turned 25 this year allowing me to run year of manufacture plates, thankfully.
Does any other state, provence or country offer the option of “year of manufacture” plates on vintage vehicles as does California? This program allows use of serviceable used plates to match the ones that would have been in use the year the car was originally sold. So, your 1962 Corvette can legally display black on gold plates, with a current registration sticker on an attached metal tab.
Yes, Missouri does. I’ve considered it for my Galaxie but finding a set of serviceable plates is simply more trouble than it’s worth.
I found mine easily on eBay. Iowa is even more challenging cause each of the 99 counties are stamped per the registrant’s address. I even found a ’93 registration tag on eBay.
It takes a little digging but worth it in my mind. I’ve run YOM plates on all my old cars, trucks, vepsas, motorcycles, etc. Completes the look in my mind…
Maryland allows you to do this as well, provided your car is 20 years old and eligible for Historic Plates which look like the older Maryland Plates shown at the bottom of this image. The rule is such that you get the historic tags and keep them in you car, and then cross reference the old tag somehow in their [MVA’s] system.
The other caveat is that the year must match the car, so in the case of the bottom tag, if I ever found another ‘88 T-Bird I could use this tag. In reality, I can’t because Maryland made me turn in at least one of these for cancellation when I got the “BAY” plates, and yes, I had to pay extra in the form of a donation to the Chesapeake Bay Trust to get Bay plates that actually said “BAY” on them. One of a thousand!
To use old plates, you must have a matching pair.
I’ve since learned that if you keep your tags until after they expire, you can get new plates and keep the old ones. Since my Mustang could sit in the driveway for a couple of days in August of 2017, in early August I got my new tags (pictured in a post above) and retired these.
I want to have them restored, as the reflective laminate is peeling, thus why I wanted to replace them. But, when my Mustang is finally 20 years old (7 model years to go as of… well, any day now), I’d like to use them again. I just hope when I peel off all the old stickers, there’ll be an “07” under there. There’s a good chance… these plates are 20 years old now, and I think when 10 years had gone by, I peeled the stickers back to 97 or 99 and applied the 07 sticker. It may say 09 though… which technically may be ok, as an ‘09 Mustang looks like mine, and a newly purchased ‘07 Mustang would’ve gotten an 09 sticker anyway.
Better consult the legal department on that one when the time comes. 😉
Yes, we have that in Washington state.
Indiana allows this. Even when they did not, we only use a rear plate so a front year of manufacture plate was something many folks used for decorative purposes.
North Carolina allows this if the car is at least 35 years old and your “old” plate matches the year of your car. Oddly enough, the owner is still issued a regular current plate that must be kept inside the vehicle somewhere so it can be presented upon request.
It’s a real neat idea!
This is the standard plate, I have included the DOL link for specialty plates.https://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/specialdesign.html
I’ve bought and sold a couple of cars in the last few years, and I learned that Washington state has done something really annoying.
Used to be, if you bought a used car in Washington, the plates stayed with the car, unless they were vanity plates. More importantly, you inherited any remaining time on the tabs. If you bought a car in January and the tabs were due to expire in June, you could drive on those tabs, and you and the seller would factor that into the sale price.
When I bought a used car a couple of years ago, I discovered that the system had changed. I had to get new plates (not bothersome in itself), but I also had to pay a year’s registration in advance. The registration on the existing plates and tabs went down the drain. I don’t remember when the old tabs were due to expire, but it’s the principle of the thing. The state gets to collect registration fees twice for the same period, just because the car has changed hands. It’s a total ripoff.
If you live in Washington, write your state legislators about this! I plan to.
Current UK plates are fairly typical European, with the option of the EU star and country code at the left end. Black on white at the front, black on yellow at the back, and it stays with the car for life unless a vanity plate is swapped on
Unless you go for a vanity plate (not my choice), the plate will have an area and date code. In this case, EY (and Eanyletter) means Essex county, 17 means March – Aug 2017 – this changes every six months so Sept 2017-Feb 2018 was 67, we’ve just started 69 etc, and AOL is the unique random bit.
Earlier iterations had the date code as a single character at the end (eg ABC123D and then the front (E456FHG) with the numbers being the unique bit and the letters being the location code.
No frame usually, but most dealers will print something on, and the person/business supplying the plate has to be identified as well to control any unauthorised supply of false plates.
In Brazil we use the gray license plate since 1990, but the countries of MERCOSUL are trying to put a new model.