By Gail Marsh
You probably played the “License Plate” game while traveling as a child. Parents often suggest this game as a way for kids to pass the time by finding a license plate from each state in the United States. License plates are more than simple child’s play, however. Check out the history and little-known facts about vehicle license plates.
The history of license plates: The beginning
Yes, the first license plate was actually introduced in France. It was 1893 when that country began the first official vehicle registration system. It required all automobiles to display a registration number—what we now call a license plate.
A few years later, in 1901, New York mandated license plates for vehicles in the state, making it the first in the U.S. to adopt the practice. Other states soon followed.
Vanity plates
All states offer folks the opportunity to personalize their vehicle license plate(s). Some people are quite creative with their choices, crafting clever phrases or references that reflect their interests, profession, or even their sense of humor. States closely monitor vanity plate requests. Many are deemed offensive to good taste or decency and therefore denied.
Vanity plate consequences
Danny White, a man in Washington, D.C., has received more than $20,000 in ticket fines because of his vanity license plate. His plate reads: NO TAGS. Every few months, Danny goes to the courthouse to clear his name. Turns out, when police ticket a car that’s missing its plates, they write, “No tags,” and Danny gets billed. Danny doesn’t want to change his vanity plate, so ticket writers have been urged to write “NONE” instead.
License plate collector auctions
Unique license plates can hold significant historical or cultural value. In some places, the government auctions off these special plates. For example, in 2008, a license plate featuring only the number “1” fetched a whopping $14.3 million!
Owning a license plate with ascending numbers or identical digits can mean big bucks in some countries because they can be a symbol of prosperity or good fortune. One such license plate in China sold for millions!
Quick license plate factoids
Prepare to amaze your friends with these little-known license plate facts:
- Pennsylvania was the first state to issue a customized license plate, but drivers were only allowed to use their initials.
- During WWII, some states used a soybean-based formula to make their license plates. Goats enjoyed eating them!
- Virginia is the state with the highest number of vanity plates per capita. Texas has the fewest.
- Vehicles owned by the USPS do not have license plates.
- In 1956, the size 6 x 12 inches became the standardized dimensions for the license plate.
- Prisoners in many U.S. states have been making license plates for over 100 years.
- The least-used letters on license plates are I, O, and Q, probably because they are easily mistaken for the numerals 1 and 0.
- New Hampshire’s slogan, “Live free or die” is deemed the most controversial license plate motto. One couple took their case all the way to the Supreme Court. The court decided that folks who were offended by the motto could cover it up if they wished.
Do you have a vanity plate or special license plate that holds fond memories? Tell me about it in the comments below, please.
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##RVT1119
I recall that issue over the NH license plate motto. The suit was filed by the family of a girl one year ahead of me when I was in high school (she was class of ’65). It caused quite a stir at the time. Yes, NH still has that motto on their plates.
License plates are nothing more than a facility for governments to collect taxes on the vehicles. It could be just as easy to mandate a permanent unique identifier on the bumper of every vehicle for identification purposes but states want their tax.
Yep. Taxes when purchased, taxes when registering, taxed yearly, taxed for road use, taxed on gasoline, taxed for tires, taxed on and on and on…
Yep. If you use the road you should pay a road use tax. Seems fair. Those who use fuel exclusively off-road (farmers and certain construction trades) do not (generally) pay road use tax. Look up Red Diesel.
Yes have a special plate. Military plate with Bronze Star & handicap
Thank you for allowing me to be a free United States of America 🇺🇸 citizen.
There is no way I could ever repay you, but I can say thank you, and welcome home Sir.
Have a great day. Be safe. May GOD bless you.
Being able to identify license plates and associated states can enhance your safety on the road. We all have pet peeves against certain states and their drivers’ skills, so if you can avoid them it makes sense to do so. I can ID any license plate, including Canadian, and know which states don’t require front license plates (good rule of thumb is to avoid anyone without a front plate, e.g. Florida).
On my last trip, as I was exiting the Ohio Turnpike for the EZ Pass tolls, I saw a car speeding up on my left hand side with California plates who then cut in front of me and a few others and sped toward one of the 2 EZ Pass lanes. Figuring he didn’t have an EZ Pass tag I moved to the other lane and laughed as I saw Johnny California stopped at the booth with a line of angry drivers forming behind him. When he passed me 10 minutes later, I gave him a proper salute.
My wife’s brother always complained that every time we went camping together it would always rain. He called his sister the rain goddess, so he got license plates that said (NORAIN) for his trailer. Next time we went camping together we got license plates for our trailer that said (RAINGDSS).
When my husband decided to get his SS check at 67, he went out and bought a new red convertible Mercedes’ and he makes the payments with his SS check. So his plates say SS*CHK !!
Our LondonAire has DALBUS. We take our Dalmatians on our road trips.
Most people thinks it means Dallas Bus.
I did have “My Bug” on my 2016 VW Beetle, but it was totaled last October when a lady was busy texting, ran a stop sign, T-boned me and totaled BOTH vehicles. Fortunately, she had no injuries and I only suffered one broken rib, but my Beetle went to its grave!
yes, NY was the first state to require plates, but you had to provide your own, and you had to display your own initials. this was soon changed due to duplication. imagine how many ‘ECS’ tags there might have been. (i own one of them.) MA was the first to provide state-issued plates in 1903. USPS once did have its own series of government issued plates with a P prefix. nowadays they just paint a number on the vehicle. more trivia: 1956 may have been the year standard size was required, but this did not actually happen until 1958. DE was the last holdout, and remains the only state where non-standard size plates are legal for registration, and also the only state where porcelain enamel tags are still in use on modern cars.
I have license plates for each of our family’s birth years. My plate is made from the 1945 soybean crop. I also have a National Geographic month and year issue for each of our birth dates. It is fun to see what was going on, and advertisements, for the month you were born.
The plate on my Harley-Davidson motorcycle says, NOT 4N.
We love vanity plates in colorado! We also are huge halloween family therefore my plates are OCT31ST! I get compliments all the time!
Vanity Plate. My tow vehicle is a 96 Jeep Cherokee with “Volamus” meaning “We Fly” which is the second part of the motto of Daedalians, the fraternal order of military pilots.
Volabamus Volamus. We flew We Fly
We used to have “2 Camp” on our tow vehicle but when we upgraded to a 3/4 ton that had to go since WI does not allow vanity plates on HD trucks.
Our first motorhome was small and we declared it large enough for only two people, so the license was TWOOFUS – ‘Two Of Us’, but fondly pronounced TOOFUS. The plate went with us onto our 36 foot Beaver for 20 years and now proudly adorns our car.
Our car plate is ACOUPLE the RV has A CUPLE
We are known as the only people with a license from the state of WA to be a Couple.
Often in parking lots we have see young couples standing by our car taking a selfie.
I have had a custom plate, on my Opel, since 1987. My wife has one starting with her CRX, until her Audi was retired. Her plate is currently not being used, but we do have it in our closet.
When my home state of Pennsylvania started an issue of available NASCAR license plates, I opted to purchase a #3 Dale Earnhardt plate for my vehicle. My wife and I were on vacation in Virginia when I happened to look out our room window in the morning and saw that my license plate was missing. Reported the theft to the area police and when describing the plate to them, they made a statement saying that it was probably on somebody’s wall. I said that it would take an absolute idiot for someone to put an out of state vanity plate like that on their car! Well! Guess what? A couple weeks later the police called me and they found my plate on a stolen car loaded with stolen merchandise. Well they mailed my plate back to me but by that time I had filed a “lost plate” with Pa’s DMV. I still have that plate with quite a story attached.
My girlfriend (now my wife of 28 years) had her Wyoming license plate stolen in Maryland. We were both active duty military. She called it in to the police. They said we have your plate. She asked if they were sure? They said we caught a gang with about 50 stolen plates, only 1 is from Wyoming. She said I want to press charges. They said you can’t plates are State property. She said “No, in Wyoming they are actually the property of the vehicle owner” (She was and is correct) they never needed her testimony though.
An odd fellow in town drove an old hearse. His plate was, URNEXT.
New Mexico has only the rear license plate, leaving the front position open. Therefore, the license plate on the front of my truck is the one I was issued in 1988 in Naples, Italy, the AFI (Allied Forces Italy) plate. It has been on every truck I’ve owned (seven trucks) since then.
CLEMSN
Had a 2000 Beetle. The license plate was MLMN Bug for millennium bug. Y2K Bug was already taken.
As a computer nerd, the best plate I ever saw on a Bug said “FEATURE”.
I had a Vanity Plate “MY 29er” for my 1929 Ford Model A Roadster for many years. Since I had to pay each year to keep the vanity plate I finally found a “Year of Manufacturer ” plates for my 1929 Ford and for my 1925 Moon Roadster. Best news is that YOM plates are a once and done registration historical plate here in Missouri. The hard part is finding a YOM plate with a clean currently unused number.
My license plate on my corvette said CYL8R. The license plate frame above said I’ll
The bottom part said if you’re lucky.
One of the best I’ve seen were on a truck and trailer. The truck plate was ‘WE GO” and the trailer plate, “I GO TOO”. I can’t remember what state it was from.
My truck plate is “BGTOOT”. Wife’s car is “MZTOOT” and our travel trailer is “TLRTRSH”
Where I live, there was a man named Dick Assman. He was actually on David Letterman many years ago. Yes, that is his real name and when he wanted a personalized license plate as “ASSMAN” the motor vehicle branch said no, as it was offensive, even if it was his legal last name. He died several years ago. This can all be verified if you google his full name.
Back in the 1970s a man in Fresno, CA, got a personalized plate for his truck that said FRESNO. Several years later he got a plate for his car, again FRESNO. Local news made a big deal about it, and as I remember he got to keep both pates.
Solved the problem of forgetting my plate number. My home address number and first digits of the multiple street names do the trick; i.e. 505SRCD. My only worry is I’ll start forgetting where I live.
I had a personalized plate and fastened it with tamperproof screws.
i guess they wanted it more as the thief bent it until it broke. I got the top half thief got lower half with my Tommy
My current plate on one of my vehicles is my last name. I’ve had some folks pass me and slow down……
We have a Texas plate that saids DALBUS on our LondonAire. We have Dalmatians… NO we are not from Dallas. My new animal friendly plate on my new 580 Mercedes is going to say ❤️DOTS . My husbands plate on his convertible Mercedes’ saids SS*CHK. HES PAYING FOR IT WITH HIS SS check in the mailbox.. “ mailbox monies”
Thank you, Gail! I wish that Tennessee had New Hampshire’s motto on its plates too. I get a kick out of it every time I see a New Hampshire plate. Have a great weekend and safe travels!