65 Fun Facts About License Plate

Which country introduced the first vehicle registration plates, by an 1893 police ordinance?

France introduced the first vehicle registration plates under the Paris police ordinance of 14 August 1893; Germany followed in 1896.

Which US state was the first to issue license plates itself, on September 1, 1903?

Massachusetts became the first state to issue its own plates on September 1, 1903; plate number 1 went to Frederick Tudor, and his descendants kept it for over a century.

Which state was first to require vehicle registration in 1901, initially just the owner's initials?

New York required vehicle registration from 1901, with owners making plates bearing their initials; numbers replaced initials in 1903, and the state only began issuing plates in 1910.

Which state has featured a bucking horse and rider on its plates continuously since 1936?

Wyoming added the bucking horse and rider silhouette to its plates in 1936; the design became one of the longest-running graphics on any US state plate.

George Maynard was jailed for 15 days in the 1970s for taping over which motto on his plates?

Maynard, a Jehovah's Witness, taped over the 'Live Free or Die' motto on his plates and served 15 days in jail; the Supreme Court later ruled he could not be forced to display it.

Which state's license plates carry the slogan 'Show-Me State'?

Missouri plates carry the slogan 'Show-Me State'; the nickname is commonly traced to an 1899 speech by Congressman Willard Vandiver, who said, 'I am from Missouri, you have got to show me.'

Which state has used the same gold-on-blue standard plate design since 1959?

Delaware adopted its gold-on-blue plate design in 1959; no other US state plate design has lasted as long without a redesign.

In 2008, plate number 6 from the state famous for its low-digit plate market sold for how much?

Tag number 6 sold at auction for $675,000 in 2008; only residents of the state may own its tags, yet bids came in from around the world, and number 20 fetched $410,000 in 2018.

In the state whose low-number plates sell for six figures, plate 1 goes to which official?

Tag 1 is reserved for the governor, with 2 and 3 going to the lieutenant governor and secretary of state; every number from 4 upward can be bought and sold.

As of 2014, how many US states used prison labor to make their license plates?

The federal government does too, which is why 'making license plates' became slang for serving a prison sentence.

Which of these states has required only a rear plate on standard passenger cars since 1952?

Pennsylvania has issued only rear plates for standard passenger cars since 1952; Maryland and California, by contrast, require plates front and back.

Which state stopped requiring front license plates on July 1, 2020?

Ohio stopped requiring front plates on July 1, 2020, under the transportation budget its legislature passed in April 2019.

Which state's governor rejected 9,000 pairs of 1972 plates because the flag used dots instead of stars?

Alaska's William Egan refused the 1972 plates because the stars of the state flag were rendered as dots; the unissued plates became collectors' items.

Which state's plates carry the slogan 'Sportsman's Paradise'?

Louisiana's plates carry 'Sportsman's Paradise', a slogan first embossed on the state's plates in the late 1950s in tribute to its hunting and fishing.

Which state's standard license plate depicts Mount Rushmore?

South Dakota's plates depict Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills memorial that Gutzon Borglum carved between 1927 and 1941.

'Greatest Snow on Earth' is a plate slogan of which state?

Utah adopted 'Greatest Snow on Earth' for its skier plate in 1985, a play on the Ringling Brothers circus slogan 'Greatest Show on Earth'.

'First in Flight' has appeared on which state's plates since 1982?

North Carolina has used 'First in Flight' since 1982, commemorating the Wright brothers' first powered flights at Kitty Hawk in December 1903.

Which slogan has been in continuous use longer than any other, appearing on Maine plates since 1936?

Vacationland has appeared on the state's plates since 1936, longer than any other slogan; Arizona's 'Grand Canyon State' and Wisconsin's 'America's Dairyland' followed in 1940.

Since 1954, Illinois plates have carried which slogan?

Illinois has printed 'Land of Lincoln' on its plates since 1954; the 2017 redesign put Abraham Lincoln's face on the left edge of the plate.

To conserve metal during World War II, Illinois made its 1943 plates from what material?

Illinois pressed its 1943 plates from fiberboard, a composite board adopted to save steel for the war effort; the state returned to steel plates after the wartime shortages eased.

Which food crop was pressed into experimental plates during wartime shortages?

Soybeans went into the composite board Illinois used for its 1943 plates to save steel; the plates reportedly smelled appetising enough that goats chewed them.

Most modern plates are made from which metal?

Aluminium is the standard material for modern plates because it is light and does not rust; characters are embossed in a press or, rarely, riveted on.

In 1956, North American passenger plates were standardized at what size?

The 1956 standard fixed passenger plates at 6 by 12 inches (about 150 by 300 mm), a size adopted across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Which Canadian province or territory has issued polar-bear-shaped plates since 1970?

The Northwest Territories introduced its polar-bear-shaped plate in 1970; the bear is cut from a standard rectangular blank so it fits normal mounting holes.

Which is the only US state whose licence plate number is pressed in rather than raised?

Vermont's green plates have debossed characters, pressed into a slightly raised panel rather than stamped outward, the reverse of the usual embossing.

Which California city piloted battery-powered digital license plates in 2018?

Sacramento put digital plates from the company Reviver on its city fleet in 2018, the first US pilot of electronic license plates; the displays can flash a stolen-vehicle alert.

Which state had the most vanity plates in the 2007 AAMVA survey?

Virginia led the 2007 AAMVA survey with about a million vanity plates, roughly a tenth of the US total; a Virginia vanity plate cost just $10 more than a standard one.

In the 2007 AAMVA survey, which state had the lowest vanity plate penetration rate, just 0.5%?

About 3.83% of eligible US vehicles carried vanity plates at the time, some 9.7 million in all.

Which Canadian province is the only one that does not issue vanity plates?

Newfoundland and Labrador was the only Canadian province without a vanity plate program in the 2007 AAMVA survey, which counted some 9.7 million such plates across the United States.

Which vanity plate earned a Los Angeles driver around 2,500 parking tickets in 1979?

Robert Barbour's 'NO PLATE' vanity plate matched what officers wrote on tickets for cars without plates, so about 2,500 Los Angeles citations were mailed to him in 1979.

Which state passed a 2015 law removing most censorship from its vanity plate program?

Maine's 2015 law stripped the Secretary of State of the power to reject offensive vanity plates, and a wave of vulgar plates followed until the legislature restored review in 2021.

Which phrase has appeared on standard Washington, D.C. plates since November 2000?

'Taxation Without Representation' went on D.C. plates in November 2000, protesting that residents pay federal income tax yet have no voting member of Congress; 'End' was added in 2017.

In the United States, plates for foreign diplomats are issued by which body?

The Department of State's Office of Foreign Missions has issued diplomatic plates nationwide since the mid-1980s; before that, individual states issued their own diplomatic plates.

Why were country codes on US diplomatic plates scrambled until 2007, e.g. 'DJ' for one European country?

Australia was 'XZ' for the same reason, and the status letter told police whether the driver was a consul, diplomat or staff.

The letters 'CD' on diplomatic plates in much of Europe stand for what?

CD stands for Corps Diplomatique, French for diplomatic corps; Britain instead marks its diplomatic plates with a 'D' between two groups of digits.

In the UK, standard rear number plates are what colour?

British rear plates are yellow and front plates white, a scheme introduced with reflective plates in 1973; vehicles built before 1980 may use the old black plates with silver characters.

Under the British system introduced in 2001, what age identifier does an October 2018 car carry?

An October 2018 car carries '68': registrations from March to August use the year's last two digits (18), and from September to February fifty is added.

The first London registration, 'A 1', went to which person?

Earl Russell took 'A 1', the first London registration, under the Motor Car Act 1903; legend says he had his butler queue all night for it.

In July 2025, which registration set a UK record by selling for £608,600 at a Bonhams auction?

It beat the £518,440 paid in 2014 for '25 O' by Ferrari dealer John Collins.

In the UK, which vehicles are exempt from displaying number plates?

The monarch's cars on official business need no plates: the State Bentleys and Rolls-Royces carry none, while the monarch's private vehicles are registered and plated normally.

British 'Q' registrations are issued to what kind of vehicle?

Q registrations go to vehicles of indeterminate age or origin, such as kit cars, major rebuilds and imports without proper paperwork, so the plate does not misstate the vehicle's age.

On 28 September 2021, the UK changed its international vehicle code from 'GB' to what?

The UK's international vehicle code became 'UK' on 28 September 2021; cars with older 'GB' plates, including the Euro-flag style, needed a separate UK sticker when driven abroad.

The common EU plate format, with a blue band on the left, entered into force in which year?

Council Regulation 2411/98, adopted in November 1998, made the blue-band format valid across the EU; Ireland, Portugal and Germany had already introduced the design.

How many stars appear in the EU emblem on the blue band of European plates?

The EU emblem shows 12 gold stars in a circle, a number chosen as a symbol of completeness rather than a member count; the band also carries the state's country code.

Which EU country added the blue EU band to its plates only in 2009?

Denmark added the blue EU band to its plates in 2009, a decade after the common format took effect; Danish plates also carry a small holographic strip next to the band.

Which European country uses red characters on its standard number plates?

Belgium prints its plates in red characters on white; a darker ruby red (RAL 3003) was chosen with the 2010 switch to European-style plates to improve legibility.

On German plates, the single letter 'M' identifies vehicles registered in which city?

M stands for München, Munich; the biggest cities get one-letter codes, such as B for Berlin, K for Cologne, F for Frankfurt and S for Stuttgart.

Which typeface on German plates is designed so a P cannot be altered into an R?

FE-Schrift is short for fälschungserschwerende Schrift, 'falsification-hindering script'; it became mandatory for new German registrations in November 2000.

Which letter do Bundeswehr vehicles carry in place of a city code?

Bundeswehr vehicles carry a Y in place of the city code, chosen because no German town name starts with Y; military plates show the German flag instead of the EU band.

Which plate number does the German President use?

The Federal President's car carries 0-1; the Chancellor has 0-2, the Foreign Minister 0-3, and the President of the Bundestag 1-1.

A German plate ending in the letter 'H' marks what?

The H suffix marks a historic car at least 30 years old and in largely original condition; owners pay a flat tax of about 190 euros a year.

Which German exclave in Switzerland has its own vehicle registration code?

Büsingen am Hochrhein, a German exclave surrounded by Swiss territory, has the code BÜS; it belongs to the Konstanz district but sits inside the Swiss customs area.

In Japan, private kei cars with engines of 660 cc or less get plates in which colours?

Private kei cars, with engines of 660 cc or less, carry black text on yellow plates; commercial kei cars reverse it to yellow on black, while ordinary cars use green and white.

Which hiragana is left off Japanese plates because it sounds like the word for death?

し is left off because its reading 'shi' is also that of 死, death; へ is skipped because 'he' means fart, ん because it is awkward to say alone, and お because it looks like あ.

Which Tokyo issuing office is often considered the most desirable to have on a Japanese plate?

Shinagawa plates carry cachet because the office name reflects the owner's home address in an affluent part of Tokyo, so the plate doubles as a status signal.

Which country's 1994 'AA-111-AA' plate format did its northwestern neighbour copy in 2009?

Under the copied SIV scheme the plate stays with the car for life, and the very first one, AA-001-AA, went to a Mazda 6 station wagon.

In which city did registration plate '1' sell for about US$14 million in 2008?

Abu Dhabi's plate '1' went for 52.2 million dirhams, about US$14 million, at a 2008 charity auction; Dubai's 'P 7' later topped it in 2023 at 55 million dirhams.

What nickname is given to the coloured restricted tags Ohio drunk drivers can be made to display?

The restricted tags with red lettering are nicknamed 'party plates'; Minnesota's equivalent, whose serials begin with W, goes by 'whiskey plates'.

By law, which slogan must appear on every Alabama license plate?

Alabama law requires 'Heart of Dixie' inside a small heart on every plate; the emblem has shrunk to a tiny size as the state played down the 'Dixie' reference.

Which state's license plates carry the slogan 'Garden State'?

New Jersey plates carry 'Garden State', a nickname credited to Abraham Browning, who used it in an 1876 speech at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

Florida's 1987 specialty plate funding the Space Mirror Memorial commemorated which disaster?

The Challenger explosion of January 28, 1986 prompted a Florida specialty plate the next year; its fees built the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center, dedicated in 1991.

Which state numbers its plates by county, with 1 for Silver Bow County?

Montana plates begin with a county code assigned in the 1930s by population: 1 is Silver Bow (Butte), 2 Cascade (Great Falls) and 3 Yellowstone (Billings).

In the state that issued America's first plates, the last digit of a passenger plate serial encodes what?

1 means January through 0 for October; in the early years of the system, X and Y suffixes covered November and December.

Which country was the first to introduce a national registration plate, called a 'driving permit', in 1898?

The Netherlands issued the first national registration plates, called 'driving permits', in 1898; earlier plates in Paris from 1893 were only local.

Since 1994, which four letters have been left off Italian plates?

Italian plates leave out I, O, U and Q, which can be mistaken for 1, 0 and V; the AA 123 AA format introduced in 1994 uses the other 22 letters.