State License Plate Designs

I was in Yellowknife about a month ago, I thought it was neat to see that their license plates are in the shape of a polar bear, instead of the usual rectangle.

....has the most different styles as the state lets you design your own plate within reason.

Up until 2012, Nunavut also had the Polar Bear shape. They changed theirs to a rectangle when the NWT changed the design of the plate. If I recall correctly, the Polar Bear shape is copyrighted, and the NWT refused to license the revised design to Nunavut, thus forcing Nunavut to change the plate.

Microsoft hasn't applied for a patient for the rectangular shape of a License plate then license the design to each state!!

I've been told that Florida has more than a 100 different designs to pick from. Don't know how accurate that is but when I'm down there it seems I see some I've never seen before. I don't mean vanity plates which would make any state almost limitless.

Count Pennsylvania among the 100's of plates states.

"There are currently 329 Special Organization registration plates available"

http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/license_plates/plate-special_org....

Plus 4 "Special Fund" plates

http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/license_plates/special_fund.shtml

I have to agree with agg9900. I checked the Montana DOJ website and there are over 160 different plate designs - supporting everything from the Montana Quilt Show to Ducks Unlimited to the University of Montana Clock Tower!

It looks like they have a different plate for every resident of the state

120 if I counted right: http://www.flhsmv.gov/dmv/specialtytags/

Apple hasn't tried to copyright white and then license it.

Interesting to know. Nunavut (and Yukon) are the only two provinces/territories I haven't visited in Canada. I'm hoping to somehow visit Nunavut, flights are expensive and I believe the only road in may be an Ice Road?

Maryland currently has 72 non-logo org plates and 820 logo org plates. then there are the usual crowd, general, Chesapeake Bay, Farmer, disabled, etc. It's a good money-maker for them, as they collect extra fees for the "custom" plates. Maryland gov. is all for making money!

Ohio has a lot of vanity plates, but the default style is terribly ugly. It replaced a good looking design that gave the automatic license plate reader cameras (on cop cars) difficulty in some conditions.

Always is interesting to travel through the states to see the new ones that have not been on the road before when i was out last.

that says...NJ Drivers, Stay Out

Never really noticed other plates, I guess now I will.

I don't think Arizona has made it to the 100 plate club yet but they are getting there. I think the number, for all categories, is in the 60 range. Here are pictures of 40 of them:

http://archive.azcentral.com/commphotos/azcentral/12685/1/#1

What a headache for law enforcement, trying to keep track of what's a real plate and what might not be. I'm sure that in some of these several-hundred-plate states there are some wiseguys using real plate numbers on prank/fake designs, but nobody's stopped them yet--or at least that will be news at some point in the future, you can bet.

I tried to see how much money states earn selling special and vanity plates. The only figure I could find was $25 million for Texas over the past five years:
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/jacquielynn-floyd/...
Other than the enforcement headache, it's a good way to raise revenue with an elective tax--people opt in.

I saw Texas is also about to drop several dozen (out of >300) special-design plates that aren't selling well enough:
http://lubbockonline.com/texas/2014-07-16/some-specialty-lic...

I heard that I did.

The 329 "organization" plates are on the normal state plate background with the organizations logo on it from what I've seen. I have one of these on my vehicle:

http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/images/plates/Harley%20Owners%20G...

The special fund ones are unique in color and design. They did have one of these they discontinued because it was very difficult to read it during the day (it was reflectorized so could be in the dark) light background with white letters/numbers.

http://www.plateshack.com/y2k/Pennsylvania/pa2002flagship.jp...

Nunavut has no roads, except for the ones within the city limits of Iqaluit and Igalaag. It's unique among the provinces and territories regarding this. As you note, the NWT and the Yukon both have roads, though in the case of the NWT it's an ice road traveling over Great Slave Lake to Yellowknife. Nunavut is simply too remote and too sparsely populated (population approx. 35,000) for them.

In Tennessee, all you need is 1000 people to put up $25.00 each and you can get just about anything you want.

When traveling, I have no idea which plate is to which state anymore.

With all of the different plates it does make travel interesting.

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Not sure about other states, but in VA the number is all that's important. No two plates, no matter the design have duplicate numbers. So a quick check of the number will tell if it's valid or not.

Generally speaking, yes, that's correct for other states too. Sometimes you can have small lettering or some other feature that's the only difference between two plates in one state.

What I'm suggesting is that with a legally correct plate number, otherwise pranking the design of the plate, if subtle enough, could be hard to spot at a glance in a state with hundreds of plate designs in use. Illegal, though, of course.

Interesting! We drove cross-country this year and spotted all 50 US states, most US territories, and most Canadian provinces... but not Nunavut! And with such a small population and few roads, Nunavut would be a rare plate in the USA.

In BC, we have 3 different plates available.

I wonder if all these different plate designs cause problems for pay-by-plate toll readers, especially if a license plate frame obstructs the name of the state on the plate.

In Arizona we only have a rear plate but they passed a law making it a ticket offense if you have a license plate frame that even partially covers the states name.

Tennesse is up to 90. We even have plates for the University of Georgia, Kentucky, etc!