70 Fun Facts About License Plate

Which country introduced the first vehicle registration plates, by a Paris ordinance in 1893?

Germany followed in 1896, and the Netherlands issued the first national plate, called a driving permit, in 1898.

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

Before that, motorists in most states had to make their own plates. Plate number 1 went to Frederick Tudor and is still in use by his descendants.

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

Owners provided their own plates featuring their initials until 1903 and numbers thereafter; the state did not issue plates until 1910.

In 1928, which state became the first to put a graphic and slogan on its plates, an embossed potato?

That 1928 potato plate was the ancestor of the 'Famous Potatoes' slogan the state still uses today.

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

The cowboy silhouette is one of the longest-running plate graphics in the country, arriving the same year as the oldest continuous state slogan.

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

Maynard and his wife, Jehovah's Witnesses, found the motto repugnant to their beliefs; the Supreme Court sided with him three years after the first citation.

The Supreme Court case Wooley v. Maynard, about covering a motto on a plate, concerned which state?

Since 1970 the state had required noncommercial vehicles to carry plates embossed with its motto; the Court ruled 6-3 that citizens could not be forced to display it.

In what year did the Supreme Court decide Wooley v. Maynard?

Chief Justice Burger wrote that the state was effectively forcing citizens to use their private property as a 'mobile billboard' for its message.

Which Chief Justice wrote the majority opinion in Wooley v. Maynard?

Rehnquist dissented, joined by Blackmun, arguing a bumper sticker disowning the motto would have been enough.

Which state's standard plate, gold on black, has remained essentially unchanged since the 1960s?

It is the oldest plate design still in production in the country, dating to 1959, and the state has not embossed its plates for decades.

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

Only residents with a license from that state can legally own the plates, yet bids came in from around the world; number 20 later fetched $410,000 in 2018.

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

Numbers 2 and 3 go to the lieutenant governor and secretary of state; everything 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?

Front plates are still required there on state-owned vehicles and, oddly, on cars owned by press photographers.

Which state dropped front plates in July 2020, going without them for the first time since World War II?

The change was passed by the state legislature in April 2019 and took effect the following summer.

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

William Egan's rejected prototypes are now common finds among collectors, and their design elements were reused on later plates.

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

The 1958 plate actually read 'Sportsmen's Paradise' before the spelling settled down the following year.

'Land of Enchantment' first appeared on which state's plates in 1941, alongside a Zia sun symbol?

That state is also the only one to print 'USA' on its plates, to stop people confusing it with the country next door.

Which is the only state that prints 'USA' on its license plates?

The addition is there to avoid confusion with the country of Mexico, which the state borders to the southwest.

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

Its 1985 skier plate won the license plate collectors' association 'Plate of the Year' for 1986, the only time the state has been so honored.

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

A neighbouring state to the north counters with 'Birthplace of Aviation', since the Wright brothers grew up there even though they flew at Kitty Hawk.

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

Arizona's 'Grand Canyon State' and Wisconsin's 'America's Dairyland' both arrived a few years later, in 1940.

Since 1954, Illinois plates have carried which slogan?

Later Illinois plates put Abraham Lincoln himself on the background, and the 2017 redesign moved his face to the far left edge.

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

The wood-based boards were used through 1948, three years after the war ended, before the state went back to steel in 1949.

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

The earliest plates were enamel on metal or ceramic, so fragile that very few survive today.

Most modern plates are made from which metal?

Characters are either embossed between dies in a press or, more rarely, riveted onto the plate one by one.

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

Only Greenland and Saint Pierre and Miquelon in North America use European sizes instead, though one Canadian territory cuts its standard rectangle into an animal shape.

Which Canadian territory issues plates cut into the shape of a polar bear?

The bear is cut out of a standard rectangular blank so it still fits normal mounting holes.

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

Its characters are engraved into a large, slightly raised portion of the plate, the reverse of the usual embossing.

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

The plates carry a beacon that can be tracked if the car is stolen, and Michigan legalized electronic plates the same year.

Which state has the most vanity plates, roughly 1.6 million or a tenth of the US total?

Its vanity plates cost only $10 more than standard ones, compared with $50 in Maryland and $100 in Washington, D.C.

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?

Ontario has the highest Canadian vanity plate rate, while British Columbia has the lowest among provinces that offer them.

What vanity plate earned a Los Angeles driver 2,500 parking citations in 1979 by matching the DMV's filler text?

Plates reading MISSING, VOID, NONE and XXXXXXX have caused the same headache in other states.

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

Rhode Island went the other way, halting all new vanity plates in 2021 after a court ruling on its profanity rules.

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

It protests that residents pay federal income tax but cannot elect a voting member of Congress.

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

Before the 1980s the states issued them themselves, and the plates are still stamped with the dies of the state where they are made.

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?

The UK instead uses a 'D' in the middle of its diplomatic plates, and Poland is one of the few countries that skips CD entirely.

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

Front plates are white; classic vehicles may still carry the old black plates with silver characters at both ends.

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

Registrations from March to August use the year's last two digits; from September to February, fifty is added.

How many times a year does the age identifier on new British number plates change?

The changes fall on 1 March and 1 September, and the scheme is designed to run until 2051.

The first London registration, 'A 1', was issued in 1904 to which person?

Legend says he made his butler queue all night, but he was actually chairman of the London County Council's highways committee.

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 private vehicles still carry plates; only the official state Rolls-Royces and Bentleys go without.

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

Kit cars, substantial rebuilds and imports with poor paperwork all get one, and their use spiked with car crime in the late 1980s.

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

The switch made older plates showing GB with the European circle of stars invalid for driving abroad.

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

Ireland, Portugal and Germany had already introduced the model, and Luxembourg had shown the EU flag on plates since 1988.

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

The band also carries the member state's country code, though using the flag itself is optional for member states.

Which EU country was the last to adopt the common EU plate format, doing so in 2009?

Its plates carry a small holographic strip just to the right of the blue EU band.

Which country uses red characters on its plates, the only one in Europe not using black characters?

A slightly darker shade of red 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?

The biggest cities get one-letter codes: B for Berlin, K for Cologne, F for Frankfurt, S for Stuttgart and H for Hannover.

German plates use a special typeface designed so a P cannot be altered into an R. What is it called?

The name is short for fälschungserschwerende Schrift, 'falsification-hindering script', and it became mandatory in 2000.

Which letter do Bundeswehr vehicles use in place of a city code, since no German city starts with it?

NATO headquarters vehicles in Germany use X followed by four digits, and the plates show the German flag instead of the EU strip.

Which plate number does the German President use?

The Chancellor gets 0-2 and the Foreign Minister 0-3, while the President of the Parliament uses 1-1.

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

Owners of these classic cars pay a flat tax of around 190 euros a year, and many pick digits matching the car's model year.

Which tiny German exclave in Switzerland has its own plate code 'BÜS' for about 700 cars?

Though part of the Konstanz district, it sits inside the Swiss customs area, so the code signals to Swiss officers that the car is domestic.

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

へ is also skipped because it looks like the kanji for 'fart', and ん because it is hard to say quickly over the phone.

Which hiragana is left off Japanese plates because it resembles the kanji for 'death'?

へ is also skipped because it looks like the kanji for 'fart', and ん because it is hard to say quickly over the phone.

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

Because the office is tied to the owner's home address, the name on 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 the world's priciest registration plate, '1', sell for about US$14 million?

Emirati 'distinguished plates' are auctioned for charity; in Dubai, plate number one belongs to Sheikh Mohammed's car.

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

Minnesota's version, with a special numbering system, goes by 'whiskey plates' instead.

By law, every Alabama plate must carry which slogan, printed inside a tiny red symbol?

Sensitivities over the wording have shrunk the heart to the minimum size, so fans buy larger decals to paste over the top slogan.

Which state leads the nation in specialty plate designs with about 360?

The runner-up state offers roughly 340 designs and Florida 122, including one that funded a memorial to the Challenger astronauts.

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

It stayed the state's most popular specialty plate until a plate supporting the endangered Florida panther overtook it.

Which state's plates identify the county with a code like '2T', the second county alphabetically starting with T?

2T is Twin Falls County; if only one county starts with a letter, the letter alone serves as the code.

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?

France had earlier local plates from an 1893 Paris ordinance, but the Dutch scheme was the first nationwide one.

Since 1994, Italian plates omit which four letters to avoid confusion with numbers?

The AB 123 AB format uses the remaining 22 letters of the alphabet.