Running license plate thread

[micropolitan guy]

Had a road trip to South Dakota and back last/this week, got to see lots of license plates. Wyoming is coming out with a new one in 2025, all cars must have it, state law requires a new plate every 8 years.

Steamboat is always standard and the plates are numbered by county so you can tell where someone is from. It's not bad, but I much prefer "The Equality State" along the bottom than some dumb website advertising.

Oregon has the ugliest standard plate in the country, a Charlie Brown Doug fir tree in the middle. I hate Pennsylvania's and California's since they dumped "Keystone State" and "The Golden State" for the friend in Pennsylvania nonsense and a California DMV website ad.

I know you can't be "heart of Dixie" anymore like Alabama was, but I liked the days when your state nickname or some catchy, state-relevant phrase was on the plate instead of some website address hying tourism.

 

[da man]

All I know is in Tennessee you can get a Dolly Parton license plate.

https://www.tn.gov/content/***/tn/revenue/images/licenseplates/large_images/dollywood.png

 

[Batman]

Back in my bachelor days the living room artwork in my apartment was license plates. I had close to 100 of them from 40-plus states lining the walls. Always wanted to get all 50 in the collage somewhere, but there were a handful that were damn hard to find. They looked really cool up there. Lots of color, a reflective coating you don't realize is there until you see it at the right angle ... some of those were real works of art. It was definitely something people always seemed to be in awe of when they walked in the front door.
I traded for a few, got some from friends, bought some and scoured junkyards for others. I took a few road trips in that era where I made a point to get off the interstate and find a junkyard so I could scavenge a plate or two. Like all collecting, the search was a lot of the fun. It helped that they were pretty cheap. I don't think I ever paid more than about $15 for any of them, and most were $5 or less.

I think my favorite was also one of my first — a New Mexico plate I picked up for a few bucks at a tchotchke shop in Fort Sumner, where the grave of Billy the Kid is located (literally; the souvenir shop is in front, and you pay them for a ticket to see the grave out back). Always loved the striking bright yellow and red because it was so unique, and I always wanted one. It was a great souvenir of one of the best vacations I ever took.

 

[swingline]

Most standard plates have become pretty uniform among the states, so much that they all suck.

I like the Colorado plates with the mountains, and I was always partial to the blue and yellow California plates.

 

[Tighthead]

I think the Vermont plates are unchanged for 30 plus years and still look great.

Best license plate song?

 

[Flip Wilson]

Before we had kids, I was working on getting a plate from every state from the years my wife and I were born. Had to halt the collecting to pay for diapers and formula and stuff. Now that kids are almost out of the house, I need to take inventory and continue the hunt.

My daughter has gone through my collection and has a few plates on her bedroom wall, including one from the Northwest Territories, which is my all-time favorite plate.

 

[justgladtobehere]

People should have to explain their vanity plates. I cannot stand being behind a car with "DABER"and not knowing what it means.

 

[John]

I've had the Georgia Appalachian Trail plate for several years.

 

[MileHigh]

Colorado has 218 specialty plates. The most popular one is the Columbine “Respect Life” design that was released in 2001 and honors the 13 lives lost during the shooting at Columbine High School.

The state recently added "blackout" plate that is very popular but I don't really care for them.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Colorado has 218 specialty plates. The most popular one is the Columbine “Respect Life” design that was released in 2001 and honors the 13 lives lost during the shooting at Columbine High School.

View attachment 17447

The state recently added "blackout" plate that is very popular but I don't really care for them.

Yeah, it's getting harder to immediately identify the "Greenies" invading Wyoming every weekend!

 

[justgladtobehere]

Colorado has 218 specialty plates. The most popular one is the Columbine “Respect Life” design that was released in 2001 and honors the 13 lives lost during the shooting at Columbine High School.

View attachment 17447

The state recently added "blackout" plate that is very popular but I don't really care for them.

The specialty plates seem like a hole states shouldn't go down.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

Shoreline, a lighthouse, wetlands. Yes, CT's license plates are as boring as the state.

 

[Regan MacNeil]

I still want to try a slice in New Haven.

 

[qtlaw]

I'm just thankful in CA we get reissues of the classic oldie from my youth (I've got a couple of personalized with Say Hey's Number too)

 

[MisterCreosote]

I hate Pennsylvania's and California's since they dumped "Keystone State" and "The Golden State" for the friend in Pennsylvania nonsense and a California DMV website ad.

The “You’ve Got a Friend in Pennsylvania” thing ended when I was a kid in the ‘80s. PA’s plates are as milquetoast as anyone’s these days.

New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” plates are the gold standard, if you ask me.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

There are 102 different specialty plate options in Arizona.

I'm thinking of grabbing a Coyotes plate while I can.

 

[micropolitan guy]

I'm just thankful in CA we get reissues of the classic oldie from my youth (I've got a couple of personalized with Say Hey's Number too)

Oregon has its specialty "Pacific Wonderland" plates, plain gold/yellow on blue. They should be the standard plate. But you can't get a vanity plate; the lady told me "that wasn't available in 1968 so we can't do it." Hmm. Had I bought one, it would not have been at 1968 prices.

Virginia has some gold specialty plate with "Don't tread on me" on it. I call them Trumper plates.

 

[Spartan Squad]

When I was a kid, we used to play hit each other got out of town plates. You could spot Oregon, Washington and Arizona miles away. We eventually had to ban the immediate border states and Washington because they were so ubiquitous in California.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

North Carolina has had the same "First in Flight" design since at least 1988. Wired then, tired now.

 

[Neutral Corner]

People should have to explain their vanity plates. I cannot stand being behind a car with "DABER"and not knowing what it means.

Back in the '80s I'd see a guy fairly regularly in rush hour traffic on I-10 in Houston. He had a vanity tag that read "SWMMS". Bugged the hell out of me. I was behind him one day and got close and he had added a custom frame around his tag. It read "Skinny Women Make Me Sweat".