Number plates (Tags)

[Colly0410]

Been on hols in Florida last two weeks number plate (tag) spotting. I'm fascinated with the different coloured plates you have in America: The local Florida plates were mostly green letters/figures on on a white background, although there were a few other colours. there were a lot of out of state & Canadian plates of every colour of the rainbow & just about every letter/figure combination you could think of, my wife & I would be walking along & say "oh look, a Michigan/New York/Ontario/Georgia etc plate!" Think the locals thought we were mad, lol..

Here in England our plates are boring by comparison: all the same colour = black letters/numbers on white background at the front, & yellow background at the back. Vehicles registered over 40 years ago can have optional white or silver letters/numbers on a black background both front & back..

You see a few Irish Republic & European vehicles on English roads, their plates are mostly black on white or yellow, Belgian plates are red on white..

[MadMan]

I believe the Florida ones actually have an orange in the background. Illinois is a bluish white with a picture of Abe Lincoln in the back, along with a silhouette of the Chicago skyline and the state capitol building.

Yeah making plates look fancy does seem to be a mostly American thing. I suppose it's a result of state pride. Though there are some boring ones. Michigan and Ohio come to mind. But I suppose even those are more visually interesting than euro plates. And then you got vanity plates, which usually refers to having a particular combo of characters for the number, but there are also different plates you can get. For example my mom's plates are white with our state bird, the cardinal, on the left.

http://www.plateshack.com/y2k/Illinois/ily2k.html

Hope you had a good time in the colonies :P

[Electronic M]

When I lived in Florida 12 years ago and when I visited in winter the plates were mostly white with green text.

Most states have 1-8 options besides the standard and vintage automobile plates. When I lived in Florida I remember there was a 911 plate that supported fighting terrorism, a plate that supported education etc...those have different colors/graphics. Here in Wisconsin they have green and gold Green Bay Packers plates, and education support plates available...our dealer plates are bare aluminum with black text.

Many Canadians that visit Florida are medical tourists...They can't get some medical care they need under their socialist medical system, and come here to get what they need.

[Sandy G]

You ALWAYS want what you can't have. Last couple cars I've had I've had ersatz British tags made up to put on the FRONT of my car-"CHG657S", which are my initials-Clarence Henry Geiger, June 1957, & S for Sandy, shithead, whatever... Tennessee used to have Kewl plates-They were a rough outline of the state, orange background w/white lettering, which are the University of Tennessee's school colors. Some people have restored plates like that on their collector cars. The State used to be cool w/that, you paid a one time fee, & kept the plates as long as you wanted. Then, some effin Nitwit decided they were losing too much revenue, & you can still have the antique plates, but you can ONLY use the car in a parade, car show, something like that. They catch you going to the store, general use of any kind, you get arrested, pay a hefty fine, go to jail, the whole 9 yards. And they instructed the cops to REALLY crack down on all the scofflaws who were depriving the state of all the boodle they SHOULD be getting were it not for all those awful miscreants abusing The LAW... Bureaucrats are generally IDIOTS w/NO sense of humor, or fair play...

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

You ALWAYS want what you can't have. Last couple cars I've had I've had ersatz British tags made up to put on the FRONT of my car-"CHG657S", which are my initials-Clarence Henry Geiger, June 1957, & S for Sandy, shithead, whatever... Tennessee used to have Kewl plates-They were a rough outline of the state, orange background w/white lettering, which are the University of Tennessee's school colors. Some people have restored plates like that on their collector cars. The State used to be cool w/that, you paid a one time fee, & kept the plates as long as you wanted. Then, some effin Nitwit decided they were losing too much revenue, & you can still have the antique plates, but you can ONLY use the car in a parade, car show, something like that. They catch you going to the store, general use of any kind, you get arrested, pay a hefty fine, go to jail, the whole 9 yards. And they instructed the cops to REALLY crack down on all the scofflaws who were depriving the state of all the boodle they SHOULD be getting were it not for all those awful miscreants abusing The LAW... Bureaucrats are generally IDIOTS w/NO sense of humor, or fair play...

I'm thinking of getting collector's plates for my 2000 Dodge Dakota pickup for the 20 renewal. It's my understanding that the vehicle could be driven just about all year, except one month (December)?
In Wisconsin, you have to display a plate on the front and rear on the vehicle, but the only plate that gets the month and renewal sticker is the rear plate.

[Colly0410]

There is a trade in used plates in England: You can transfer plates to another car (costs £80 AFAIK) as long as you don't make it appear newer than it is, plates issued since 1963/64 have a date of issue letter or number.... The 1'st plate to be issued was A1 in 1904, those early plates were 1 or 2 letters then up to 4 numbers, any 1 or 2 letter plate is very expensive in the plate market, the lower the numbers the more they cost, those that spell something go for a lot as well, E.G. RAD 10 (radio) owned by the BBC AFAIK. Rude or offensive spellings are banned but some sometimes slip through the net.

Nowadays the 1'st letter of a plate is an area of registration identifier: mine is F which is issued to the Nottingham & Lincoln offices, the 2'nd is E which is random, (FA to FP is the Nottingham office, FR to FY is the Lincoln office, Q,U & Z aren't used) then 17 which is the year of registration, then 3 random letters. When you sell your car the plates usually stay with it, although you can keep them & transfer it to your new car. (for a fee of course) A few years ago we bought my late Father-in-law an old style plate for for his 70'th birthday, it was L70 EAH, L was for his nick name, 70 for his birthday & EAH his initials, it cost £240 + £80 transfer fee, he transferred it onto 4 different cars he owned...

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Colly0410

Been on hols in Florida last two weeks number plate (tag) spotting. I'm fascinated with the different coloured plates you have in America: The local Florida plates were mostly green letters/figures on on a white background, although there were a few other colours. there were a lot of out of state & Canadian plates of every colour of the rainbow & just about every letter/figure combination you could think of, my wife & I would be walking along & say "oh look, a Michigan/New York/Ontario/Georgia etc plate!" Think the locals thought we were mad, lol..

Here in England our plates are boring by comparison: all the same colour = black letters/numbers on white background at the front, & yellow background at the back. Vehicles registered over 40 years ago can have optional white or silver letters/numbers on a black background both front & back..

You see a few Irish Republic & European vehicles on English roads, their plates are mostly black on white or yellow, Belgian plates are red on white..

I think you're the one that got me hooked on the website, "UK vintage radio repair and restoration." A really excellent website! A lot of really sharp technicians contribute information there.
BTW, are you the one that has the RCA CTC16E color set with the PAL conversion?
Dave, USradcoll1 on that site.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I'm thinking of getting collector's plates for my 2000 Dodge Dakota pickup for the 20 renewal. It's my understanding that the vehicle could be driven just about all year, except one month (December)?
In Wisconsin, you have to display a plate on the front and rear on the vehicle, but the only plate that gets the month and renewal sticker is the rear plate.

5 years ago when I got the Lincoln I was told that the IIRC 200 cost of the collector plates was justified by their not requiring renewal. I regret not doing it...with the IIRC 75 renewal fee I've already lost money on the standard plates I chose to save money then.

[old_tv_nut]

Illinois vanity plates require a yearly renewal at a higher rate than regular. So do Arizona vanity plates. There are a whole slew of special interest plates, especially in Illinois: everything from state University to supporting wildlife or prevention of domestic abuse. Illinois also issues special event plates that are legal for a set number of days. I have a set from a Route 66 Association tour some years back.

Regarding vanity plates, it took me a long time to decide on something until someone told me my 2003 Mercury Marauder was "retro." I settled on RTRO RKT (Illinois will print them with a space, but they are in the system without it), and later transferred the plates to my 2013 Mustang. When I moved to AZ, RTRORKT was taken, so I now have "ITSMYRV."

While Illinois requires front and back for all plates, AZ supplies only the back for regular plates, but both front and back for vanities. Avid car enthusiasts get their knickers in a bind about required front plates, and you can find detachable frames so the fronts can easily be removed for shows and reinstalled for street use. (Your state may frown on this, I don't know.)

[Dave A]

If you want to see madness, check out pricing on transferable Delaware black tag plates. The original single and two digit plates are $$$ beyond belief.

http://lowdigittags.com/29.html

[Sandy G]

When I got my '67 Lincoln Pervertable sedan in 1983, we worked on it for awhile, it was '84 B4 it was really roadworthy. I decided to get a Vanity Plate, I chose "67LNCLN" 'cause EVERYBODY wanted to know what it was. Our family company had also just been bought out by an outfit out of Framingham, Massachusetts. They were generally pretty decent guys, if maybe sometimes a tad slow on the uptake. I came out of the office one glorious spring day, & one of the F'ham boys was looking at my Lincoln, mumbling to himself. I walked up behind him, & he was saying to himself-Six-Seven L-N-C-L-N.... HMMM... Six Seven L-N-C-L-N.... I hollered out to him, "Sixty-Seven Lincoln, Gerald....." And THEN, it was like throwing a Light Switch on... And people think us HILLBILLIES are Dumn....

[Colly0410]

Here you can buy Northern Irish plates which don't have a year identifier on them, they are usually cheaper than pre 1963 English no year identifier plates, they are 3 letters with an I or Z in them & up to 4 numbers, lots of buses & taxis have them to hide their age. Thinking of buying one myself, seen IIG 2748 for sale at 99 pounds, (about $125) doesn't mean anything but will look unusual as the IIG will look like 11G. A man down the road (in the posh houses) has HAN 50N, you can guess what his name is, my old boss has 11 FR & his name is Frank Randal, in the nearby village of Linby someone has the plate L1 NBY, these plates are worth many many thousands of pounds...

[Sandy G]

The richest Junk Dealer in town-He made his fortune buying industrial scrap, & selling it VERY high had Tn vanity plates on the back of his V-12 BMW that said "RCHPHKR", which I thought was kinda tacky & was surprised the state let 'em go thru.... He had several class-3 rifles, & always wanted me to come shooting w/him, but I never did. He was just a tad too "Oily" for even me..

[old_tv_nut]

Illinois (like all states) bans inappropriate vanity plates, but some slip through, as the department employees are not necessarily up on all slang terms. In AZ, the vanity plate application form asks for an explanation of exactly what it means.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I'm thinking of getting collector's plates for my 2000 Dodge Dakota pickup for the 20 renewal. It's my understanding that the vehicle could be driven just about all year, except one month (December)?
In Wisconsin, you have to display a plate on the front and rear on the vehicle, but the only plate that gets the month and renewal sticker is the rear plate.

The Wisconsin collector plates on my 1967 Dodge are good forever, and the month they aren't valid is January. However, you can get a temporary permit for $5 to use the vehicle in January to allow for people to relocate the vehicle. https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/formdocs/mv2750.pdf

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