Best and Worst U.S. License Plates

[froggie]

I noticed a few people put Minnesota on their "top five" lists.  Is this taking into account that the newer Minnesota plates are no longer embossed?

Also noticed that Alex put Virginia on his "bottom five" list.  I'm assuming you're referring to the standard plate and not in more general terms, since Virginia has numerous other plate designs available...the one I use is the Scenic (Mountains to Seashore) one.

Agree with Bickenden that it's almost impossible to tell the standard California and Louisiana plates apart.

One that hasn't been mentioned yet that I like is the new Mississippi plate with the purple background and the Biloxi Lighthouse in the center.  Alex's image of it just doesn't do the purple hues justice...

[Alex]

I noticed a few people put Minnesota on their "top five" lists.  Is this taking into account that the newer Minnesota plates are no longer embossed?

Also noticed that Alex put Virginia on his "bottom five" list.  I'm assuming you're referring to the standard plate and not in more general terms, since Virginia has numerous other plate designs available...the one I use is the Scenic (Mountains to Seashore) one.

I based that on the general issue. I like a lot of the specialty designs for Virginia, including the Friends of Chesapeake and Scenic Mountains designs.

Agree with Bickenden that it's almost impossible to tell the standard California and Louisiana plates apart.

The Pelican design changed all of that for Louisiana.

One that hasn't been mentioned yet that I like is the new Mississippi plate with the purple background and the Biloxi Lighthouse in the center.  Alex's image of it just doesn't do the purple hues justice...

Images on that page that were not donated to me or done in 1999 were taken outdoors with a digital camera. Probably not the best way to do it, but effective time and effort wise. The colors on the MS tag are rich, and I do like that design, but most of their previous designs were appealing to me as well.

[realjd]

I forgot to mention what's currently my favorite design: the new South Carolina plates.

[papaT10932]

I forgot to mention what's currently my favorite design: the new South Carolina plates.

I also like that plate except for that silly URL address. Even the URL itself if lame. Travel2SC??  No, no.
How much better would that plate be if it said "Palmetto State" on it instead??

[agentsteel53]

why don't states just get simple URLs?  South Carolina can be www.sc.gov or something - beats trying to remember if Florida wanted you to VisitFlorida, Travel2Fla, PooOnFLfromaGreatHeight, etc etc...

[Stojko]

My favorite plates:

-California (it's simple, I like it)
-New York (great design)
-Colorado
-Utah

Worst:

-Delaware (ugh)
-Washington DC (ugh x2)
-Ohio
-North Carolina

[TheStranger]

Though it's been years since this was the standard design, I miss the 1980s California plate:

https://www.aaroads.com/license_plates/images/ca-2flt842.jpg

[Bickendan]

I noticed a few people put Minnesota on their "top five" lists.  Is this taking into account that the newer Minnesota plates are no longer embossed?

That was the sound of thousands of roadgeeks everywhere suddenly being silenced.

Agree with Bickenden that it's almost impossible to tell the standard California and Louisiana plates apart.

The Pelican design changed all of that for Louisiana.[/quote]All is well... save for the fact that many cars in LA will still have that design. Locational pun fully intended.

[mightyace]

One of my favorite is the BicenTENNial plate that was issued here when I arrived in the state:


The "sounds good to me" plate is that replace it was OK.


I like the current one, it bears a passing resemblence to the Radnor Lake specialty plate:


This Ohio design was simple yet effective:
- very easy to read

The current plate and the bicentennial plate are prettier but a but busy.



I was also partial to the traditional PA plate design:

and its Liberty Bell cousin:


All plate images courtesy of AARoads.

[SP Cook]

North Carolina switched back to all blue.

All of the "its hard to read" stuff aside, the blue vs. red deal is a p***ing contest between alumni of the University of North Carolina and those of North Carolina State University.

[CL]

New Mexico plates are probably my favorite followed by the newer Utah arches plates (though its "Life Elevated" counterpart is ridiculously cluttered).

[Riverside Frwy]

California's plates are REALLY BORING.Nothing special, just a plain white plate that says California on the top.

We are the "Golden" state for crying out loud.We could have some awesome plates with a Golden theme.

[Mr_Northside]

I liked how Ohio had the county name as well.  (Obviously other states do/did as well, but Ohio's are more prevalent here in Western PA.)

[shoptb1]

I liked how Ohio had the county name as well.  (Obviously other states do/did as well, but Ohio's are more prevalent here in Western PA.)

Yeah, that was on the older yellow-fade plates (which IMO were better looking than the current). I really appreciate having the county name on the plates.  You can still tell where someone is from on the current plates based upon the county number on the registration sticker, but unless you have Superman's vision, you can't see on the highway.

[Scott5114]

I like the way Kansas has the little two-letter county codes on their plate. (WY=Wyandotte, JO=Johnson, SG=Sedgwick, SU=Sumner, etc)

[tdindy88]

Indiana used to have a cool number system, well actually they still do in a way, by having a one or two digit number represent the county (Similar to South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana I believe). It was always a fun game my dad and I played trying to figure out what county a particular vehicle was from. When they went to the new plate design last year they took the fun out of that game by putting a sticker up that had both the number and the county name up there, now they just tell you the county a car is from, you don't have to guess the code. At least the ever popular "In God We Trust" plates along with the other specialty plates still have stickers at the corner with only the number on them so you can still guess those plates. And for those who rank Indiana's plate at the bottom of their lists, I have to agree with those assesments, we've had some nice plates in the past, but the current ones have no character to them at all, and the list of plates we got to choose from to pick the plate all have roughly the same design, only different colors. That's why many people have the "In God We Trust" plates, it looks prettier.

[Alex]

Indiana used to have a cool number system, well actually they still do in a way, by having a one or two digit number represent the county (Similar to South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana I believe). It was always a fun game my dad and I played trying to figure out what county a particular vehicle was from. When they went to the new plate design last year they took the fun out of that game by putting a sticker up that had both the number and the county name up there, now they just tell you the county a car is from, you don't have to guess the code. At least the ever popular "In God We Trust" plates along with the other specialty plates still have stickers at the corner with only the number on them so you can still guess those plates. And for those who rank Indiana's plate at the bottom of their lists, I have to agree with those assesments, we've had some nice plates in the past, but the current ones have no character to them at all, and the list of plates we got to choose from to pick the plate all have roughly the same design, only different colors. That's why many people have the "In God We Trust" plates, it looks prettier.

Indiana had some nice designs before, one of my favorites was this one:



Alabama still uses a county code on their tags. 1 is Jefferson, 2 is Mobile, 3 is Montgomery, 4 and up are based upon the alphabetical order of the county name, with 1-3 based upon population.

[rawmustard]

Indiana used to have a cool number system, well actually they still do in a way, by having a one or two digit number represent the county (Similar to South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana I believe).

They're merely numbered in alphabetical order from what I recall (so 1 would be Adams up through 92 for Whitley), although the BMV's website doesn't explicitly say so. I know the county numbers show up in other places (e.g., INDOT's reference post manuals), so it would seem to follow the BMV uses the same system.

[shoptb1]

They're merely numbered in alphabetical order from what I recall (so 1 would be Adams up through 92 for Whitley), although the BMV's website doesn't explicitly say so. I know the county numbers show up in other places (e.g., INDOT's reference post manuals), so it would seem to follow the BMV uses the same system.

I still prefer the name of the county spelled out at the bottom of the plate, for those of us that haven't yet memorized the numerical value of the state's counties in alphabetical order.  I think Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia still provide this information on their plates.  It's nice to see Shelby County and know that the driver is from the Memphis area. 

[architect77]

[shoptb1]

So does Delaware rank up there because of it's unique size?

[agentsteel53]

The state has kick-ass highway signage

nah, NC's signage is pretty boring.  The plate isn't bad, though.

[architect77]

I love Delaware's smaller size, and the uncluttered white lettering on plain black looks quite good on the road...

[Bickendan]

As much as I love Oregon's standard design, for simplicity, I like the older yellow plates with blue text (and before that, reverse it).

And, in my room, I have a vintage white Washington plate with green text.

[UptownRoadGeek]

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