Best and Worst U.S. License Plates

[froggie]

Actually just the number 2 = Mobile County.

Just the number 2 doesn't apply, as you also have Colbert, Dallas, and other counties in the C and D range that also start with 2.  Hence why you need to look at the second character.  A letter (such as "A" in the previous example) would mean Mobile County.  A number means a different county.

[jdb1234]

Actually just the number 2 = Mobile County.

Just the number 2 doesn't apply, as you also have Colbert, Dallas, and other counties in the C and D range that also start with 2.  Hence why you need to look at the second character.  A letter (such as "A" in the previous example) would mean Mobile County.  A number means a different county.

I probably should have said the number 2 followed by a letter = Mobile County.

[sandiaman]

New  Mexico  has just issued a  new Centennial plate, turquoise  background  with  yellow letters and a red Zia  symbol.  It s a nice  change from those  drab  red and grey balloon  plates, that always  looked dirty to me.  My  favorite  plates now  are:  Mississippi,  South Carolina,  and  Oklahoma.  Nebraska  has  a  butt ugly  plate now, as well as Pennsylvania and  Missouri is  too hard to read " the Show Me  State".  You  need a magnifying glass for that.  No  more   URL PLEASE!

[CL]

The standard New Mexico yellow plate with red lettering was always a bit "dirty" to me as well... but what about the New Mexico plate with the hot air balloon and the fading background? I've always been fond for those. Were those special issue or what?

[signalman]

No, it wasn't an optional graphic.  When registering a vehicle you had a choice between red on yellow or the hot air balloon.

[nerdly_dood]

IMO, the easier a plate is to read, the better design. It's not a matter of using the plate as artwork, but how easy they are to read - that's the typical European view on it, which is why their plates are wider, allowing the text to be more legible. Virginia's older design with a sans-serif fonts and 6 characters (ABC-123) was better than the current one because IMO, sans-serif fonts are easier to read, and fewer characters mean that the text can be bigger. (Current standard setup is ABC-1234 with a serif font, blue text on white background)

[Android]

Best:
1. Wyoming (I especially like the new plates without the Devil's Tower)

I liked both of them, actually. 

But what I didn't like was when Wyoming switched to the flat, non-embossed plates.  I liked the old stamped numbers much better.  The typeface used since then, just don't care for it.  Before it was more like the similar-to-Highway Gothic numbers that many states used to have. 

I thought I'd mention that now, in Wyoming, you can pay the state 50 dollars and get your plates re-issued in embossed.   They contracted with the state of Colorado to stamp them out.   I've had personalized plates on one of my VWs, and was lucky to get my first one just before they shut the prison down that made the old stamped plates.  Last year I had to switch to the new style flat plates but my new embossed ones just came in.  I was hoping they'd use a more traditional typeface for the numbers, but nope, same as the flat plates.   

The background image on the plates though, I thought it was interesting that it extends all the way across the plate on the embossed plates.  The printed plates have it with a white border.  Here's a comparison, old-stamped, new-flat and new-stamped, plus a comparison of the emobssing as seen from behind:

-Andy

[corco]

I do have to say that as far as direct print plates go, I think Wyoming is one of the only states to have made a reasonably attractive license plate. I find the flat plates to look pretty good, actually- even better then a lot of states embossed plates. I still prefer the embossed Wyoming plates, but Wyoming gets an A+ for their direct print efforts.

Compare Wyoming's to, say, Idaho's where a perfectly good plate now looks like total crap just because of the direct printing.

Also, how did you get a Converse XX11 plate? Albany and Laramie counties are going straight numeric with the new plates, and I thought that was the case with the rest of the state. That's a normal numbering for the Devil's Tower plate, but I've never seen that numbering scheme on the new plates.

Duh- I'm wrong on two counts- the old scheme was 11XX, and the plate is a custom one for your 62 Volkswagen

[Android]

I'm wrong on two counts- the old scheme was 11XX, and the plate is a custom one for your 62 Volkswagen

   Yep, you got it, personalized plate for my 62 Bug.   My other two cars have the normal all-number plates. 

Actually I messed up last year when I went in for the new plates on one of my cars, the number they gave me was less than three hundred below my exisiting old-plate number, I probably could have talked them into digging up that plate.   

[allniter89]

WOW, very cool car!! More pictures??
Very nice shot too!! Looks like "her" sitting on a rise, longing to go for a  ROAD TRIP!!!!

[Android]

WOW, very cool car!! More pictures??
Very nice shot too!! Looks like "her" sitting on a rise, longing to go for a  ROAD TRIP!!!!

Thank you! - I've have taken hundreds of photos of that car over the years. I've restored that car twice in 21 years now, and have about 300K on it, many road trips!  I chose that particular photo since it showed the license plate clearly on the car.   Since this is sort of off-topic so I'll just keep them as links instead of making them display images, but I have these other pics available:

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/169034.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/343704.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/WhiteyFSTtrip1.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/Whitey-LIghtning-RMNP2009A.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/WhiteyMoon2.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/ANWRefugeOverlook3.JPG
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/WhiteyUtahShadow.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/cameronpassHalfsummer.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/VW09/WhiteyCoast.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/WhiteySunrise2.jpg

[shoptb1]

Thank you! - I've have taken hundreds of photos of that car over the years. I've restored that car twice in 21 years now, and have about 300K on it, many road trips!  I chose that particular photo since it showed the license plate clearly on the car.   Since this is sort of off-topic so I'll just keep them as links instead of making them display images, but I have these other pics available:

Beautiful restoration, and awesome pictures!  It's such a treat to see the old Beetles in great shape...especially one with the fold-back sunroof

[allniter89]

WOW, very cool car!! More pictures??
Very nice shot too!! Looks like "her" sitting on a rise, longing to go for a  ROAD TRIP!!!!

Thank you! - I've have taken hundreds of photos of that car over the years. I've restored that car twice in 21 years now, and have about 300K on it, many road trips!  I chose that particular photo since it showed the license plate clearly on the car.   Since this is sort of off-topic so I'll just keep them as links instead of making them display images, but I have these other pics available:

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/169034.jpg
http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/343704.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/WhiteyFSTtrip1.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/Whitey-LIghtning-RMNP2009A.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/WhiteyMoon2.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/ANWRefugeOverlook3.JPG
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/WhiteyUtahShadow.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/cameronpassHalfsummer.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/VW09/WhiteyCoast.jpg
http://members.trainorders.com/android/vw2/WhiteySunrise2.jpg

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing!

[TheArguer]

Top 5:
Wyoming
Arizona (Until they stopped embossing their plates a couple years ago)
Mississippi (Their newer one is actually pretty nice)
South Carolina/Nevada (TIE)

Bottom 5:
Delaware
California
Michigan
Virginia
Wisconsin

[agentsteel53]

the other day I saw the new blue New Mexico centennial plate.  I like it a lot.  Especially since it'll be a commemorative, and the regular yellow issue will be retained - a mix of yellow and blue plates will be good to look at on the road, methinks.

[roadfro]

Top 5:
...
South Carolina/Nevada (TIE)

Are you referring to the current standard issue Nevada plate, the "Sunset" design?

I was not a fan of this design when it was introduced. I much prefer the "Bighorn Sheep", the previous standard plate issued from 1983-2000. (Note that on actual plates, all text was blue instead of the reddish color seen here.) I felt the older design was much more representative of the state, including symbols such as the state animal (bighorn sheep) and plant (sagebrush). The sunset design is very cartoony and plain.

[corco]

I saw several of the new Montana "Treasure State" plates in the wild today. They look absolutely awful. That design does not work with direct print- it just looks really cheap. Montana is now in my bottom five, without question.

[jwolfer]

The new Ohio plate is butt ugly in my opinion.  Not only does it not incorporate the Red, White, and Blue colors from the distinctive Ohio burgee-shaped flag, but it's nearly impossible to determine that it's actually FROM Ohio on the road.  PLATE FAIL!

To mee it always seems like Ohio is in competion with NC on the first flight.  Give it up, yeah the Wright Brothers were from OH but they flew in NC

[Brandon]

To mee it always seems like Ohio is in competion with NC on the first flight.  Give it up, yeah the Wright Brothers were from OH but they flew in NC

They could've flown anywhere.

[Bickendan]

Oregon's released an old retro-style Pacific Wonderland plate -- yellow text on dark blue.

[jwolfer]

Counties:

- Leaving out the desire of motorists to simply announce the counties they are from, counties on plates, be they spelled out, in the number system or Ohio's idiot stickers; exist for law enforcement or tax enforcement issues.  Many police will tell you that a car geographically out of place is "suspect".  And in many states the tax structure between counties is such that there is an incentive to "move" to a more rural place (or a similar incentive to avoid the EPA and their emission tests).  County names help with enforcement of this.

- I have never understood Florida, where apparently you have a choice of either the county name or "Sunshine State".

- Kentucky, which puts its counties on the plates, has an Ohio County, so a plate will read " KENTUCKY / ### ### / OHIO ".  Easy to figure out today, but a few years ago both names were embossed and the plate was a generic two color.

In the 1990s the old folks in South Florida were all in an uproar becase the word in Boca was that is you went to Miami with non-Dade County tags you were targeted by criminals.  So you now get to choose County name or Sunshine State, I dont like it.  Damn old people from New York. 

But for the girl who moves from rural panhandle to Orlando she doesnt need to show her redneck roots.

When I was real little... pre 1975. Florida had a number system for counties based on population in 1937.  Dade was 1, Duval was 2,  Alachua was 11, Clay was 48.  you can find a complete list online somwhere.  if you get a traffic ticket the police still use the code number.  I wish Florida would at least go the way of OH with a number sticker on the tag, just so I or other roadgeeks types could know. 

[Ian]

Here is my list...

Best 5:
-New Hampshire
-New York (the older style with the city skyline and Niagara Falls, not the new yellow one)
-Maine
-Northwest Terriroties (it's shaped like a bear, come on!)
-Texas (the old style with the space shuttle and stars)

Worst 5:
-Massachusetts
-Pennsylvania
-Delaware
-New York (the new yellow style)
-Connecticut

[Andrew T.]

In my opinion, the perfect license plate design should be:
* Distinctive, with colors not likely to be confused with those of other states.
* Iconic, with a simple but effective graphic statement.
* Legible, with an easy-to-read serial format.
* Embossed.

Colorado, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, British Columbia, and Manitoba are amongst my favorite current designs.  (I actually like the colors of the new Ohio plate, although I would make tweaks to the lettering and graphic composition before fully embracing it.)

Least favorite?  Kansas, Maryland (The "War of 1812" plate looks like a bad 1976 leftover), Massachusetts, Michigan, Washington, and "Myflorida.com."  Not to mention all the places that issue flat plates with the "Generic Ugly 3M Serial Font;" which I rank among the worst of the worst (D.C., Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Texas, Wyoming).

[Quillz]

I hate California's, it's just so plain and generic. The older gold on yellow version was better because it was just as generic but at least had some color to it. The best CA license plate ever was the short-lived "sunset" one, which I think dates to either the 1970s or 80s.

[Duke87]

I don't know why everyone complains about New York's new plates. The color combination is just fine, and I like how they're simple and free of clutter. Where exactly is the sense in cramming the plate full of all sorts of artwork that's too small to be made out by other motorists? I was never really a fan of the previous design, although the statue of liberty design from the 80's and 90's was nice.

To this end, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont also have nice plates.
New Jersey has the right idea by keeping it simple, but they have got to change their color scheme. As it stands, they look like piss stains.