What's your state license plate look like?

[Gracie]

I saw a very nice Iowa license plate today and it dawned on me that I don't think I'd ever seen one before! it got me curious as to what other states' license plates look like.

We are a bit weird about license plates here in MA - the low or single numbers with or without one or 2 letters denote that you are SOMEBODY. Every year the Registry of Motor Vehicles puts up available low numbers for raffle so I guess those with low numbers are not always SOMEBODIES anymore! I have entered the raffle every year but have never won yet. :rolleyes:

Our most prevalent plates are white with red numbers and letters. Old plates are white with green numbers and letters - there are fewer of them on the roads these days. But no scenic pictures, animals, or clever sayings/mottos. Very boring.

Available special plates are Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, Teachers, Right Whales, Cape Cod and the Islands, and I'm sure I'm missing a few.

What does your state's license plates look like?

Loren

[Robyn1007]

We have more than 25 options! :eek: The one I have is a white depiction of the Rockies against a green background. Many of the specialty plates (Pioneers which are people who's family can be traced back in the state more than 100 years for which I qualify, breast cancer, CU, veterans, respect life etc) are all based on the same depiction of the rockies but use different background colors and different symbols in the center. There are a few other options but those are the most common.

[lindrusso]

I'm a visual person, so I need images. ;)

Here's PAs plate - pretty plain.

http://static.flickr.com/103/278250738_e135fc62bb_m.jpg

Here's a site that has plates from all over the world......

http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/

[Robyn1007]

Adding pictures:

http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/images/plates/passenger.gif

http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/images/plates/pioneer.gif

http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/images/plates/breastcancer.jpg

[funnybone]

The standard Illinois plates have 7 digit numbers so it looks like everyone is displaying a phone number.

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/images/licenseplates/passenger.gif


Here's a collage of other plates available:
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/images/license_plates.jpg

[Gracie]

Robyn - I'm so glad the mountains haven't gone away on your plates! When I lived in Boulder during high school a hundred years ago, there was talk about getting rid of the mountains and having plain plates.

I like the different colors for different causes with the same template background!

Loren

[LaraW]

Adding pictures:

http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/images/plates/passenger.gif

http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/images/plates/pioneer.gif

http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/images/plates/breastcancer.jpg

You can tell older CO license plates b/c the green and white are reversed (the first picture above).

I used to live in IA and had several renditions of license plates. The current ones have a farm scene up close and a city scene in the "background". Older ones were just blue with white lettering, and of course you can get specialty ones, such as for Univ of IA, Iowa State, UNI, Dept of Natural Resources, etc.

http://www.dot.state.ia.us/mvd/ovs/plates/sample.gif

[boisewinesnob]

Robyn, we moved recently from Idaho to Washington and I swear Idaho probably had 25 plates to choose from as well! I don't think WA has nearly as many, but I'll look into it.
I know when we first moved to Idaho six years ago the standard issue plate was red, white and blue with the phrase "famous potatoes" on it :rolleyes: . We were not putting that on our cars as we thought it was so hick-ish. The plates we did choose were cool, though.


ETA: Idaho has 30!!! http://itd.idaho.gov/dmv/vehicleservices/plates.pdf actually there are more than 30 because there are ten extra kinds for the different colleges.
Also, WA has quite a few too! I have not seen most of these on anybody's car: http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/specialdesign.html

[LakeMartinGal]

Alabama has lots of plates to choose from, but the standard plate is white with red letters/numbers, and a blue field at the top with white stars, inscribed "Stars Fell on Alabama," referring to a meteor shower. We are proud to have the white plate with red letters/numbers, and a red firefighter on the left, since DH is a firefighter, and I am a first responder.

[GingerPow]

This the design on my license plate:http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f60/MurphChessLinus/license_shore.gif
But when I tell people I live in NJ, they assume I have one of these:
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f60/MurphChessLinus/licensesoprano.jpg :D Fuget 'bout it!

[FruitsAlive]

http://www.calpl8s.com/pl8s/calpl8s_l.jpg

There are lots here, too, but the above is the generic one. Check out www.calpl8s.com if you want to see more. They're too expensive for me. :o

[Judy K.]

New Mexico has quite a few specialty plates, but these are the standard plates. The yellow one is the older of the two.

http://www.state.nm.us/tax/mvd/newlic.jpg

http://www.state.nm.us/tax/pubs/standard.gif

Albuquerque hosts an international balloon festival each fall, so that is the reason the state adopted a balloon plate.

[AndreaU]

http://www.nysdmv.com/images/myplate.gif

[DeeK]

I have the older style Florida plate like this one:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d109/Debra14/pl8man2.jpg

Mine has my county at the bottom.

The new ones just say Sunshine State and have a better graphic for the orange in the middle.

[aggie94]

This is the standard Arizona plate:

http://www.azplates.com/Aaa.jpg

Mine is personalized with "AGGIE94." :D

[jimjimmerjim]

BOISEWINESNOB:

we moved recently from Idaho to Washington

So what are you now? Spokanewinesnob? Walla Walla Walla Wallawinesnob?
Seattlewinesnob? Greenacreswinesnob? Mossyrockwinesnob?

I love some of the town names in WA. A suburb of Spokane is actually named Greenacres.

Pancakes anyone?


Amazing what you can find on the internet. I went into google and typed in Washington state license plates, and of course, all kinds of things came up.

One is a site where somebody actually collects old license plates, and here is a link to world license plates.

http://www.worldlicenceplates.com/usa/US_WAXX.html (http://)

I just have the plain WA plates with Mt. Rainier. There are several other options, but the Rainier plates seem to be the most popular.

[pschambers]

Here is Indiana

http://www.worldlicenceplates.com/jpglps/USA_IN_GI9_2000's-today.jpg

We also have schools, nurse, environmental, cultural, etc...

Patti

[Terri_A]

Here's the standard Texas license plate....but there are a TON of specialty plates as well.

http://www.dot.state.tx.us/services/vehicle_titles_and_registration/specialty_plates/images/texas_plate.jpg

[Gecko]

Here is a sample of Hawaii's plates.

http://www4.honolulu.gov/specialplates/images/plate.jpg

There might be specialy plates but I am not aware of them. I do have a vanity plate for the first time in my life - ironm8 :o

[Canice]

Like most states, we have a bunch of specialty or vanity options, but the standard has always bugged me: it's 95% boring and 5% of a look that suggests Southern California but has nothing to do with Northern California. The style has changed often over my lifetime, but none has been nice.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid217/pc1a6841a4202157b6c54bfbc63356b8e/ec5dda9a.jpg

The oddest car in my neighborhood is a yellow VW "Thing" with the pretty "Stars Fell on Alabama" plates. Even if we can't have nice plates here, it would be good if we had some that didn't look like they were made at, well, San Quentin. (Are CA plates still made by prisoners?) Seeing how nice other states' plate are really makes me wonder why ours have to be so ugly.
Oh, and back to Alabama: The plates recognize meteor showers? I thought they were tagged for that lovely song -- or are they one in the same?

Stars Fell on Alabama

Written by: Frank Perkins
Written by: Mitchell Parish
Arranged by: Nelson Riddle

From the Album: A Swingin' Affair (1957)
The Capitol Years, Disc 2

Label: Capitol Records
Recorded: November 15, 1956

-----------------------------------------------------

We lived our little drama
We kissed in a field of white
'n' stars fell on Alabama last night

I can't forget the glamour
Your eyes held a tender light
While stars fell on Alabama last night

I never planned in my imagination a situation so heavenly
A fairy land where no one else could enter
And in the center, just you and me
My heart beat like a hammer
My arms wound around you tight
And stars fell on Alabama last night

We lived our drama
We kissed in a field of white
And stars fell on Alabama last night

I can't forget the glamour
Your eyes held a tender light
And stars fractured 'bama last night

I never planned in my imagination a situation so heavenly
A fairy land where no one else could enter
And in the center, just you and me

My heart beat just like a hammer
Arms wound around you tight
While stars fell on Alabama last night..

[blrn1]

And here in Ohio, I think I counted 66 specialty plates. There was one for any hobby/interest/club you could think of, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, all the Ohio sports teams, all the Ohio colleges....I didn't look at them, but all of the Ohio plates I've seen have a white background with a red stripe across the top and blue across the bottom.

And that didn't even include the most distinctive "specialty" plate of them all: the bright yellow with red letters plate that repeat offender DUI drivers get. Ohio just started doing this a couple of years ago -- I wonder if other states do something similar?

[boisewinesnob]

BOISEWINESNOB:



So what are you now? Spokanewinesnob? Walla Walla Walla Wallawinesnob?
Seattlewinesnob? Greenacreswinesnob? Mossyrockwinesnob?

I love some of the town names in WA. A suburb of Spokane is actually named Greenacres.



I am now meadwinesnob, but I ain't changin' my screen name any time soon! :p
jimjimmerjim, I never knew there was someone here so close! You have so few posts I must not have run across any....sorry about that. :)
BTW, I did live in Greenacres from the age of about 5 until I was 9. Then lived closer in to town. I haven't lived in Spokane in nearly 20 years and now we moved back; still deciding whether that was a smart move ;)

[LakeMartinGal]

Oh, and back to Alabama: The plates recognize meteor showers? I thought they were tagged for that lovely song -- or are they one in the same?I'm told that the song is based on the one spectacular meteor shower... This is from wikipedia...

"Stars Fell on Alabama" is the title of a 1934 jazz standard composed by Frank Perkins with lyrics by Mitchell Parish.

It is also the title of a 1934 book by Carl Carmer in which he recounts the time he spent traveling through Alabama in the late 1920s as a professor at the University of Alabama.

The titles of both works refer to a spectacular occurrence of the Leonid meteor shower that was observed in Alabama on November 12-13, 1833. As reported by the Florence Gazette: "[There were] thousands of luminous bodies shooting across the firmament in every direction. There was little wind and not a trace of clouds, and the meteors succeeded each other in quick succession."

The song was later performed by Ella Fitzgerald together with Louis Armstrong.

[ClaraB]

North Dakota's license plate looks like this (most of you have probably never seen one before :p ):

http://www.dot.nd.gov/images/NDLIC_PLATE.jpg

There are all kinds of plate variations here - Lewis and Clark, National Guard, Firefighters' association, even POW plates.

[Meganator]

This is the standard Arizona plate:

http://www.azplates.com/Aaa.jpg

Mine is personalized with "AGGIE94." :D


Easier to get in Arizona than in Texas, I bet! :)

[Gracie]

I am amazed at how many variations your states have!! The worldlicenseplate website posted above doesn't show all the Massachusetts varieties but I don't think we have more than 10 and I can't find any images on our RMV site.

Our professional sports are represented except for the Celtics but certainly not the colleges as Ohio does. We have so many colleges I think it would be fun - I'd love to see Harvard, MIT, BU, etc plates.

Loren

[Robyn1007]

When I lived in Virginia I remembered tons of specialty plates, including out of state colleges. I looked at their website just for giggles and they list 180 specialty plates!

[Wendy w]

Like most states, we have a bunch of specialty or vanity options, but the standard has always bugged me: it's 95% boring and 5% of a look that suggests Southern California but has nothing to do with Northern California. The style has changed often over my lifetime, but none has been nice.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid217/pc1a6841a4202157b6c54bfbc63356b8e/ec5dda9a.jpg



Yes, our's are definitely boring and I do not have the vast finances required for the "vanity" plates. The one's that they had in the early 80's were kind of jazzy, but still not very nice.

[stacy7272]

I have to say that I am a fan of California's license plate. :o I love its simplicity and style at the same time - and yes, I do get a Southern California vibe from it but, being in So Cal, I like that. I also like that it goes with every vehicle - no need to worry about it clashing with your car color. :D

[Clover]

Oregon's standard plate is my favorite:
http://www.yanktanks.co.uk/plates/orvkz734.jpg
I have no idea whose plate number this is. Got it off the web.

And I think this California one is nice, though not as nice as Oregon's. This costs more than the standard plate, however:
http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/plate/plate3-pendx.jpg

For some reason, though, I like a plain business-like plate for myself. I don't even like the cursive on the current one. And I'm glad that so far we've never been forced to drive around with some state marketing slogan whether we want to or not. However, there's something I like about "Famous Potatoes." I think if I moved to Idaho I'd enjoy having that on my car. It would make me smile every morning.

[jennanne]

I haven't lived in Spokane in nearly 20 years and now we moved back; still deciding whether that was a smart move ;)

I'm a little biased, but I love Spokane. Welcome back to the area!