Being a computer geek, I’m always noticing acronyms, assembler codes, etc. in plates. Even the numbers themselves are interesting. Trying to find a binary-related base in which the number is a palindrome, etc.
I still have fond memories of Idaho plates, with the little codes for counties. I still remember “1 A”, “W”, etc. all these years later. (But around here they just put a sticker on with the county spelled out, what barbarians!)
They’re not always “license plates” either. Here they are “tags” (which to me are the little renewal decals you put on them).
The other possibility on Hawai’i (and Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.) plates seen on mainland North America is a permanent resident of Hawai’i (or another American island jurisdiction) who either (a) regularly has business on the mainland, and in consequence keeps a car here, or (b) is employed here for an extended period of time but maintains his legal residence there. In either case, cars are registered in the jurisdiction of legal residence, not where you might temporarily be staying.
Contemplate, for example, a college student from Michigan attending Duke – he’s not obliged to get North Carolina plates, because his legal residence is with his parents in Owosso, not his dorm in Durham. Now, substitute in a kid from Honolulu attending U.C.L.A. No doubt he didn’t pay the $3,000 to have his car shipped from Oahu – but he registered the car based on his home address.
Likewise, a contractor from Hilo doing a year-long project in Idaho is not a legal resident of Pocatello, but likely needs a car to get around, and may prefer buying to leasing (or may be leasing from a company that requires that you, not they, register the car).
Count me in for watching license plates. Now that we have the 2 letter, 2 number, 2 letter plates (before it was 3 letter, 3 number) I try to make up words from those combinations…and that was inspired by a thread a few years back about vanity plates in the UK (I think!).
In Mississippi, the plate looks like it has mountains on it. It’s not so obvious in this picture, but from behind it looks that way. Incidentally, I noticed you can get a sample plate for five bucks.
Our own Kentucky plate is a joke… It’s driving people into paying extra money for one of the specialty plates, so that they may avoid having “Mr Smiley” on their plate.
I retract my statement about Idaho’s being the dumbest.
carmine- I agree, Idaho’s “Famous Potatoes” has made us a laughingstock of the license plates for several decades, though after looking at Kentucky’s smiley-face plates I must say that I’d rather stick to taters and I don’t envy you guys. Hell, I’d pay the extra money to not have something so hideous emblazoned on the bumpers of my car. A lot of people, myself included, would rather see something like “The Gem State” in place of pitching our state’s chief agricultural product, but them spud farmers we gots here is a mighty proud bunch. At least our plates now have a red and blue background of mountains and forests. This was a welcome change from the plain green on white we had before the Idaho Centennial in 1990. At that time people bought special-issue license plates commemorating the centennial bearing the design that is now standard issue. We also have at least a dozen special plates for everything from promoting Idaho’s forestry, to its universities, wildlife, etc.
ftg- We still use the county desigations on our plates. Until a few years ago the plates used a half-height number and letter to designate the county in which the license plate was issued. To the left you’d see [sup]1[/sup][sub]A[/sub] (vertically positioned to one another). Now all the new plates use the county code in full-size letters (1A, which is Ada County, where I live).
As for noticing plates, I do this a lot myself. I like to see where people are from and how often I see cars from states on the other side of the U.S. Recently I saw a car from Virginia, for example. I also look for all the vanity plates and try to figure out what some of them mean. I also look for number patterns. If we’re on a road trip we’ll play “license plate poker”, where the license plate of the next car you see forms your “hand.” The person with the highest count of the same number and highest-ranking number, wins.
It’s kind of weird, but I always notice license plates with the letters “BEM.” It all started a few years ago when I was visiting with my former neighbor about the time he spent living in Iran and he was talking about their license plates. He said something to the effect of, “it’s kind of like how we use letters on license plates in the U.S., like ‘BEM.’” Ever since then I’ve noticed all the “BEM” license plates. There seems to be an overabundance, but I’m sure it’s just because I’m looking for them. However, in an office with fewer than 10 employees, two of my co-workers have “BEM” license plates. A year or two ago I finally admitted my slight obsession to my husband, and now he notices them too. A couple of weeks ago he called to tell me that he had seen another one, but this one was kind of creepy—“BEM-666.”
In CA, our automobile license plate sequences are: a number (currently 5, and most plates on the road start with 3 or 4), 3 letters, then 3 numbers. When I am not driving, or I am stuck in slow-moving traffic, for as many license plates as I can, I multiply the three-digit number on the right by the one-digit number on the left in my head and try to remember the highest and lowest products I’ve gotten during the trip. Because I enjoy this game, I hate vanity license plates.
Ohio has special license plates for those convicted of driving while intoxicated. The plates are yellow, with red lettering. From a reasonable distance, they look exactly like normal New Mexico license plates.
Man, I hate those new plates. When my parents were registering the new car and everything, I specifically told them several times to get the old plate. Luckily, they did. I’ll take the old one over the new one any day–at least it doesn’t look like a bad attempt at art and I rather like the subtler touches. Plus, I can’t figure out how the heck they are doing the letter-number combinations on that new plate.
What I want to know is, what happened to the way they used to put the county you registered your car in on the top of the plate? I don’t know when they stopped doing it, as the two older plates (we’re talking early 90s, max) on our cars have Bernalillo up there, but the last three new plates haven’t.
Since this is a poll, I’ll add my 2 cents. I always look at plates. There are too many weird vanity plates on the road, and I can’t resist trying to figure out what they’re supposed to mean.
All of my plates have been depressingly plain. I’ve never paid extra for exotic styles or Vanity Plates. I might have done so for Utah, but I think they started the Ski Utah! plates after I left.
Several years ago, I saw a car with Grand Cayman plates in downtown Toronto. Once I saw a car with simple yellow Euro-style tags front and back in Toronto … Saint-Pierre et Miquelon?
When I lived in New Mexico a while ago, one of my neighbors in the apartment complex had a European Ford Escort bearing simple white “USA” license plates. Not from an individual state, but the country. I still don’t get it.
The sight of Mexican plates is increasingly common in the northern United States, but only once have I seen plates from another Central American country; a beater truck bearing Guatemala tags.
How much cross-plate pollenation is there among RHD English-speaking countries? Can one spot South African plates in Australia, or simple UK tags in New Zealand?
I am always checking out plates on cars, mostly to see if I can guess where they are from before I can actually read the tiny text on the plate. I give me somthing to do while in traffic (Yes, I do pay attention to the traffic as well)
I agree that the Nebraska plates are hideous and they have progressivly gotten worse over the years. They keep changing the plates every two years so you would think with this heavy of plate rotation they would come up with something better. I can say this, because I lived in Nebraska for 21 years.
Nevada’s plates are OK, I just dislike the “Sunset” plate with the blue mountains and the orange sky. At least we have a variety of other specailty plates to get if we want to pay the extra money for them. I have the Lake Tahoe plates and the Mr. has the Las Vegas Centenial plates.
Actually, I suppose that’s a possibility. It’s not that far between Saint-Pierre and Newfoundland, so barging a car over wouldn’t be the expense it would be to bring it from Europe.
The only other place near North America I can think of that would have Euro-style plates is Greenland. Unless some of the French or Dutch islands in the Caribbean have them.
Was your neighbour’s place of residence listed as being with the US forces in Europe? If ey was over in NM only temporarily, ey might keep the European car and maintain the US federal registration.
Canadian military vehicles also have similar plates that say Canada and have a five-digit number.
We heard about that. I believe the consensus here is that it’s not a bad thing for people from other states to automatically assume that a New Mexican driver is drunk. It’s all too often true.
