# The most difficult liscense plate to remember
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 15, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935 "2003-04-15T20:28:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/21 "2003-04-16T12:58:00Z")
I guess when I said “no vanity plates”, I was on drugs. It would have to be a vanity plate, ordered specifically to make remembering the tag difficult.
Sorry for the confusion.
Here in WI, we had a series of plates that had a collage as a background. The background had some parts of the images that were green and grey. The letters were red. From two car lenghts behind you could not make out what some plates read. I talked a freind of mine who is a cop and he hated them. He would have to get right up on them to read the plate.
[Here is an example (not the one I mentioned).](http://www.pl8ster.net/WI/WI98_Sesq_K1231T.jpg) Take five paces back from the screen and you`ll see it`s hard to read.
[Check out Virginia`s at the top.](http://my.execpc.com/~rflm/redesign.htm)
[And here.](http://www.15q.net/us5/wi98.jpg) another WI one. Stand five paces from the pooter screen and you`ll see what I mean.
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### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/22 "2003-04-16T13:00:02Z")
I`m getting one that says, **4Q**.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/23 "2003-04-16T15:26:58Z")
I tried SHAT at the calif plate web site & it went through. Not that I would order it of course…
I can’t remember the one i have but mostly that’s cause its blocked by the trailer hitch.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/24 "2003-04-16T16:00:10Z")
Thanks Ender\_Will for explaining the CA plates. Thinking about it, I’m pretty sure my rental car plates started 4ZZ, and it was brand new (only 900 miles on the clock before I got my hands on it 🙂 ). I didn’t see any plates starting with a 5, so I figured they must be sequential.
Back to the original question, one thing to bear in mind is that when trying to remember a plate, you say it to yourself in your mind while scrabbling for a bit of paper to write it down. (Or I do, at least.) So, the fact that “W” has three times as many syllables as any other letter should make it harder to remember. That and the fact that W looks a lot like M - at least on British plates in the new “easier to read” font - leads me to suggest something like
WM4W6NW
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### Author:  [@bradwalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bradwalt)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/25 "2003-04-16T16:22:26Z")
Re: California in the 1980s, I deduced that CA plates beginning with “1” were cars, “2” were trucks and “3” were rental cars? Obviously, this system is no longer in use, but was this correct in the 1980s? Or was my deduction totally wrong?
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/26 "2003-04-16T17:01:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ntucker \*
> \*\*Actually, the original CA blue plates were “123 ABC”, not “ABC 123”.
> [cite](http://www.calpl8s.com/cgi-bin/show.cgi?st=ca&cat=blue)
>
> Regarding the OP, I once had the idea of making a vanity plate that looked like a non-vanity plate, but had a letter ‘O’ swapped for a ‘0’ or vice versa. So currently, CA has plates formatted as 1ABC234, so you could get the vanity plate 3R0A492, which is readily confused with the valid plate number 3ROA492. This plan could be foiled if 1) cops are too good at spotting the difference between O and 0, or 2) if the software that does license plate lookups is smart enough to check alternates for easily-confused digits (which I bet it is). \*\*
If you go back and read your link you will see that he starts talking about plates issued in 1969. The original blue plate was 1963 and was in the format ABC 123.
In 1969 they changed to 123 ABC
Rick
(fromer driver of GOF 733 a 1963 Chrysler, and owner of UNA 509 a 1967 Triumph Spitfire)
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### Author:  [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/27 "2003-04-16T19:00:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Rick \*
> If you go back and read your link you will see that he starts talking about plates issued in 1969. The original blue plate was 1963 and was in the format ABC 123.
Where? The specific page I linked to (and the 4 pages of blue plates following it) has no mention of an ABC 123 blue plate, nor of blue plates being used in 1963. It _does_, however, show that **black** plates in ABC 123 format were used from 1963 to 1969.
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### Author:  [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/28 "2003-04-16T19:39:10Z")
IDONTNO
So, every time the guy you ran off the road is asked, “What was the license plate of the car?” He’ll reply, “I don’t know.”
## Peace
SHUTUP
GOAWAY
MYFAULT
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### Author:  [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/29 "2003-04-16T19:50:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by bradwalt \*
> \*\*Re: California in the 1980s, I deduced that CA plates beginning with “1” were cars, “2” were trucks and “3” were rental cars? Obviously, this system is no longer in use, but was this correct in the 1980s? Or was my deduction totally wrong? \*\*
I think that’s wrong. The car plates and truck plates probably both started with 1 at some point. Then, becuse there are fewer possible combinations of truck plates (because there are fewer letters in them), the new truck plates went to 2 faster than the car plates did.
So, probably in the '80’s there was a time when new car plates happened to start with 1 and new truck plates started with 2. Now, new car plates start with 5, and new truck plates are up to 6, I beleve.
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### Author:  [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/30 "2003-04-16T20:23:38Z")
Good thinking, moriah. Get the other driver to insult the cop, and they won’t be focusing on you anymore. =]
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/31 "2003-04-16T20:33:26Z")
Doh! that what happens when you get old. I forgot that the 63 plates were black and yellow. Sheezh you would think that if I could recall the license plate number of the first cars I owned, I would remember the color of the plate. :smack: :smack:
I was correct about the order of the letters / numbers, I just went colorblind in my memory. **ntucker** I bow to you sir. Great link BTW.
About requesting a vanity plate with IOI 101 and hoping to confuse onlookers, this would not work in California as they prohibit 3 letter/3 number combos. Along with letter combos like CHP, DMV
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### Author:  [@El\_Gui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Gui)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/32 "2003-04-16T22:30:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by r\_k \*
> \*\*So, the fact that “W” has three times as many syllables as any other letter should make it harder to remember.
Using the same rationale, perhaps including the number 7 (two syllables) in there might add a wee bit to the difficultness?
And I would avoid using the number 4 or any vowels, actually.
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### Author:  [@Kivick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kivick)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/33 "2003-04-18T01:59:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by moriah \*
> \*\*IDONTNO
>
> So, every time the guy you ran off the road is asked, “What was the license plate of the car?” He’ll reply, “I don’t know.”
>
> ## Peace
>
> SHUTUP
> GOAWAY
> MYFAULT \*\*
or what about
NOPLATE
So did you catch the license plate?
no plate…
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### Author:  [@Blt2pls](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blt2pls)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2003, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/34 "2003-06-03T04:42:09Z")
The hardest plate to remember is the one thats on your car!
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### Author:  [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/35 "2003-06-03T06:54:47Z")
a slight hijack:
I recently got my vanity plates. It used to be that the numbers on a plate were embossed.
My plates look like,no lie, I printed them up on my home printer, except metal instead of paper.
Granted they do have a slight reflectiveness to them and they have, upon close expection, have the seal of Texas all over them. When my plates gets a little dirty, both of these features seem to disapear.
Isn’t this rather problematic? I know you can easily steal someone’s plates…but this just seems insanely easy.
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### Author:  [@NoGoodNamesLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoGoodNamesLeft)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2003, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/36 "2003-06-03T11:12:08Z")
[Here is a list](http://www.thesmokinggun.com/blueplate/blueplate.html) of the best rejected vanity plates. I saw the “VMNWNM” one here before, but couldn’t relocate it on a quick search.
Be sure to check out the “Ass Orgy” story at the bottom.
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### Author:  [@NeedAHobby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeedAHobby)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2003, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/37 "2003-06-03T12:19:53Z")
By serendipidy I once had a plate SNH-918 (those are the right digits, I just can’t remember the order–so sue me, it was 15 years ago) which upside-down reads 816-HNS. That might be a clever method–to get a plate number that you could flip over and it would look like a valid tag.
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### Author:  [@Wolfgrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfgrrl)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2003, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/38 "2003-06-03T14:24:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mangetout \*
> \*\*FNORD \*\*
I had to come looking for this thread because _I saw this on a car today_. New Hampshire plate.
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### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/39 "2003-06-03T15:27:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Blt2pls \*
> \*\*The hardest plate to remember is the one thats on your car! \*\*
This is soooo true. I could not tell you right now which plates I have.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/40 "2003-06-03T16:16:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by NoGoodNamesLeft \*
> \*\*[Here is a list](http://www.thesmokinggun.com/blueplate/blueplate.html) of the best rejected vanity plates. I saw the “VMNWNM” one here before, but couldn’t relocate it on a quick search.
>
> Be sure to check out the “Ass Orgy” story at the bottom. \*\*
The colors on that page made my eyes bleed.
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