# 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:** 12
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2023, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/61 "2023-11-14T18:47:18Z")
I always thought that, if allowed, some combination of O’s and 0’s would be the toughest to decipher.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2023, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/62 "2023-11-14T20:50:06Z")
Sort of like these…
> **[E-mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone](https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/e-mail-addresses-it-would-be-really-annoying-to-give-out-over-the-phone)**
>
> MikeUnderscore2004@yahoo.com
> MikeAtYahooDotCom@hotmail.com
> Mike\_WardAllOneWord@yahoo.com
> AAAAAThatsSixAs@yahoo.com
> One1TheFirstJustTheNumberTheSeco...
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### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2023, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/63 "2023-11-17T04:41:16Z")
My Wi-Fi password may or may not be ALLLOWERCASE.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2023, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/64 "2023-11-18T22:25:51Z")
Indiana plate are three letters followed by three numbers. There may be a pattern, but I don’t know it-- that is, there may be plates that if they were issued as vanity plates, would be impossible as regular plates, because they would be numbers too far in the future, or something.
If I wanted to get a specific plate-- a vanity plate, in other words, that would be consistently reported incorrectly by witnesses, I would get something that looked like a common three letter word followed by a commonly known three digit number, but I’d change the middle number to a lookalike.
In other words, PHL 971. People who saw it fleetingly would report it as PAL 911. At least theoretically-- people tend to recognize words when the first and last letter are correct, but the middle letters are out of order, or contain a single error. Assuming it’s possible for common number combos, like 911, or 1776.
Indiana plates are not great for letter/number recognition anyway. I was behind someone with a cryptic vanity plate the other day, and I could not tell is something was a D or a 0. They pretty much look alike, and it’s there position as a letter or a number that makes the difference.
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2023, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/65 "2023-11-19T00:05:33Z")
I suggest “LISCENSE”.
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### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2023, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/66 "2023-11-19T02:00:39Z")
DIFICLT
.
.
Why can’t I get past the “_An error occurred: Body seems unclear, is it a complete sentence?_” error? If I click in it still won’t let me post it.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2023, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/67 "2023-11-19T05:56:13Z")
Or, LICENSCOUS, meaning, possessing a great number of civil and professional licenses
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2023, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/68 "2023-11-19T06:09:50Z")
> [@Spiderman](#):
>
> unclear
Ooooh! Spiderman-- thanks!
There’s an idea for a plate that would monkeywrench the place if one got into your kindle-creating materials. I can get more.
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### Author:  [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2023, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/69 "2023-11-19T12:23:34Z")
Yeah, I hit that error too. I guess there’s some minimum level of real words or length we have to reach. That’s why I added “I suggest” in front of my submission.
Kind of tarnishes threads where snappy comebacks in the form of a single not-quite-word would otherwise fit.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2023, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/70 "2023-11-19T13:54:14Z")
I have seen vanity license plates composed entirely of 1s and Is. Like a sequence randomly mixing them: 11I11II
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### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2023, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/71 "2023-11-19T21:18:33Z")
Yes but if I tell the police it was a Honda Civic and the plate was all 1s and Is, that could really pin it down.
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### Author:  [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2023, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-difficult-liscense-plate-to-remember/168935/72 "2023-12-18T15:43:31Z")
And of course…“There’s always an XKCD”:
> **[License Plate](https://xkcd.com/1105/)**
>
> The next day: 'What? Six bank robberies!? But I just vandalized the library!' 'Nice try. They saw your plate with all the 1's and I's.' 'That's impossible! I've been with my car the whole ti-- ... wait. Ok, wow, that was clever of her.'
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