# Who makes license plates? Prisoners?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-makes-license-plates-prisoners/351025>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 3, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-makes-license-plates-prisoners/351025 "2006-04-03T04:48:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jakeline](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@jakeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakeline)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-makes-license-plates-prisoners/351025/1 "2006-04-03T04:48:31Z")

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Riding along on the freeway this morning, I started wondering about license plates. I have this image in my head of prisoners stamping out license plates, but then I started wondering if this was actually grounded in reality. So, what’s the straight dope? Do prisoners really make license plates? If not, who does? Does this vary on a state-by-state basis?

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**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-makes-license-plates-prisoners/351025/2 "2006-04-03T05:51:56Z")

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Jakeline,

Prisoners make license plates in most states. Google “making license plates” for details on specific states’ programs. I couldn’t find one page that lists each state but the results from that Google search contain articles from most states. [This](http://www.madehow.com/Volume-5/License-Plate.html) mentions this fact without elaboration.

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**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-makes-license-plates-prisoners/351025/3 "2006-04-03T10:16:53Z")

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Many German license plates are made by small shop owners who have a little shack outside the department of motor vehicles offices. As far as I can tell they make them in the shack while you wait.

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**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-makes-license-plates-prisoners/351025/4 "2006-04-03T13:21:05Z")

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When I was a kid I used to wonder how prisoners in New Hampshire felt about stamping out license plates that said “Live Free or Die”.