# Why do US states have so many varieties of license plates?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-states-have-so-many-varieties-of-license-plates/125064>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 22, 2002, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-states-have-so-many-varieties-of-license-plates/125064 "2002-08-22T12:56:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-us-states-have-so-many-varieties-of-license-plates/125064/21 "2002-08-23T17:37:43Z")

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I saw a horribly illegible plate on the road today. It was the top one on [this page](http://www.geocities.com/bsproull/PA/pa.html), a PA plate for the Flagship Niagra. It’s actually worse in person than that picture, since the white letters fade to become almost exactly the same color as the backgrond.

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