Personalised registration numbers

I recently had an encounter with the CA DMV over the 1963 black/yellow plate on my '36 Ford.. Through an oversight I did not renew the registration prior to the annual expiration.. In the past that was not a big deal, a visit to the DMV to fill out a form that the vehicle had not been operated, payment of the current fees ended the matter.. That all changed when the state enacted the Non Operation Vehicle law..
California does not phase out old plates as new ones are issued, therefore the '63 black plate is still good and can be transferred from owner to owner, so long as the fees are kept current.. In California the plates stay with the vehicle, not the registered owner as in other states..
The State DMV offices have been instructed to get the old plates, black/yellow, blue/yellow, etc., off of vehicles, issuing new plates to same.. However, they can't force the issue so long as the fees have been kept current..
A disagreement arose between me and the DMV, they wanted my black/yellow plates, I did not want to give them up.. Since the registration had expired it got down to the fact of ownership.. I told the DMV agent that I had owned the car since 1952, brought the car into CA in April 1956.. The agent asked if I could prove that... I told her, I'll be right back..
I have a tendency to hang onto things so I went home, got in the glove box and grabbed the envelope containing copies of the '52-54 Idaho, '54-56 Nevada and '56-99 CA registration. I got the '56 CA tile out of the safe and went back to the DMV.
The look on the DMV agents face was priceless... I got to keep my black/yellow CA plates... The DMV wanted to take my '56 CA title, issuing me a new title, I objected.. I kept the '56 CA title, however, the state sent me a new title..
I'll not let the registration lapse again..
 
I used to work in London and floating around Brixton (a sometimes dangerous black area)was EFN1C on a big bmw with matching big black driver ....on a sports bike was K155MAS, (KISS M,*** ) clever ....and this is how the plate looked A 9"NOB, i wonder how often he was asked to prove it , all good fun but mostly the police are not impressed, a healthy 2014 to all, cheers jim.
 
I went round N round with the CA DMV......They told me it was offensive ....I told her she was the one with the deranged mind...I live in the mountains,and it's a Woodie....It took a year but........
 

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This is mine, no extra cost after the initial $25 extra
 

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And here's the price of vanity......multiply by 1.6 to convert to $US......

Ok if you have a 6 or even 5 cylinder Henry:):)
 

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This is the plate I have on the 32, I also have a 1932 number plate from Ohio on the kerb side, I have not had any complaints yet about it.
 

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And in case you wanted to impress the neighbours and draw attention to the revenue people; how about this for a meagre
$424,222.00 ? :):):)
 

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Here in Michigan a general designated historical plate is available for any vehicle over 25 years old. It has a one time charge of $30 and is good for ten years. A "year of manufacture plate" has a one time cost of $35 and is good forever. However, in either case the plates can not be transfered with the vehicle if and when it is sold.

You can have a somewhat personalized plate if it was original to the year of manufacture (some restrictions exist). What I have on my '35 are a set of matched "Veteran's" plates. These were available in 1935 if you were a veteran of the Civil War, Spanish-American War or WWI.

Tom
 

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What people might not realise is that here in the UK you can't just make something up and if no-one has it you can then have it. It has to be one that has been issued to a vehicle, or one that has not yet been issued. Once the DVLA (Driver and vehicle licencing centre) cottoned on that people wanted personalised plates thay went into the business themselves, holding back anything interesting so they could sell them themselves.

I like fixing up the old flatheads so my daily sports V8 FXR.

Mart.
 
These plates I got in early ninties and cost me $300 odd bucks. Now the same thing cost 1K. The car is gone but I still have the plates on hold at Motor Regs. I should sell them as they won't be going on my 48.

GB
 

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I live in California, own property in Idaho, I'm generally in Idaho at least three times a year, early spring, summer and late fall for hunting..
Many People in Idaho have a grudge against Californian's, therefore vehicles with California plates can be targeted if they are out in the countryside.. The Idaho plates have a numbering system that denotes which county they are from, makes it easy for the locals to discriminate against non residents if they so desire..
Many years ago I came up with the idea of getting CA vanity plates that said 00Idaho, the first two numbers were the actual county designation numbers.. This little scam worked great, people in Idaho think they are actually Idaho plates, because I selected CA's Yosemite plates, which have snow covered mountains in the background.. ie. the Tetons..
I recently decided to get vanity plates for the Jeep I tow behind my Motor Home.. I went on line to the CA DMV site, clicked in my request, using the county designation 1B-IDAHO.. The numbering was accepted by CA, I paid the fees and sat back awaiting the arrival of my new plates..
Wrong.. In about three weeks I received a letter from the CA DMV, they denied my request. Upon calling the DMV I was told the numbering was offensive, I was shocked, pressing for an explanation I was told it discriminated against Blacks... It took me awhile to figure that one out..
I have since been told by several former classmates of Idaho that live in Utah, that they can no longer have personalized plates that have the wording IDAHO within..
I'm now waiting for the knock on my door demanding that I surrender the plate that I have had since the early 80's...
 
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In Texas you can use the same year as vehicle you have to take them in to show they are good enough to use in Texas you have to have front and rear.
Hard to find sometime.

I have 1939 tags on my 39 and 1931 commercial tags on my 31 AA 1 1/2 ton Flatbed on extra charge they give you a little tag to put on just to show it is up to date good for five years.
 
California's Year Of Manufacture (YOM) plates are treated like they are personal/vanity plates, same fees apply as if you ordered a plate from the DMV, annual fees are charged.
You must have a matched pair, made out of the same metal, steel/aluminum, as applies, and they can't be restored and/or repainted... Of course this provision means they have to be in pretty good shape, very readable, however, who is to say what the condition of the paint is, if you repaint them after they are registered to a vehicle..
Surprisingly people come up with new unissued YOM plates all the time, a good pair from '36-37-38-40 will set you back between $400/500.. My brother and I were wondering around a old trash dump area in Idaho several years ago, low and behold we came upon a whole carton of consecutive numbered Idaho plates for 1963.. The whole carton of plates were for trucks (Trk).. Not far away we found a carton of trailer plates.. The plates that were on top, exposed to the weather, were in pretty bad shape, however, the majority of the plates were like new..
 
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