U.S. passenger car license plate

Rick Kretschmer's License Plate Archives

U.S. passenger car license plate

Gallery of Current U.S. License Plates

Standard issue and no-cost optional passenger car plates in current use

Plates from 50 of 56 states and other jurisdictions are shown on this page.

Latest noteworthy updates to this page

February 3, 2014 – Moved current Connecticut plate to the recent column, as they've decided to go back to using a dot separator between the third and fourth serial characters. Moved current Alabama standard and no-cost optional plates to the recent column, as they're now issuing both of these plates with new designs. Moved current Louisiana plate to the recent column, as they're now issuing plates with a new design. Removed previous-design Indiana and Mississippi plates, as they're no longer on the road.
October 17, 2013 – Added photos of the latest Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana plate designs. Added photos of Connecticut and Iowa plates with the latest serial formats.
August 24, 2013 – Added a previous-design Lousiana 200 Years with the small graphic. Moved current District of Columbia plate to the recent column, as they're now issuing otherwise-unchanged plates that say District of Columbia rather than Washington, DC.
July 15, 2013 – Added photos of a current California plate with the DMV web address at the bottom, and another Illinois plate with an older serial format.
June 18, 2013 – Added images of current Texas and Idaho plates. Added image of an Illinois plate with an older serial format. Replaced candid image of current Maine plate with that of one I've added to my collection. Moved current Ohio and Michigan plates to the recent cloumn, as they've both introduced new designs. Moved current Connecticut plate to the recent column, as they're now issuing plates in a new serial format.
April 1, 2013 – Added no-extra-cost optional West Virginia 150th Anniversary plate.

Introduction

The images shown on this page are U.S. passenger car plate designs that are in current use. Both standard plates and optional designs available for no additional cost are shown. Optional designs that cost extra are far too numerous for the scope of this project, and therefore are not shown.

The left column shows the plate design and serial format currently being issued; included in the right column are older designs no longer being issued but still on the road, and additional serial formats that either are concurrently being issued or were previously issued. Only older designs and formats issued within about the last 20 years or so, and still in use, are shown. Even so, not all such older designs and formats are shown, either due to space considerations, or because I do not have any photo available.

Passenger car plates are used not just for sedans, but also station wagons, mini-vans, and sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), in all states except Delaware and Maryland. For those two states, I've included images of both sedan and non-sedan private passenger vehicle plates. In some states, passenger car plates are also used for other types of vehicles, such as pickup trucks, motor homes, and buses; however, I'm not otherwise addressing these vehicle types on this page.

If you have, or can take, a digital photo of a plate not shown below, send it to me in an e-mail attachment. I'll add it to this page, and will credit you for submitting it.

Gallery of current U.S. passenger car plates

Plates shown on this page are from a variety of sources, including my collection, my trade box, plates in actual use, and submissions by others. All photographs were taken by me, unless otherwise credited.

New England
	Current design and format	Recent designs and/or other serial formats also in use
Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut		(Clinchy photo, stickered plate above)
Northeast
	Current design and format	Recent designs and/or other serial formats also in use
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware (sedans)
Delaware (station wagons, mini-vans, SUVs)
Maryland (sedans, station wagons)
Maryland (mini-vans, SUVs)
District of Columbia (standard)
District of Columbia (no-cost option)
Mid-South
	Current design and format	Recent designs and/or other serial formats also in use
Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia (no-cost option)
Kentucky (standard)
Kentucky (no-cost option)
Tennessee
North Carolina
Southeast
	Current design and format	Recent designs and/or other serial formats also in use
South Carolina (standard)
South Carolina (no-cost option)
Georgia	(Fazekas plate, above)
Georgia (no-cost option)
Florida (standard #1)
Florida (standard #2)
Florida (no-cost option)
Alabama (standard)
Alabama (no-cost option)
Mississippi
Great Lakes
	Current design and format	Recent designs and/or other serial formats also in use
Ohio
Michigan
Indiana (standard)
Indiana (no-cost option)
Illinois
Wisconsin
North Central
	Current design and format	Recent designs and/or other serial formats also in use
Iowa
Minnesota
North Dakota	(Jackson photo, above)
South Dakota
Nebraska
South Central
	Current design and format	Recent designs and/or other serial formats also in use
Missouri
Kansas
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Louisiana
Texas
Southwest
	Current design and format	Recent designs and/or other serial formats also in use
New Mexico (standard #1)	(Jackson photo, above)
New Mexico (standard #2)
Colorado
Utah (standard #1)	(Jackson photo, above)
Utah (standard #2)	(Jackson photo, above)
Arizona
Nevada
California	(D. Kretschmer photo, above)
Northwest
	Current design and format	Recent designs and/or other serial formats also in use
Wyoming
Montana
Idaho
Oregon
Washington	(Clinchy photo, above)
Alaska
Islands
	Current design and format	Recent designs and/or other serial formats also in use
U.S. Virgin Islands
Puerto Rico
Hawaii
American Samoa
Guam
Northern Mariana Islands

Related links

Page credits

Thanks to those who have directly contributed to the information on this page: Chirstopher Jackson, Ross Clinchy, Jeff Fazekas, and Debbie Kretschmer.

Jackson, Clinchy, and D. Kretschmer photographs are presumed to be copyrighted, and were submitted by and used with permission of Chirstopher Jackson, Ross Clinchy, and Debbie Kretschmer, respectively. Fazekas plate is from the collection of Jeff Fazekas.

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All text and photographs © copyright 2004-2014 by Rick Kretschmer, except where noted. All rights reserved.
This page last updated February 3, 2014