I like to collect and archive photos of personalized license plates I see in the wild.
These are all, exclusively, my photos. Please don’t try to submit your own photos. This is my collection of the vanity plates I’ve seen myself.
The dates on the posts are usually when I took the pictures, but not always, so don’t rely on that completely.
I will get more information about my specific hobby interests as they relate to custom license plates up here eventually!
Here is a quick list of every license plate, from earliest to latest:
As a reminder… license plates are not private property in the normal sense. They’re issued by the state (usually by the DMV) and legally, they remain state property. You’re basically borrowing or renting them for as long as the registration is valid – even custom vanity plates.
Courts have consistently ruled that license plates are public identifiers, not private data, and a person doesn’t have any reasonable expectation of privacy in something they’re required to display openly on public roads. So anyone can see your plate, photograph it, write it down, remember it, whatever.
The difference is that as a private citizen I can’t look up the plate in any government database. Don’t worry, I don’t plan on it!
As another reminder, under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, courts have long recognized that gathering information is part of the freedom of the press, which is one of the core parts of that amendment (along with freedom of speech, religion, etc.). Gathering information includes photographing anything lawfully visible from public spaces, including roads, sidewalks, and parks.
A person doesn’t need to be employed by or affiliated with some “established press agency” for these rights to apply – the Constitution gives us all these rights regardless. Otherwise you’d have to rely on the State to grant press licenses, which would then be used selectively, and would chill or eliminate free press. So we are all free to be press, just like we’re all free to speak, worship, etc.
However, I do consider my License Plates Blog to be an official and established press agency anyway.
(There are caveats to the photographing thing – such as private property, reasonable privacy areas like bathrooms, blocking traffic, taped-off police zones, courtrooms, and more – but none generally apply to my License Plates Blog.)
So while I’m not usually obligated to remove a license plate from this blog, if you get in touch with me and are real nice about it I may consider doing so for you.
And no I don’t use “licence plates” with a C. I am an American and “licence” looks dumb.
The full legal terms and conditions of this website are here.
Have a nice day 🙂