The Best License Plate in Each U.S. State

For much of my life, I have had a pet interest in license plates. Not their legal and bureaucratic uses for registering cars to their owners, but their designs. For whatever reason, I notice them. They tickle my brain. If you, like me, have been fortunate enough to have traveled a great deal on the United States’ vast network highways, you can likely recall more of the States’ standard-issue designs than you might think.

Those are great and all, some even icons of their respective states, but I’m even more interested in the widespread practice of specialty plates. For a little extra money (usually benefitting some related cause or another), residents can register their vehicles in such a way as to share a tiny piece of their personality with other motorists within the confines of what their state has deemed worthy of manufacture.

As someone who finds bumper stickers somewhat not to my taste, I do relish the opportunity to personalize the one thing that must by law be affixed to the back of my car. Occasionally, while driving, I’ll notice an out-of-state specialty plate that catches my eye. I’ll briefly fantasize about what it would be like to live in that state, where, among other things, I could register with that one.

Having spent a decent amount of time thinking about this, I decided to finally catalog my picks for all 50 U.S. states plus a couple bonus territories you’ll just have to read on to discover. To keep the scope reasonable, I have generally stuck to plates you could walk in and register your vehicle under today (and without meeting special requirements like military service). I’m sure there are some great options from years past, but it’s difficult enough to track down high-resolution scans even of contemporary ones! Trust me. I’ve tried to credit the sources of any images I found not on official government or associated charity pages, which were a big help in many cases.

As a final note, it would probably be more accurate for the first two words of the title of this post to be “My Favorite” rather than “The Best”. I make no effort at objectivity here, and my biases will seep through in rather obvious ways. Gotta be naming your posts in bold and confident ways to bait those clicks, though.

Anyway, now that you’ve read my little intro, hopefully all those high-resolution images have loaded below. Enjoy.

Alabama

Official name: Alabama Space Tag
Benefits: U.S. Space and Rocket Center Education Foundation

Alabama gets things started off strong with its space plate supporting the Space and Rocket Center. It’s a basically solid and good-looking design, and my fond memories of Space Camp mean I’d surely choose it if I were ever to become a resident of Alabama. Huntsville would probably be my choice of town if I were to do so as well.

My heart is pulled a bit in the direction of a good old Auburn University plate as well in honor of my late father, but I don’t think he’d begrudge me honoring the Space Center he took me on multiple visits to as a child.

Alaska

Official name: Celebrating the Arts
Benefits: N/A

To the best of my ability to tell, this is actually one of the default plates and does not cost extra or involve any charitable gifts, but I think you do have to intentionally select it. Nevertheless, it’s an attractive plate with a beautiful painting of Alaska’s own purple mountain majesty, Denali.

Here’s a nice writeup on creator Sabrina Kessakorn. Some nice reflection on the scientist’s passion for the arts and what Denali means to her.

Arizona

Official name: Arizona Science Center
Benefits: Arizona Science Center

Arizona has surprisingly few specialty plates, but it has an easy winner here!

Like, come on, man. It’s the Matrix plate! Despite how shitty things have gotten on the computer, I do still love it. I’d gladly drive around with this thing.

I don’t know much about the Arizona science center, but it looks like a nice enough museum. I visited Phoenix several times in my youth, but I’ve not been back since. If I find myself there again, perhaps I’ll stop by.

Arkansas

Official name: Game & Fish Painted Bunting
Benefits: Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

My hat’s off to Arkansas, which has a pretty decent lineup, especially for its size. This is due in no small part to the offerings of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, which seems to have put out a new one each year since 2018, each with a pleasing photograph or painting of different wildlife. A nice job of leaning into the “Natural State” nickname.

I like this year’s the most because it features bees (a theme that will recur in this post), but I also gotta shoutout the Longear Sunfish plate from 2022. That’s a good guy.

California

Official name: Yosemite National Park
Benefits: Yosemite Conservancy

I’ve seen the take that California’s base plate is cool and iconic. Well I think it’s boring and sucks! Yosemite does not suck and is not boring. I’d probably rock this if I lived there, especially since the state offers comparatively few. Somewhat surprising for the country’s most populous!

Anyway, it’d be stolen valor until I actually get out to Yosemite, which remains on my to-do list. California is absolutely stacked with natural beauty. Its least-beautiful natural wonder probably puts many states’ best to shame, and my understanding is that Yosemite may be its best. I guess I’ll forgive it for its underwhelming license plate offerings.

Colorado

Official name: Italian American Heritage
Benefits: Highway users tax fund?

This shit is hilarious. I am not Italian American, but honestly Colorado’s plate options are kind of mid, and I think it would be very funny to have this plate (you do not have to prove ancestry or anything to get it). You can also get a version without the crossed flags (just the bottom text), which may be even funnier.

Oh, and by the way, the “Support the Horse” and “Support the Troops” plates of Colorado have basically the same format. A great plate state for comedy.

Connecticut

Official name: The Pizza State
Benefits: Connecticut Foodshare

Cowabunga, dudes. I think its inherently a little funny to have a plate with a slice of pizza on it. Also, I know New Haven is supposed to have pretty good pizza or whatever, but I have never in my life thought of Connecticut as “the pizza state.” Nevertheless, it’s a simple and frankly pretty cute plate whose proceeds help those experiencing food insecurity. Not bad.

Delaware

Official name: Horseshoe Crab
Benefits: The Delaware Center for Inland Bays, The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, Incorporated, and The Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute

I was not expecting much from the First State in terms of quality plates, but you just can’t go wrong with a horseshoe crab. What a good idea. Benefits wildlife conservation efforts as well. Great!

District of Columbia

Official name: We Demand Statehood
Benefits: New Columbia Statehood Fund

Unsurprisingly, little old D.C. doesn’t have a ton of options. A plurality of them are sports teams. This vibe of this one is a little fashy for my tastes, frankly, but I do support the sentiment.

Florida

Official name: Imagine
Benefits: Feeding Florida

First of all, I just want to shout out Florida for having an insane number of published statistics about their specialty plates. Just look at this thing! It’s somewhat less browsable than some other states’ websites, but it’s still cool to see.

Setting that aside, I am a huge Beatles fan, and I think sporting this hideous John Lennon license plate referencing my least-favorite track by any former Beatle would be very funny. It also supports Florida’s food bank network, which is actually awesome. A win all around.

Georgia

Official name: Georgia Tech
Benefits: Georgia Tech Scholarship Fund

Here we are, my state of residence. Indeed, that is my very own license plate you see now (redacted slightly for privacy). I’m a proud Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech, which is also why I default to bee-oriented plates in several other states. There are other worthy causes and charming plates in Georgia, but there is no way I’d pick any of them over my alma mater. Besides, in UGA-dominated Georgia, I gotta represent whenever I can!

Well, almost whenever, anyway. That is the plate on my daily driver, but on my 1991 Chevrolet Corvette, I hang a Hobby Antique plate. I think it’s amusing to have the little old-timey car on my comparatively new sports car. I also sort of felt the need to get it inasmuch as it is one of the only license plates that actually has requirements to own (registered vehicle must be at least 25 years old).

Georgia law allows vehicles of model years 1989 and earlier to display vintage plates contemporary to their year of manufacture. If I qualified for that, I’d probably hunt down one of Tech’s centennial plates. I think the law is bumped out a few years every so often, so maybe 1991 will eventually fall under that umbrella and I’ll be able to have some fun with it. A ‘96 olympics plate would also be pretty great.

As a side note, my Tech plate is probably the rarest variant thereof. It was only briefly listed for a couple years in that brighter shade of yellow before being changed to the current plate that is in a more subdued gold shade that better aligns with the Institute’s branding. I doubt that matters to anyone but me, but nevertheless.

Hawaii

Official name: Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park
Benefits: Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the Aloha State does not have a ton of specialty plate options, but the choice would still be pretty easy for me. I had a wonderful visit to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park just last year and greatly enjoyed basking in its magnificence. I hope it remains well-conserved for generations to come. The image here of the mighty Kīlauaea is a nice contrast to the simple (but charming) rainbow plates offered standard.

A solid alternative choice would be the Bishop Museum organizational plate (which just features a left-aligned Bishop Museum logo on a standard plate). I also very much enjoyed my visit there on my brief stay in Honolulu and would recommend it to anyone. Damn is Hawaii cool.

Idaho

Official name: Potatoes
Benefits: “Research and studies in connection with the raising, production, and marketing of potatoes”

Idaho’s default plates already mention their world famous potatoes, but you gotta pay extra to actually get a picture of one on there. I would.

Illinois

Official name: Mayor
Benefits: My ego

Wow. The license plate options of Illinois are straight up dogshit if you ask me. So fuck it, I’m da mayor, baby.

Indiana

Official name: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum
Benefits: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum

I’ve been to Indiana twice. Once was to see Georgia Tech get throttled 55-0 by Notre Dame football. The other time was to attend the Indianapolis 500. The latter was much more fun for me, and Indiana doesn’t have a lot of other great plates, so I guess 500 it is.

Iowa

Official name: St. Ambrose
Benefits: St. Ambrose

Okay, sorry for this gross, artifact-ridden blowup. Couldn’t find a good high-res image of this anywhere. But it’s the fighting bees! I have never heard of them before just now, and I love them. Go St. Ambrose Fighting Bees.

Most of Iowa’s plate options are dire, but their collegiate plates all follow this uniform design. University name in the top right, team name on the bottom, logo at the top-left corner. The colorway matches the school’s colors. Pretty slick tbh!

Kansas

Official name: Support Kansas State Parks
Benefits: Kansas State Parks

Kansas’s options do not blow me away, but at least I was able to get a preview at a decent resolution straight from the state’s website. So we’re back on track in that regard.

This plate is pretty cute, and in the absence of a truly great one, I’m certainly always down to support park conservancy. As far as I can tell, pretty much every state in the Union offers at least one such option.

Kentucky

Official name: Kentucky Beekeepers
Benefits: Kentucky State Beekeepers Association

This rules. The perfect bee plate. Lovely little illustration against a field of black. Gotta keep those pollinators alive! I would gladly display this plate despite some decent competition from a cute bobcat plate, among others.

Kentucky is also one of a few states to feature a “Friend of Coal” license plate, which is hilarious to me. I am an enemy of coal, yet I am afforded no equal opportunity to represent myself as such on automobile registration placard. A shame.

Louisiana

Official name: LPA Specialty
Benefits: Louisiana Partnership for the Arts

Holy mackerel. When I was first looking through Louisiana’s options, I was pretty underwhelmed. They have a decent honeybee option, but I can’t get too carried away there. I then stumbled upon this masterpiece. Leave it to the artists to come up with a good one, I guess!

I love each of the critters on this guy, and the background color is pleasing to the eye. I’ve got nothing but praise for what designer Denise Gallagher did here.

If I couldn’t snag this one, I’d probably also be pretty content with the license plate for the Town of Ball.

Maine

Official name: Lobster
Benefits: Lobster Research, Education, and Development Board

A cooked lobster displayed temptingly on the craggy coast of Maine. What more could you want? It also amuses me that it says simply “Lobster” along the bottom. Lobster indeed.

Maine has very few plates to choose from, really, all with the lowest-resolution previews you’ve ever seen. It has a very plain “Coach” plate, which I assume is for the type of transport, but I like to imagine it’s for sports instructors.

Maryland

Official name: MAGFest, Inc.
Benefits: MAGFest, Inc.

Ah, MAGFest, how I love you. Maryland is the only state that could tempt me away from a Georgia Tech plate, which it also offers. In fact, it provides an absolutely dizzying array of options. I don’t know if their total puts them in first place among all states, but they have to at least be a contender. The PDF linked there is eighteen pages, all but the last of which feature more than fifty options to choose from. Insane.

This is likely attributable to the comparative ease in Maryland of getting a plate approved. Any non-profit organization can seemingly get one approved with a mere 25 people signing up to order them, as indicated by the application form. In Georgia, for comparison, you need to prepay for one thousand plates, and a bill must pass in the General Assembly for the registration fees associated with the plate to share revenue with your organization.

Anyway, I was gobsmacked when I saw the plate above in the parking garage of the Gaylord National Convention Center during the most recent MAGFest (I’ve not redacted its number since special interest plates in Maryland are serial, so it is publicly knowable that there would be a 0001 MAGFest plate.). I love the design (MAG has a terrific logo, doesn’t it?), and I love that MAGFest is incorporated in a state with such a lax path to approval so that such a thing can exist. Although, frankly, if it were so easy here, I’d probably spearhead the effort to get one made for Georgia myself!

Anyway, it’s extremely cool. I could not be greener with envy of Marylanders.

Massachusetts

Official name: Atlantic White Shark Conservancy
Benefits: Atlantic White Shark Conservancy

Pound for pound, Massachusetts may have the lamest plates of any state. Fitting for the nation’s most detestable state (if you don’t know me well, relax, it’s only because of their utterly dominant sports teams).

Sharks are pretty cool, though, I guess. And props to Massachusetts for seeing a comparatively large margin of their registration fees (>50%) actually go to the relevant organization.

Michigan

Official name: Semiquincentennial
Benefits: Road Fund

Michigan pisses me off. I can accept mediocrity in a lot of states, but not the one to which our nation owes its problematic and dysfunctional car-centric transportation culture. If you’re going to make us all kneel at the altar of the automobile, the least you can do is offer some stylish plates.

But no, they have their lame-ass “Pure Michigan” logo plastered atop a plain white plate. Most of their specialty plates are just the same thing with a logo slapped on the left. Again, many states are like that, but I can’t tolerate it from the state with General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.

I’m gonna tip my cap to their pretty good semiquincentennial plate this year, though. I think it’s significantly classier than most other states’ offerings of the same kind. It’s apparently a runback of their bicentennial plate, which won the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association Plate of the Year award back then. I can understand why.

The stripes at the bottom do sort of evoke a bacon strip, but maybe that’s appropriate for this cholesterolized country.

Minnesota

Official name: Critical Habitat - Pollinator
Benefits: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

In contrast to Maryland’s abundance, Minnesota doesn’t offer terribly many license plates, and frankly none of them are all that attractively designed. So by default, I’m going with the bee again (sorry).

They also have one for “remembering victims of impaired driving,” which is actually something kind of close to my heart, but on top of being a huge bummer, it doesn’t actually involve any charitable donations (it also does not cost more). I mean, I guess awareness is a valid reason to get it, but let’s stick with the pollinator plate, shall we?

I’ll at least give Minnesota props for hosting high-resolution images of their plates themselves. Past several on this list have not.

Mississippi

Official name: Mississippi Home of the Blues
Benefits: Mississippi Blues Foundation

Finally some good fucking plates again. No resident of Mississippi could go wrong representing their state’s finest cultural export, indeed one of the finest cultural exports of any place on Earth. The plate itself is a rather understated design, but so it goes. I’m a big fan.

Mississippi also has an interesting distinction of offering many plates to support various high schools. Collegiate plates are nearly ubiquitous in the United States, but high schools not so much. No fewer than two of those high schools (St. Martin and Starkville-Oktibbeha) apparently license Georgia Tech’s Buzz logo, so I’d recommend those as backups to anyone who hates the blues for some reason (???).

They’ve also got plates supporting a variety of other great conservation and awareness causes. And they’ve got plates for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. In the same state’s motor vehicle service offices, you can pick between that or the blues. If that ain’t an encapsulation of the South, I don’t know what is.

Missouri

Official name: Cave State
Benefits: Missouri Caves and Karst Conservancy

Missouri has some pretty mid options overall, but caves are cool as hell, so I’ll give ’em credit for that. Maybe they can “Show Me” around the next time I’m there. :^)

Montana

Official name: Kalispell Pee Wee Baseball
Benefits: Youth Baseball in the Flathead Valley

Montana’s bevvy of plate options should put to rest any notion that rural and low-population states can’t offer stylish options for your automobile. They’ve got tons, and good ones too. They’ve also got some terrible corny ones like their Back the Blue and three (!) Gadsden Flag options, but tons of states have those.

I chose Baseball Mountain as the best, which I stand by, but there are so many great options. There are not one but two great Glacier National Park options. There’s a Sasquatch plate. You got this excellent City of Laurel plate featuring a nice painting of a bison. There’s a Big Sky plate with an image of one of my favorite places on the planet. Two different bee options. A charming plate for Butte fans.

I could go on. All those are also hosted in big-ass resolutions on their website. Montana is putting on a show here. Good on ’em.

Nebraska

Official name: Corn Growers Association
Benefits: Department of Motor Vehicles Cash Fund, Highway Trust Fund

If you live in Nebraska, I think you gotta rock the corn plate. I think it should be their default plate. Perhaps their only plate. Corn state.

Nevada

Official name: Desert Conservation
Benefits: Clark County Desert Conservation Program

Nevada has a somewhat surprisingly weak selection, but this adorable tortoise puts the Silver State on its back. I would certainly respect and protect it.

I also love the desert, so any conservation efforts in that regard are okay by me.

Amusingly, Nevada also has a plate supporting its Atomic Testing Museum. Tickles me that there’s a plate celebrating all the nukes that have been set off there. Good for them.

New Hampshire

Official name: Conservation
Benefits: Various: https://www.mooseplate.com/projects/map/

New Hampshire has very few customization options, but it does have this cute moose plate. The programs that it benefits are also exceedingly well-documented, which is nice!

“LIVE FREE OR DIE” also goes insanely hard as a state motto and a fixture of New Hampshire’s plates.

New Jersey

Official name: Battleship
Benefits: Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial

I swear to god, if I have to see one more “Choose Life” plate, I am giving up on this whole thing. I’m not, of course, but it does seem like nearly every state has one. New Jersey is no exception. That’s despite offering rather few things overall.

Normally, I would not pick such a militaristic plate, but the USS New Jersey is actually the only thing I have ever seen/done in the Garden State. I budgeted roughly an hour for the tour, which was not nearly enough, so I sprinted through the back half of it to keep from missing my ferry ride back across the Delaware to Philly. Maybe one day I’ll get back to it for a fuller experience or back to Jersey to see literally anything else there. For now, it represents the extent of my lived experience in New Jersey.

New Mexico

Official name: Chile Plate
Benefits: N/A

Breaking the rules a bit, this plate is technically a standard plate requiring no additional fee, but I believe you do have to request it specifically. Anyway, it rules. Simple, iconic design featuring one of the world’s great foods. I don’t know how great New Mexico’s claim to being the “Chile Capital of the World” is, but sometimes you just gotta say shit. Georgia is like the third-largest producer of peaches? Whatever.

They also have a very cute little roadrunner plate, which would probably be my pick if I were being more of a stickler for my own rules. You can see it and all of New Mexico’s plates on their kind of terrible website.

New York

Official name: Birthplace of Baseball
Benefits: N/A

If there’s one thing that’s definitely true, it’s that Abner Doubleday invented baseball whole-cloth one day while sitting on a hill in Cooperstown, New York. That definitely happened.

Okay, maybe it didn’t, but the Knickerbocker Rules of early New York City baseball clubs essentially constitute the first codification of what we’d call baseball today, so New York certainly still gets to claim being the birthplace thereof. In the absence of many other compelling options, I’d probably use this plate if I found myself living in the Empire State of the North.

Amusingly, New York appears to be the only state that offers plates for all the Zodiac signs. Why not?

North Carolina

Official name: Georgia Tech
Benefits: Georgia Tech, maybe? N.C. code linked on website doesn’t actually say.

North Carolina and New York have put us back in low-res hell. Sorry.

Anyway, setting aside, we’re back to the good stuff. 😎 Go Jackets. I don’t even have to equivocate much on this one because North Carolina’s plates are otherwise pretty unremarkable.

North Dakota

Official name: Furry Friends
Benefits: Furry Friends Animal Rescue

Understandably, North Dakota has precious few options. None excite me terribly, but I could probably do worse than supporting an animal shelter.

In my recent visit to Fargo, I enjoyed stopping by the Roger Maris Museum. For a museum that is literally just one side of a mall entrance hallway, it’s pretty damned effective. They should have a plate for that.

Ohio

Official name: Truth, Justice, and the American Way
Benefits: Siegel & Shuster Society

Although I think Kansas would be a more fitting state for this plate, Superman was created by an Ohioan, so it’s a fair and reasonable claim. I also love that guy, so this was an easy pick for me even in a state with tons of options, such as the “Weirdo Cat Lovers of Cleveland”, among others.

The faintest embers of hope for the United States still burn within me. Like, for example, that the “American way” could one day reasonably sit aside the notions of “truth and justice” without seeming like a farce. Until then, all of us could aspire to be a bit more like the Man of Steel.

Oklahoma

Official name: Oklahoma History
Benefits: Oklahoma Historical Society Fund Education Purposes

Much of the land now known as Oklahoma was once called simply “Indian Territory” surely has rich Native American history worth preserving. Would be nice to support that. Plus, you get a cool bison and eagle on their, two great American icons.

The Okies have some rather attractive plates of the typical conservation and parks varities, including one with a horned lizard on it, which is cool and unique. You could do worse than Oklahoma’s offerings.

Oregon

Official name: Pacific Wonderland
Benefits: Oregon Historical Society and the Oregon State Capitol Foundation

This throwback plate was brought back for Oregon’s sesquicentennial, and I think it’s a nice, clean, classy look. I feel pretty confident this is what I’d have if I lived in the Beaver State.

They’ve also got a Crater Lake plate, another of the unbelievable bits of natural beauty in the United States. A solid secondary option, especially if I can ever actually get out there some day.

Pennsylvania

Official name: Keystone State Corvette Club
Benefits: Keystone State Corvette Club

Wow, Pennsylvania’s specialty plates are VERY boring. They nearly all look like this. I guess I’d put this one on my Corvette, which I own because I am a 65-year-old man in all ways but physical. Hell, maybe I’d put it on my daily as well for laughs. I love this cute tiger one too. Their railroad preservation plate also actually bucks the format with a pretty cool image of a locomotive. Weird that it’s one of the very few that do.

I assume part of the reason for the uniformity is that Pennsylvania offers 460 different plates. That’s gotta rival Maryland.

They also have a very funny “TEAM DUI” plate. As you can probably intuit, it supports an organization that is trying to reduce DUIs, but it is impossible not to parse it as the opposite.

Puerto Rico

Official name: Roberto Clemente 50th Anniversary of 3,000 hits
Benefits: Unable to confirm (Roberto Clemente Foundation perhaps?)

It’s been a bit difficult for me to research the license plates of Puerto Rico, but this one is cool enough that I wanted to highlight it. It honors the great Puerto Rican baseball player and humanitarian Roberto Clemente, famously a member of the 3,000 club at precisely 3,000 hits. His career and life were cut short by a plane crash while he was en route to Nicaragua to deliver aid after a devastating earthquake. A worthy national hero for Puerto Rico.

My stated rule for this post was to only cover plates one could currently register with. I think this was technically a one-year deal that is not currently available, but to the best of my ability to tell, the way Puerto Rico offers specialty plates is by doing one-year options like these. For example, it seems that their Make-A-Wish plate was indeed the default plate of 2020-2021. Interesting! I read and write enough Spanish that I’d have expected to have been able to dig up more definitive information about this than I have, but anyway, love the Clemente plate.

Rhode Island

Official name: Gaspee Days Committee
Benefits: Gaspee Days Committee

Little Rhody doesn’t have a ton of options, but it hardly matters when they’ve got something that goes as hard as this.

I’d never heard of it before seeing this place, but apparently the Gaspee Days Parade celebrates the June 9th, 1772, burning of the HMS Gaspee, a British schooner. Not to be overly jingoisitic, but an 18th-century British ship ablaze just warms the cockles of my heart.

South Carolina

Official name: Georgia Tech Foundation
Benefits: Scholarship fund for Georgia Tech students from South Carolina

All of South Carolina’s specialty plates use this rather boring format, so with flagrant disregard for any other option, I’m gonna say you can’t beat repping the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

I also gotta give credit to South Carolina for having an “In God We Trust” plate as well as an “In Reason We Trust” plate (the latter being for the Secular Humanists of the Low Country, apparently). That shit is pretty funny.

South Dakota

Official name: Dignity Sculpture
Benefits: N/A (additional fee is one-time and seems to just go to treasury)

South Dakota is on similar footing to New Hampshire and others with precious few customization options. Nevertheless, they do offer this plate, which features the face of the enormous Dignity of Earth and Sky sculpture, which looks extremely cool. In any case, it’s gotta be better than the default Mount Rushmore plate.

Tennessee

Official name: Georgia Tech
Benefits: Tennessee Arts Commission (80%) and the Highway Fund (20%)

My beloved original home state of Tennessee has, in my opinion, an even better Georgia Tech plate than my adopted home of Georgia. That is by virtue of its inclusion of Buzz, one of collegiate sports’ finest logos. It’s pretty plain otherwise, but I love that guy.

Although I was born and raised in Tennessee, I never had this plate. I was fortunate enough to get my own car when I turned 16, but I sported the rather boring default plate of the time. Perhaps I could’ve talked my dad into getting me a Tech plate as a gift for having been admitted to Georgia Tech, but I imagine he’d have chafed at the annual renewal fees. Alas.

I think Tennessee’s modern default plate is one of the better in the country. My only grievance is that they are no longer shaped like the state of Tennessee, which they were many decades ago. Gotta bring that back.

Texas

Official name: Save Texas Ocelots
Benefits: Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge

WOW, don’t you love this sweet ocelot? I want to save it. You should too. Buy a Save Texas Ocelots license plate today.

Texas is in company with the biggest of them, offering over 500 different license plates. It may not surprise you to know that dozens of them are just various Texas-themed plate designs. Proud of their state, those people are. A bit odd. Still, I respect the flexibility. In terms of colorways alone, they offer a great many ways to match your car’s paint if you are inclined in that direction.

For reasons unknown to me, they recently discontinued their perfectly good Georgia Tech plate, though. Loses them a lot of points for me.

Utah

Official name: Support Public Education
Benefits: Utah Association of Public School Foundations

Utah is another state with pretty boring options, mostly left-aligned logos on a standard white field. They have the standard good stuff like park and wildlife conservancy, but I’ve done a few of those now. Let’s go with public education this time. We love public education. Keep it woke, baby.

Vermont

Official name: Conservation
Benefits: Nongame Wildlife Fund and Watershed Grant Fund

Pretty much every state has a plate with a dumbass-looking fish (not their fault, they all look dumb). Vermont is the only one without many stronger options. Its your day, Mr. Trout. You win best plate in the state of Vermont.

Virgin Islands of the United States

Official name: Friends Of The Park
Benefits: Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park

If you’re surprised that the Virgin Islands have a specialty plate at all, that makes two of us. To the best of my ability to tell, this is the only one currently. It looks like they have at least at times offered Olympics-themed plates as well, including maybe now. Aside from those, they don’t even seem to offer the military plates nearly everyone else does.

Anyway, this turtle plate is pretty cute. Worth shelling out for.

Virginia

Official name: Georgia Tech
Benefits: Georgia Tech, probably

Virginia, which I understand is for lovers, has exceedingly plain plates. It also has the highest rate of vanity plate purchases per capita, which I suppose helps offset that plainness a bit.

The funniest plate the Old Dominion Commonwealth offers is “Tobacco Heritage”, which just says that along the bottom and has a tobacco plant on the left. Incredible thing to be proud of. It’s better than the ROBERT E. LEE license plate, though, which is the same thing but with his name and face. Jesus Christ. I don’t even want to know what the proceeds from that benefit.

Anyway, there was never any doubt what my choice would be. Fortunately for you, there are no states left on the alphabetical list that offer a Tech plate to affix to one’s Ramblin’ Wreck. A shame.

As a final note, I believe Virginia is the only state that offers a Georgia Tech plate but not a University of Georgia plate. I love that very much.

Washington

Official name: Seattle Mariners
Benefits: Washington World Fellows, Washington Sports Mentorship Grant Program

When I lived in Washington for awhile, I actually just used the standard plate, which is acceptable but nothing special. While I lived there, I adopted the lovable Mariners as my American League team and attended many games. My latest visit to T-Mobile Park was for the 2023 All-Star Game. I’ve got to get back soon.

I appreciate that rather than going to some nebulous “Seattle Mariners Foundation” or whatever, proceeds from this plate seem to go to something that may actually be kind of decent.

West Virginia

Official name: Bowlers
Benefits: WV Bowlers Association

You may not be a golfer, but with this plate, you can prove you are a bowler. Or you can at least strongly imply that you are. I think this is very funny. More hobbies should have plates. I should be able to buy a video game collector license plate. Why not??? Put Diskun on there.

West Virginia’s classic car plate also puts Michigan’s entire library to shame. All those classic American muscle cars. What the fuck are you doing, Michigan?

Wisconsin

Official name: Ice Age Trail
Benefits: Ice Age Trail Alliance

Wisconsin is another state whose options I was largely underwhelmed by, but the concept of an “Ice Age Trail” appeals to me greatly. So does having a mammoth on my license plate. So it’s not a total strikeout.

My only visit to Wisconsin was to the beautiful Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Kayaking Devils Island is the stuff of dreams. Look it up. If you ask me, they should make a license plate for that conservancy or something.

Wyoming

Official name: Rodeo
Benefits: None, but orderers are asked if they’d like to donate to college rodeo programs

Wyoming offers very few specialty plates, and somehow this one is the most aesthetically pleasing. Can’t blame the sparsely populated rectangle, but I was hoping for something a little more exciting. Give me a Devils Tower plate! That place is cool. Or, y’know, Yellowstone.

Alas.

That’s all folks

If you actually read all that stuff, thanks so much. Sincerely. It takes forever to write about 50+ things, even if you only write a few sentences about each one!

I obviously hit every state, and I think I covered every U.S. territory that offers any non-standard options of note. Happy to be corrected if I’m wrong.

Thanks again for reading. I hope this was somewhat enjoyable, and I hope it gives you something to look for on the road to help stave off the highway hypnosis. See you out there.