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An expired Statue of Liberty plate.Unlike other states, New York State license plates characters are not secret codes or traced to special geographic designations. The digits are randomly selected six- or seven-character codes. New York standardized its license plate program in the 1950s, issuing blue metal plates with yellow raised characters. Until 1974, all license plates included a letter indicating the county of registry. In 1974, the state inverted the colors, using yellow tags with blue lettering. This continued through the mid-1980s, when the state switched to a white plate with an illustration of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. The statue was included to commemorate its 100th anniversary. This series was cycled out after the turn of the century, when the new Empire plates were introduced in 2001. - New York State allows two classes of vehicles to carry special license plates. The historical class applies to cars older than 25 years. Once the vehicle passes into the 26th year after it was built, the car owner can apply for historical status. This entitles the car to use special plates with the letters HX in the number. Vintage status permits car owners to obtain historical plates correct for the car's time period. Therefore, an owner of a 1970 vehicle could purchase plates made in 1970 and use them on his or her car. The plates must meet New York State standards for appearance and the car must be historically registered. Plates are generally available for purchase from antique dealers or license plate enthusiasts. The state does not sell vintage plates.
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New York does offer drivers to opportunity to purchase personalized vanity plates. These seven-character license plates can include most combinations of letters and numbers--plates must have at least one letter and cannot consist of six numbers followed by one letter. Any wording on the plate must not allude to being connected with a government agency or, according to the DMV, be "obscene, lewd, lascivious, derogatory to a particular ethnic or other group, or patently offensive." The DMV is the arbiter of those standards.
Personalized plates are renewable annually at an additional fee. -
New York is one of the few states in the nation that allows logos of sports teams or organizations to be placed on its license plates. The state has licensing agreements with Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Hockey League, NASCAR and National Basketball Association, as well as minor league teams located within the state. The state also has agreements with a number of colleges, including Syracuse University and the United States Military Academy, to place their logos on the plates.
Drivers can also identify themselves as hobbyists or from a particular place in the state. Car owners can purchase plates signifying themselves as residents of a particular region of the state, as a Ham radio operator, volunteer firefighter or Civil Air Patrol member. In addition, veterans can also purchase plates signifying branch of service or war.
Each plate requires payment of a special fee each year, in addition to normal registration costs. - Drivers in New York State do not own the license plates on their cars. The plates are technically property of the state. Therefore, the plates must be surrendered to the department of motor vehicles upon request or in certain instances. If liability insurance lapses, the DMV reserves the right to demand the return of the plates. When a car is sold or ownership changes hands, the previous owner must turn in the plates to the DMV as part of relinquishing his or her ownership of the vehicle.
Comments
charlesmanu said
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charlesmanu said
on 11/7/2009 Hi, I just want to ask a question regarding the application for vanity plates, what are the requirements and how much will it cost? I've read this article in www.dmv.com/tx/texas and I'm planning to have one.