License Plates


People collect all sorts of things (stamps, coins, postcards, baseball cards, etc).   Why not old license plates?


Over the years, I have kept pretty much all the license plates that I have been allowed to keep.


In some states, the license plate stays with the car, in others, the plates go with the person.  In the State of Texas, regular license plates generally stay with the vehicle, however, if you have a "personalized" (i.e.: vanity) license plate, then that plate goes with you to the next vehicle (or if you sell your vehicle, you can take off the old regular plate off before handing over your vehicle to the buyer)


On this webpage you can view the various licenses plates that I currently have in my small collection.     


Michigan 1979 License plate

This was the 2nd plate I ever had, and was on a 1972 Audi 100LS that I drove during my college years.  

When I lived in Kentucky, I had this on my Audi Coupe GT. Since Kentucky limited you to 6 characters at the time, I had to use AUDIGT instead of "AUDI  GT".  Given the "Kentucky way" of saying things, some of my colleages asked what does "Aw dig it" mean?  I mean really, on the trunk lid, right next to the plate it said "AUDI GT" as well... sigh....

Standard motorcycle plate that I had in 1988, just kind of basic and ugly.  I changed that the next year (see below).

My motorcycle in Kentucky also ended up with a custom plate. In this case, SYNTAX refers to the Public Access TV Show that I helped to produce in my college days in the early 1980's 

After my SYNTAX plate in 1989, I decided to get a different custom plate for my motorcycle.   I mean, "WHY NOT", right?

After my 2nd year in Kentucky, their custom plates started to look nicer.  I figured that saying "hello" ("GRUEZI" in Swiss) would be nice to have on a plate (and normally you'd have to be from Switzerland to know what this means, which is basically derived from the German phrase "Gruesse Sie" - meaning "greetings to you").

This shows me in Kentucky in the late 1980's with my car & motorcycle and the custom plates (shown above).

The car was a 1986 Audi Coupe GT, the motorcycle a 1982 Honda Nighthawk 450.

This plate plate was on a car that had belonged to my ex-wife.  She got the inspiration from some Bruce Willis movie from the 1990's from what I remember...
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