Vermont license plates have frequently featured a green and white color scheme, while Alaska has preferred yellow and blue.

Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina,[12] Tennessee and Virginia have placed the address of the state's official or tourism web site on their general issue plates.

As of 2023, the four oldest plate designs in use – each with slight to moderate cosmetic changes since inception – are that of Delaware (in production since 1959), Colorado (since 1960, continuously since 1978), the District of Columbia (since 1975) and Minnesota (since 1978).

Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Oregon, and Washington do so only for certain types of license plates, such as vanity plates and special issues; Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia have switched to the so-called flat-plate technology for all their license plates with Rhode Island being the latest, changing in January 2023.

In 2018, California started a pilot program in which the city of Sacramento issued license plates on battery-powered digital displays, for an extra fee.

[19] Maryland previously mandated that all license plates be replaced every five years (except for apportioned trailers, which were registered on an eight-year schedule), but has not done so since 1986.

[3] For example, North Carolina previously issued separate month and year decals, but recently switched to a single sticker.

[3] In the District of Columbia, the license plate is validated with a windshield sticker that indicates the expiration date in MM/DD/YY format, the license plate number, the year and make of vehicle, and part of the vehicle identification number, allowing easier fraud detection, in addition to serving as a parking permit for neighborhood residents.

[1] One significant exception is active duty military service members; under federal law, they do not change their legal residence (domicile) upon moving to a new posting and are not obliged to obtain new vehicle registrations.

As a result, the law required front and rear license plates on passenger vehicles, but stated no penalty for non compliance.

[50] In 2016, the Iowa General Assembly attempted to pass a law that exempts "vintage" vehicles and two-seat, low-profile sports cars, like Corvettes, from the front license plate requirement.

Vanity plates sometimes cause unexpected difficulties for their owners when they contain messages that are otherwise default filler text in state and federal computer systems.

States often issue plates with their motto or slogan, such as North Carolina's "First in Flight" and Ohio's "Birthplace of Aviation".

Over the years, due to sensitivities over the word "Dixie", the symbol (which currently resides in white letters inside a red heart) has been shrunken to the minimum size.

For instance, George Maynard did not like the state motto on his New Hampshire license plate, "Live free or die", because he and his wife felt it repugnant to their beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses and chose to cover it with tape.

In Georgia and Minnesota, drunk drivers may be ordered to display a plate with a special numbering system indicating restricted driving privileges.

For example the United States Air Force plates begin with AF, two number representing the two digit year the vehicle was put into service, a letter representing the vehicle class, and a 5 digit serial number Federal Bureau of Prison plates start with J (for Department of Justice) followed by 3 numbers, and a 3 letter code indicating which federal prison the vehicle is attached to except for inmate transfer buses which are assigned the code BUS.

Many states issue license plates to members of certain professions who require some sort of special privileges, such as parking or going behind police lines.

Examples include plates for members of the press, doctors, nurses, EMTs, paramedics, volunteer firefighters, judges, medical examiners, and elected officials.

In Vermont, municipal government plates have a red background instead of the usual green background with the letters "MUN" stacked to the right of the serial; State Police plates are green with yellow lettering instead of white, matching the color scheme of VSP patrol vehicles.

In North Dakota, government vehicles have the standard background and affix the code "OFCL" vertically before the plate number.

For example STP1234 Pennsylvania issues a white on blue (blue on white on earlier plates, some still in use) plate for state-owned vehicles (PA prefix/suffix which carry the OFFICIAL USE legend), municipal (MG prefix or suffix) and vehicles that are owned by Penn State, which carry the STATE UNIVERSITY legend.

In Honolulu, Hawaii, the license plates on TheBus matches the fleet number of the bus they are assigned to, using a BUS-123 format.

In some cases, such as New York City, the fleet number of the vehicle is put on a flat license plate using heat transferred letters.

In some examples, Government owned or police civilian cars will have a standard passenger plate but will not have an expiration date or sticker in the top corners.

Many states issue special plates to automobile dealers, auto repair shops, farms, and construction contractors, which are not tied to any particular vehicle.

As a result, they hold a number of "floating" registrations that enable them to legally drive multiple vehicles on the public streets.

Most states allow dealer plates to be used only by a dealership owner, officer, or employee, or by a customer who is test driving an automobile.

This is because representatives of certain countries are limited to travel to certain radii from their base, and the system allows the city of assignment to be identified easily.

[110] Certain U.S. states issue honorary consul plates to U.S. citizens who have been appointed to that office and perform consular functions on a part-time basis.