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@TechConnectify Interesting that the USA is still stamping licence plates. The UK stopped doing this back in the 1970s. There was a brief period of vinyl over metal. Nowadays it's black vinyl under methacrylate with a highly reflective backing. There has recently been a spate of barely legal "3D" plates with plastic letters stuck to the front of a reflective plate. (Now outlawed for new cars.)

And you don't need to get a plate made by the government. Most auto supplies shops can do it.

@nowster plenty of states don't these days, but to be honest I don't see a reason not to other than to make the process a little cheaper. It certainly makes fake plates easy to spot.

On the point of dealerships, some of them are given a supply of pre-made plates from the state. Others, though, register your car with a temporary plate and then you get a real one in the mail in a month or so.

@TechConnectify Fake plates aren't a huge problem. Criminals have been known to steal real plates off a similar looking car. Reputable plate makers ask to see your vehicle registration documents before making a replacement plate.

German plates are fun. The font is designed to make it incredibly difficult to use black tape to change one character to a similar one (eg. 1 to 4, 5 to 9).

@nowster I mean, it's not like it's a /huge/ problem but it is a problem.

But also, in much of the US the plate has nothing to do with the car. There is no encoding in it about make, model year, registration date, anything like that. It's just a serial number, and you are able to save money when you get a new car by transferring your old plate to the new one.

Here in Illinois, the plates belong to you. And when you sell the car, you take them off. Don't want em? Drop them in a mailbox