License plate

A license plate or number plate is a small metal plate attached to a vehicle. The plate has a serial number on it which uniquely identifies the vehicle.

In Canada and the United States, license plates are issued by provinicial/territorial/state governments. Their appearance is frequently chosen to contain state symbols or colours. The license plate number's format is chosen to provide enough numbers for all the motor vehicles in the state: Rhode Island, the smallest state, uses the format LLNNN, while California and other populous states use NLLLNNN, where N is a number and L is a letter. Plates on trucks may have different formats such as NLNNNNN.

People can pay extra and get vanity plates: license plates with custom messages on them. Vanity plates are not allowed to have profane or obscene messages on them, and of course they must also be unique.