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Maryland adopts a new license plate

MD's existing plate
Old and busted.

The new design
New hotness?

Photo of existing plate from StateSymbolsUSA. New plate image courtesy MD MVA.

Starting today Maryland has a new basic license plate. People registering cars in the state will from now on receive the red and blue 1812 design (bottom right), rather than the now-retired black and white design (top right).

The bad news is whoa that’s an ugly license plate. The clip-art look wasn’t cool in the 90s and certainly isn’t cool now, and the best thing that can be said about that font is at least it’s not comic sans. The feedback in Dr. Gridlock’s poll on the subject is almost universally negative.

The good news is that hey, it’s only a license plate. What does it really matter? Also, in 5 years the state will retire this design and start over. Apparently they’re just doing it to mark the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, and will cease issuing the plates in 2015.

My advice to the Motor Vehicle Administration: Bring back the person who designed the original Chesapeake Bay plate. Now that was an attractive piece of metal.

June 14th, 2010 | Permalink
Tags: roads/cars, transportation



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