There are a number of specialized license plates available in Florida for just about any interest out there. There are plates for colleges and universities, professional sports, air force and navy, and child welfare, as well as environmental ones such as the popular "Save the Manatee." You can also get license plates that display specific letters that you choose. Getting either of these plates is fairly simple to do and the requirements are easy to follow. Here are some of the key points:
Cost
There is an annual fee in addition to the processing fees and registration taxes. These fees are relatively low, usually ranging from about $15-$25. This annual fee benefits whatever cause, school, organization, etc. that the tag represents. By obtaining a specialty plate, you'll be continually supporting a good cause and something that you likely care about. For the personalized tags which are ones with letters and numbers of your choice, there is an additional annual cost of $15 to $25. One can have a specialty plate that is personalized but both additional fees will be required.
Character Limits
The normal license plate allows for 7 characters plus a space or hyphen, but many of the specialty plates have logos that take up extra room and leave only space for 5 characters without spaces. If you are looking to have your specialty plate personalized with letters and numbers of your choice, there will be limits on the things you can place on the plate and it will have to be sent for approval to the state DMV before it can be issued.
Who Can Get Them
Any person can choose to get a specialty or personalized plate as long the proper fees are paid. However, special logos and images don't fit on motorcycle plates and for this reason you cannot obtain a specialty or personalized plate for a motorcycle. The same applies to boats since they aren’t actually issued plates but the vessel name can be registered with the state as way to personalize it.
Things You Can't Cut on a Personalized Plate
If you are a vegan hoping to put ILUVTOFU on your plates, you may be out of luck. This plate has been banned before for looking more like an abbreviated obscenity than a reference to bean curd. In fact, anything that could be construed as racist, sexist, sexual in nature, a curse word, or just generally offensive could be denied outright. If you try to be clever and manage to get your reference past the people processing it, other drivers could lodge a complaint that may strip you of the tags down the line. So choose your message carefully!
These are just some of the basics of either getting specialty plates, personalizing your plates or both! Keep these things in mind when applying for and renewing your tags and deciding what your new plates will look like.
