The U.S. state of Virginia first required its residents to register their motor vehicles and display license plates in 1906. , plates are issued by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Front and rear plates are required for most classes of vehicles, while only rear plates are required for motorcycles and trailers.
As of 2008, the DMV has 7,698,416 active registrations, 1,696,795 (22%) of which are special or personalized plates. One out of every ten personalized license plates in the United States is registered to a Virginian driver. The high take-up of vanity plates in the state is arguably due to the fact that, unlike in many other states, a personalized plate in Virginia costs just $10 more than a randomly-assigned registration plate. In 2008, 1,624,146 pairs of license plates were sold, with 831,361 of them being personalized plates.
In 1956, the United States, Canada, and Mexico came to an agreement with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the Automobile Manufacturers Association and the National Safety Council that standardized the size for license plates for vehicles (except those for motorcycles) at in height by in width, with standardized mounting holes. The first Virginian license plate that complied with these standards was issued eight years beforehand, in 1948.
No slogans were used on passenger plates during the period covered by this subsection.
Virginia offers 333 optional license plates.https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/license-plates/search Most can be personalized for an additional fee. Listed below are the most popular of those available optionals.
The format for the majority of Virginia specialty license plates is 1234AB and AB1234. Below is a table with the prefixes and suffixes of all of the specialty license plates for Virginia.