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The personalized license plate (PLP) is not strictly an American phenomenon. Several other nations offer their citizens the opportunity to express themselves via their automobile license plates. The Internet License Plate Directory features cringe-inducing web-themed personalized license plates from several countries, including Canada. This company has been offering personalized license plates in the United Kingdom for over 23 years. They are also apparently quite common in Australia and New Zealand. Beyond that, however, the picture becomes murky.
We confirmed at least the past existence of PLPs in Austria, Denmark, Guam, and Sweden. But the advent of the EU license plate, which, as far as we can determine, is unpersonalizable, has clearly silenced many voices crying out to be heard. In researching this topic, we unwittingly stumbled onto a huge subculture of license plate enthusiasts. Pretty much every license plate on the planet is currently viewable at the exhaustively researched License Plates of the World. Finally, we found an urban legend about the unfortunate man
who received thousands of unpaid parking tickets because his PLP read "NO PLATE." This urban legend is, in fact, all too true.
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