New Jersey License Plates

New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission provides New Jersey motorists with many choices of license plates. When you title and register a vehicle in New Jersey, the Motor Vehicle Commission will issue you two New Jersey license plates for the front and back bumper of your car. Trailers, motorcycles, and mopeds are only issued one license plate. Standard-issue New Jersey license plates are yellow with black letters with the state's motto, "Garden State," on the bottom of the plate.

Personalized New Jersey License Plates

By New Jersey law, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission allows drivers to get personalized New Jersey license plates, or vanity plates. A personalized license plate must have at least 3 letters and a maximum of 7 characters (numbers and letters). You can put a message on your New Jersey license plate for a one-time fee of just $50, along with the regular registration fee. In order to get an application for your personalized license plate, you can go to your nearest Motor Vehicle Commission Agency or call (888) 486-3339 to have a copy of the application form sent to you. Additionally, you can apply for personalized plates online through the Motor Vehicle Commission. However, if you are leasing your vehicle, you will not be able to use this method.

Dedicated and Specialty New Jersey License Plates

New Jersey also offers special interest, or dedicated, plates and specialty organization plates. Special interest plates promote different causes. These plates include Animal Friendly, Olympic Spirit, Shore to Please, USS New Jersey Battleship, Organ Donor, United We Stand, and more. Most of these require an initial $50 fee along with a $10 fee to renew it annually. If you want to personalize a special interest plate with up to five characters, it will cost $100 initially with the same renewal fee.

Some nonprofit organizations offer specialty plates for a small fee in addition to the normal registration fees. You can contact the coordinator of that license plate and get their approval. Depending on the organization, these specialty New Jersey license plates can cost from $15 to $50.

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