Delaware Administrative Code
Title 2 - Transportation
2000 - Department of Transportation
2200 - Division of Motor Vehicles
Vehicle Services
2285 - Vanity Tag Regulation
Section 2285-1.0 - Special Note
Current through Register Vol. 28, No. 3, September 1, 2024
1.1 Motor vehicle specialists must be extremely careful when issuing vanity license plates to ensure obscene plates are not issued. Plates that make unflattering statements about any particular group or raise politically sensitive issues should be referred to the Dover Administrative Office for approval or denial. Motor vehicle specialists in the facilities should allow another specialist to review a vanity license plate request before approving the order. The Dover Administrative Office will ensure two specialists review the order before ordering a license plate.
1.2 Final approval or denial on any sensitive plates will be made by a committee consisting of the Dover Registration Supervisor, Dover Senior Support Supervisor, and the Clean Air Administrator/Chief of Vehicles Services or Chief of Operations.
1.3 Motor vehicle specialists may disapprove obscene license plates without referral to the Dover Administrative Office. Customers who wish to appeal a plate denial will be referred to the Dover Registration Supervisor (302 744 2539).
1.4 The following combinations of letters/numerals shall not be issued due to potential conflicts with existing license plates: Any special license plate prefix...
| "A" | FOLLOWED BY A NUMBER OR NUMBERS |
| "C" | " |
| "CT" | " |
| "CY" | " |
| "D" | " |
| DAV" | " |
| "DX" | " |
| "F" | " |
| "FD" | " |
| "FT" | " |
| "HA" | " |
| "I" | " |
| "I" | FOLLOWED BY "I", "O" OR ANY OTHER NUMBERS (ALSO ANY COMBINATION OF "I" AND "1" OR "I" AND "0") NO ROMAN NUMERALS EXCEPT WHEN USED AS A SUFFIX TO A CUSTOMER'S INITIALS |
| "MC" | FOLLOWED BY A NUMBER OR NUMBERS |
| "MCB" | " |
| "MCE" | " |
| "MCJ" | " |
| "MH" | " |
| "MIA" | " |
| "MP" | " |
| "NO 1" | OR "NO-1" |
| "NO 2" | OR" NO-2" |
| "NO 3" | OR "NO-3" |
| "O" | OR "O's" |
| "O" | FOLLOWED BY "I", "1" OR "0" (ALSO ANY COMBINATION OF "O", "I", "1" OR "0". ALL "O's" ARE ACCEPTABLE TO BE ISSUED) |
| "PC" | FOLLOWED BY A NUMBER OR NUMBERS |
| "POW" | " |
| "R" | " |
| "RT" | " |
| "RV" | " |
| "S" | " |
| "SR" | " |
| "T" | " |
| "TC" | " |
| "TX" | " |
1.5 No vanity plate shall be issued that would be a duplicate of a Delaware license plate already issued.
1.6 The same combination of letters or letters and numerals shall not be issued for more than one motor vehicle.
1.7 No vanity plate shall be issued that is considered to be obscene by the Division of Motor Vehicles.
1.8 Vanity plates that are not blue & gold are illegal and cannot be displayed on any vehicle.
1.9 The Division shall issue vanity plates with smaller than normal letters only when such smaller letters are used as a suffix to a customer's initials. Examples of this are: "SR", "JR", "II" or "III". Under no conditions is the Division to issue smaller letters as a prefix or in the middle of a set of initials, except to elected officials.
1.10 A space may be inserted between any given letter or numeral on a vanity plate. However, the space will count as one letter. A maximum of two (2) will be allotted. Examples of this are: "HV TV", "TRS MS", "XY TMY", "J S R" or "JS R".
1.11 Commas, periods or other punctuation marks are not permitted on vanity plates with the following exception: A maximum of two (2) hyphens may be used between letters and numerals. A maximum of two (2) ampersands (&) may be used between letters and numerals. The hyphen and ampersand will count as one letter for each. The hyphen and ampersand will not be loaded into the computer. Examples: Vanity plate "JS BS" or "JS&BS" will be loaded into the computer as "JSBS"; vanity plate "J B S", "J B S" or "J&B&S" will be loaded as "JBS". A vanity plate cannot be issued for "JS&BS" if a vanity plate has already been issued for "JS BS" or "JS BS".
