can't you just get a different license plate if you want to though
1. Reporting my plate as stolen or damaged (assume there's a replacement fee, don't know how much)
2. Paying $20 and then $10/year forever for a "specialty" plate.
Granted, even though I'm complaining about this like a grumpy old man, I have spent probably 20 minutes on three occasions looking into it by googling. If someone can find a free way (or even reasonable one-time fee) for me to get a standard plate without having to lie about it being stolen or damaged (or getting someone to steal or damage it haha), do point me to the procedure. In general, as expected, doing most anything with the MVA is a really confusing maze of bureaucracy, so I have some conditioned fear of trying it even if there is a procedure (but I haven't found one).
I am now wondering what, say, Jehovah's Witnesses did, I bet they and/or other religious groups would not be okay with a flag on their car for religious reasons.
But I imagined the whole reason they have "specialty" plates is revenue generation?
https://mva.maryland.gov/about-mva/Pages/info/27300/27300-29...
I think "specialty" plates are silly. I am old enough to remember when there was one option, and for every state it was white letters on a different solid color background, and that was fine.
If my level of bother for the website would have been higher than my appetite for legal risk I'd be checking the statutes and covering it with a proper paint job that does not damage the actual plate info
I’m pretty sure I didn’t have exclusive rights in to badly tightened bolts.
This was in CA, but there was no police report or anything. I imagine plates fly off cars with some routine each year all over the country.
Contact your DMV and look up what’s involved with replacing a lost plate. At most they’ll likely want the matching pair (I assume they come in pairs in MD) back and a small fee.
Relatively cheap compared to many other states.
The phrases show poor empathy on your part: It's a hassle to go to the RMV and get another plate, it's a hassle to update any place where your plate needs to be registered, it costs money...
Those aren't legal, although you can probably get away with them for a while.
But you can choose from many different suppliers.
Here in the US, you have to get them from the DMV, but the legibility requirements are so low. The backgrounds, narrow font, and minimal reflectivity all make them much worse than those in the UK and Europe.
(Lack of enforcement is also a problem: I lived in the UK for ~10x the time I've lived in the US, but in the US I've seen ~10x as many cars with missing numberplates.