Comment by jrochkind1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jrochkind1 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

As far as I could tell, my options for doing that were:

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.

I came home from a motorcycle ride one day and my plate was simply gone. It fell off somewhere out in the highway.

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.

This is a great solution. People take their plates off to clean grime off. If you did that and did a lousy job putting the screws back in then nature would likely take its course.

> Paying $20 and then $10/year forever for a "specialty" plate.

Relatively cheap compared to many other states.

You have to pay yearly for a specialty plate on top of registration fees? Is this a Maryland thing or have I been lucky enough to only get a specialty plate in a state that charged a one time fee?

Yes, in Maryland. Every state is different (i'd imagine not every state even has "specialty" plates), I don't know what's more common.

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.

In Florida, the fees paid for specialty plates are given directly to an organization which established the plate -- typically a charitable organization. So they're a way to support, while also providing personalization. The $25/year for my plate goes directly to my alma mater. Even Disney set up their plates to go to the Make a Wish Foundation.

I pay $100 a year for WI specialty plates.

You can damage it yourself. Seems pretty straightforward.

Probably against the law (especially if you plan on continuing to drive the car waiting for replacements), but you'd probably get away with it. (more risky if you or your car attract police who want an excuse to mess with you). Good answer though.

If you don't want to feel like you're lying you can consider the URL now pointing to a gambling site to be damage. It's effectively been defaced.

Does the new one look similar to the old one, just with a different border?

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

Or a piece of blue tape.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com