New Hampshire License Plates

Spotted on the Bedford/Amherst town line

The current base began issue in January, 1999, replacing all previous bases by the end of March, 2000.

Tom Castelli reports that NH started the new issue with 999 999 and worked back to 100 000, then began up from 100 0000. Jason reports that as NH plates were working down, 5 digit numbers were being assigned in late 2000 and early 2001. Vanity plates with 7 characters were not available until several years after 7 digit passenger plates appeared.

Low: 999 820

High: 104 264

Low for 100 0000 series: 100 3103 2014-01-06 Gunther Frostyburger

Larry David - 22 Oct ’23

Larry David - 14 Oct ’18

Larry David - 6 Feb ’15

Spotted in Manchester.

Ryan - 26 May ’22

Jeff Fortier - 12 Sep ’23

OFFICIAL spelled out diagonally before number.

Larry David - 16 Jun ’12

Al Matthews - 25 Mar ’06

Larry David - 22 Sep ’21

OFFICIAL spelled out to the left of the number.

Larry David - 21 Nov ’14

OFFICIAL spelled out diagonally before number.

Larry David - 17 Oct ’08

OFFICIAL spelled out diagonally before number.

Kit - 11 May ’21

OFFICIAL spelled out diagonally before number.

Larry David - 6 Apr ’15

Larry David - 2 Sep ’06

Spotted in Dover

OFFICIAL spelled out diagonally before number.

Larry David - 22 Sep ’15

A new series for Municipal Police is now in use. These plates are blue on white without the Old Man graphic, and have M/P stacked on the left, followed by two sets of numerals. The first three are an identification of the police authority, which varies from town to town and city to city. The second number is a sequence of vehicle numbers associated with that authority. A small town may have only one vehicle, in which case the plate number would be M/P XXX 1.

Heriberto Tapia - 30 Sep ’22

OFFICIAL spelled out in column to the left of the number.

Larry David - 11 Dec ’12

Green on white. Similar to Motorcycle plate.

Jacco Hoekstra - 30 Dec ’21

No longer with embossed border

Don - 2 Jun ’22

Wheelchair symbol followed by number.

Larry David - 9 Apr ’20

OFFICIAL stacked to the left, and tag numbers SW followed by the numerals.

These vans are driven by NH Lottery employees as they make their rounds from store to store that offers lottery tickets. These employees restock the tickets and program the lottery machines.

Why SW? The NH Lottery used to be known as the New Hampshire SWeepstakes.

Larry David - 4 Nov ’14

Larry David - 30 Mar ’22

SPEC COMM, in two columns to left of number.

Larry David - 6 Jun ’13

OFFICIAL spelled out vertically to left of COR.

Larry David - 19 Mar ’10

Unsure of the actual design of these; the design shown here is based on other official plates.

Larry David - 4 Jan ’07

OFFICIAL spelled out to the left of the number.

State Library book vans use these plates.

Larry David - 25 Jul ’14

OFFICIAL spelled vertically to left of number.

Larry David - 14 Aug ’09

Jacco Hoekstra - 20 Nov ’21

Larry David - 2 Sep ’19

Seen in Epping

Jason Taylor advises that NH issues several types of Temporary plates. The type with red numbers is issued by dealers for use after a sale and is good for 30 days. The type with black numbers is more of a temporary transit plate and has the expiration hand written at the bottom. Both of these types are 6 digit numeric. The third type has a hand written vanity registration and is used while vanity plates are being made.

After years of returning to 000001 after hitting 999999, it appears they have expanded the red Temporary plates to 7 digits now.

There is some possibility that the black number type is now only being issued from the state and town halls, while the red number plates are just from dealers.

Larry David - 6 Dec ’22

Spotted in Bedford

This is the new trailer series that began after TZ 9999. The new plates have the more narrow dies of the 2000 issue.

Larry David - 24 Oct ’23

This type is issued to vehicles owned by the University of New Hampshire (such as campus busses, university police, maintenance vehicles). Standard pre-2000 base (green-on-white) with no special markings.

Tom Castelli - 23 Apr ’07

Conservation Heritage

Spotted in Bedford

Started at C/H1C and went through C/H9999C, then C/H100C0 and up. The letter was always C. The C/H10C00 series was issued through C/H99C99, then the C/H1C000 series was used, followed by the C/H C1000 series. Then the letter changed to H and the C/H1H and up series was issued, then the C/H 100H0 series, and then the C/H10H00 series, then C/H1H000, and now C/H H1000 is in use.

Larry David - 14 Nov ’23

Moose plate with a state park admission sticker to the right of the digits. Started at 100A or 1A, but probably the latter.

Larry David - 3 Oct ’22

Spotted in Milford.

State Parks sticker to the left of the numerals and the Old Man to the right. The numbering probably started at 100000.

From Tom Castelli: Having this specialty plate (issued for an extra $85 annual fee plus $8 one-time application fee) grants free admission for the car's driver and all passengers to any New Hampshire State Park. Also issued in Moose (conservation) variety.

Larry David - 5 Apr ’20

NEW HAMPSHIRE is spelled out in blue on top, LIVE FREE OR DIE in red below that, a bar of five white stars on blue on the left edge, and a bar of red stripes on white on the right edge. Blue numerals on a white background between the stars and stripes. Below that are the words ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY in blue. The plates likely start at 10001.

Kyle Wasson - 9 Mar ’20

American flag to the left of the number, wheelchair symbol to the right of the number. Numbering began at 1. The first plate was spotted by Larry David in Dublin, NH on 2016-02-01.

Larry David - 21 Sep ’14

LIVE FREE OR DIE on top, the script New Hampshire on the bottom, all in blue letters and numbers. The Gold Star symbol is on the left (gold star on a hanging flag), the words GOLD STAR above and MOTHER below the flag, in red. The letters GS are then stacked to the left of the tag number. Both the GS and the number are in blue. The plate background is red on the left, white in the center, and blue to the right, and the colors blend together at their boundaries.

Larry David - 5 Nov ’13

Larry David reports a change in the National Guard plate. They used to have green numerals and letters on the white background, with a green colonial soldier to the right of the number, and the base was what was used prior to 2000. The new plate resembles the Veteran plates--blue on white, with red trim, and a colonial soldier in blue to the right of the number, with NATIONAL GUARD over the number.

Larry David - 14 Sep ’14

Victor ramirez - 25 Jun ’23

Victor ramirez - 3 Jun ’23

Heriberto Tapia - 30 Sep ’22

Spotted in Bedford

Probably started at V1. Numbers have been spotted with as few as two digits.

Larry David - 14 Nov ’23

Larry David - 28 Nov ’11