New Hampshire License Plates

This base debuted in January, 1999, replacing all previous bases by the end of March, 2000.

Tom Castelli reports the series started at 999 999 and worked down 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.  

Low:  999 820  

High:  104 264

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

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Apportioned plates are issued to trucks or buses operating in more than one jurisdiction as part of the International Registration Plan (IRP).

OFFICIAL spelled out diagonally before number.

OFFICIAL spelled out to the left of the number.

OFFICIAL spelled out diagonally before number.

OFFICIAL spelled out diagonally before number.

OFFICIAL spelled out diagonally before number.

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New type authorized in 2024. First digit is a county code, followed by a two-digit code for the department. The digit(s) after the space are serial within the department.

OFFICIAL spelled out diagonally before number.

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 agency, which varies from town to town and city to city. The second number is a sequence of vehicle numbers associated with that agency. A small town may have only one vehicle, in which case the plate number would be M/P XXX 1.

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

Green on white, similar to motorcycle plate.

No longer with embossed border

Wheelchair symbol followed by number.

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.

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SPEC COMM, in two columns to left of number.

OFFICIAL spelled out vertically to left of COR.

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

Used by State Library book vans, OFFICIAL spelled out vertically along left.

OFFICIAL spelled vertically to left of number.

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. Another version has a hand written vanity registration and is used while metal vanity plates are being made.

Numbering format expanded 7 digits in 2011 after years of returning to 000001 after hitting 999999.

New Hampshire trailer license plates have been issued in T+6# format with narrow dies since 1999; previous numbering format ended at TZ 9999.

Green-on-white pre-2000 design issued to vehicles owned by the University of New Hampshire such as campus buses, university police and maintenance vehicles.

These plates feature a moose on the left side of the plate, and a small C/H stamped vertically before the serial. They were initially issued with three numbers followed by the letter C and followed the sequence 100C through 999C. Another digit was added and the issues started 1000C through 9999C. The letter moved to the next position and continued 100C0 through 999C9, then 10C00 through 99C99, then 1C000 through 9C999, then C1000 through C9999. The letter changed to H and the cycle started again with 1000H and up through the sequence to H9999. The series then began again using the letter P, then the letter M. After the completion of the M series, moved to the W series in early 2026.

The letters stand for:

C-Conservation

H-Heritage

P-Preservation

M-Moose

W-Wildlife (??)

- Jay Malette

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

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.

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.

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 on 2016-02-01.

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 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.

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