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In the United States, license plates〔The spelling ''license'' is preferred in the U.S.〕 are issued by a department of motor vehicles, an agency of the state or territorial government, or in the case of the District of Columbia the city government. Some American Indian tribes also issue plates. The U.S. federal government issues plates only for its own vehicle fleet and for vehicles owned by foreign diplomats. Until the 1980s, diplomatic plates were issued by the state in which the consulate or embassy was located. The appearances of plates are frequently chosen to contain symbols, colors, or slogans associated with the issuing jurisdiction. The term ''license plate'' is frequently used in statutes, although in some areas ''tag'' is informally used. ''Registration plate'' is another synonym. ==Designs and serial formats== (詳細はjurisdiction. Formats for license plate numbers, which are usually alphanumeric, are designed to provide enough unique numbers for all motor vehicles a jurisdiction expects to register. For example, the small states of Delaware and Rhode Island are able to use formats of 123456 and 123–456, respectively, while California uses the seven-character format 1ABC234, and several other populous states use seven-character ABC-1234 or ABCD-123 formats. Other formats include those that use a county coding system or month of expiration is incorporated into the plate number. Non-passenger vehicles tend to have their own special format and often have the vehicle type listed on the plate. In the United States, many states and provinces distinguish their license plates through distinctive color schemes and logos, which historically have been changed annually. For example, the cowboy logo often associated with the state of Wyoming has appeared on that state's license plates continuously since 1936. Some early Tennessee plates were produced in a parallelogram shape approximating that of the state. Vermont license plates have frequently featured a green and white color scheme, while Alaska has preferred yellow and blue. Other states and provinces, such as California, offer simpler schemes, often with a white background and little decoration. Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia have placed the address of the state's official or tourism web site on their general issue plates, with South Carolina to follow suit in July 2008.〔http://www.scdmvonline.com/DMVNew/default.aspx〕 Most plates in Washington, D.C. contain the phrase "Taxation without representation" to highlight the District's lack of a voting representative in Congress. Typically, the registration number is embossed – or, more rarely, impressed – onto the license plate. Other identifying information, such as the name of the issuing jurisdiction and the vehicle class, can be either surface-printed or embossed; Virginia, for example, does the former for passenger cars and the latter for most non-passenger vehicles. However, it is increasingly common in the U.S. for the registration number to be surface-printed using digital printing technology. Colorado, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Oregon do so only for certain types of license plates, such as vanity plates and special issues; Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming, Washington, and the District of Columbia have switched to the so-called "flat plate" technology for all their license plates. Delaware license plates have not been embossed for several decades. License plates originally were not embossed, but were merely flat plates in various forms, typically rectangular. It was found by the 1930s that they could be easily forged, and subsequently plates were embossed as the equipment to do this was not easily available to criminals wishing to create their own plates. In 1956, the U.S. states and Canadian provinces came to an agreement with the Automobile Manufacturers Association that fixed the size for all their passenger vehicle plates at , although these figures may vary slightly by jurisdiction. In North America, only Saint Pierre and Miquelon has not adopted these standards. Smaller-sized plates are used for motorcycles and, in some jurisdictions, mopeds and certain types of trailers and construction equipment. Currently, the three oldest plate designs in use – each with slight to moderate cosmetic changes since their introduction – are that of Delaware (in production since 1959), Colorado (since 1960, continuously since 1978), and Minnesota (since 1978).〔(License Plates 1969-Present )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vehicle registration plates of the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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