Delaware license plate explained

Well, sort of.

The ads appear daily in the classified sections of local Delaware newspapers: "Delaware license plate, 4 digits, $3000 or best offer." A license plate costing thousands of dollars? Does that price include the car too? Are people just giving away the car and selling just the plates for the cost of the car to somehow beat the tax man?

Not in Delaware. The tiny state with a population still pushing towards one million still issues license plates containing all numerical characters. A Delaware license plate number can contain up to six digits and the low ones have achieved a cachet that is legendary among Delaware residents. Delawareans love their license plates so much that one of the state's hottest selling holiday gift items each year is a diminuitive solid-gold reproduction of a customer's Delaware license plate.

What is not explained is that weird little doohickey on some, but not all, Delaware license plates. It looks like two c's on top of each other. Or something. What's with that?

Learned disquisition on license plates from dustbury.