I requested a personalized license plate and here is the response.

[RED]

The Personalized Plate which you requested F4J RIO has been denied or cancelled for the following reason :

The requested plate is not available.

Does it make sense that a unique plate never used before is out of stock?

[Allen]

No and I doubt someone else had already requested it.

Something else you could do though is to have a store bought personalized plate made for the front of your car assuming that your state only requires the state issued plate for the rear. It wouldn't be as good as the real thing but you wouldn't have to change it every year either.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265239477369?hash=item3dc1813c79:g:KhsAAOSwGF5eKyo4&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA8BOpJaNj8ktY1ruP7rzvWzdhRBRfNhy%2B3uV78306NAybOGydfWkAG1TiseAuULS06gtIFy1yrQ7xSxqLFE6yt4XkY3ymuec5%2BN4BaDRFku1fdSSVgpFLcsChOE1ebGaNBfLJgfGG0xyYzALSHrO41SHLkupq6EAKhDkN0E20ctVGc%2FeOenSJp2WsKOSchGrGdIr4yDkuhK3Ij2De6x8OfuL9yVeyP0LN03n8x9EH2NBMcUyyd933EWbnR%2BGYmcemFn6aIE6Rl0uJXAA7WzISyAVMwYL2wZT4krqIuKVjF5he%2FN1hR3Keh%2FX1R%2BkSqOcX%2FQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM-uSG94Jh

https://www.ebay.com/itm/194684593965?hash=item2d541b272d:g:7LcAAOSwK~5hzh6W&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA8KbyQhpYfnht1R

https://www.ebay.com/itm/183942103743?hash=item2ad3cdc2bf:g:VkYAAOSwKRFdcaQe&amdata=enc%3AAQ

[lyman]

does your DMV have a section on the website to see if that plate is available? or did you just attempt to order it?

ours (VA DMV) does,

usually it is either considered offensive, or taken

[lyman]

ah,, just tried, it seems R Kansas has you order it before they tell you if it is available,

[RED]

The notification does not say somebody else already has it, but it does make sense so why dont they just say ?already issued??

[Mark in Ottawa]

That is interesting. I once wanted to get a personalized plate with the moniker GRUMPY1 but my wife flatly stated that if i did, she would never get into the car with me, even if it was an accurate description.

Out of interest, I just looked up the website for the Province of Ontario and while they didn't list the plates that had been issued, they did provide a 31 page list of plates that had been rejected. Reasons for rejection included obscenity, slang, clarity, readability, derogatory, drugs, alcohol, graphics, human rights discrimination, law enforcement officials, religion, sexual and elimination, violence and crime. The violence list includes a lot of firearms references although I once saw a plate in Toronto with the letters NO4MK1T, which is the designation for a Lee Enfield sniper rifle. I guess they missed rejecting that one

I had no idea that people were that imaginative

[dryheat]

People like a challenge.