Vehicle registration plates of Delaware

The U.S. state of Delaware first required its residents to register their motor vehicles in 1905. Registrants provided their own license plates for display until 1909, when the state began to issue plates. Beginning in 1910, plates were issued in sequential order from the number 1 upwards.

, plates are issued by the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) through its Division of Motor Vehicles. Only rear plates have been required on standard passenger vehicles since 1945. All plates issued since 1942 can still be used with current stickers. Authorized reproductions of porcelain enamel plates can be obtained through a private vendor, provided they fall within the state's guidelines.

In 1956, the United States, Canada, and Mexico came to an agreement with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the Automobile Manufacturers Association and the National Safety Council that standardized the size for license plates for vehicles (except those for motorcycles) at 6 in in height by 12 in in width, with standardized mounting holes. The first Delaware license plate that complied with these standards was issued in 1958.

Delaware allows plate-owners to transfer the rights to display a particular number on their vehicle. The inherent scarcity of low-digit plates has spawned a vibrant secondary market for low numbers.

Secondary Market
In Delaware, plate number 1 is reserved for the governor, 2 for the lieutenant governor, and 3 for the secretary of state. But all other numbers 4 and higher are allowed to be traded. Additionally, plates up to 87,000 are allowed to display replica porcelain enamel plates. These factors have caused low plate-numbers to become positional goods and status symbols.

Marketplaces have spun up to facilitate exchanges. , one such market, Low Digit Plates, has priced five-digit plates in the low-thousands of dollars, and three-digit plates approaching $70,000. Single-digit plates are particularly valuable. Plate number 9 was traded for $185,000 in 1994,. In 2008, number 6 went for $675,000, ($ in ).

Passenger baseplates
This is a list of the plate templates used by Delaware.

1909 to 1942
No slogans were used on passenger plates during the period covered by this subsection.

1942 to present
Notes:

1 The state recycles serials, so they can be found on any base.

2 Serials 1, 2 and 3 reserved for the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State respectively. Plates with these serials are blue on gold with the state's coat of arms at the left.

Non-passenger plates
Delaware does not use leading zeros on its plates, so serials are composed of a variable number of digits.

Optional plates
Delaware does not use leading zeros on its plates, so serials are composed of a variable number of digits.