Is It Illegal To Keep Your Old License Plates in Montana?

It's been a while since I have had to purchase a vehicle. Over the last year, I needed to get a new vehicle. When we traded in our old vehicle for the purchase of the newer one, the dealer put our old license plates in a bag for us to take home.

This made me curious about the laws in Montana regarding old license plates. If we wanted to transfer the plates to another vehicle we could have done that. But what if we wanted to just keep them, what are the laws for that in Montana?

I reached out to the Missoula County Treasure's Office. I spoke with Autumn Lacey, a Motor Vehicles Clerk, about if it is illegal to keep your old license plates in Montana. It is legal to keep your old license plates in Montana, as long as they aren’t on a vehicle. Lacey said:

You are allowed to keep them as long as they're not on a vehicle. So like if they're on a wall, or you can make a birdhouse, something like that. Just don't put them on a vehicle. 

Feel free to use those license plates for your art projects. We spotted the license plate from the above picture in London, England for sale at a second hand, vintage market. I am sure someone has that on display in a corner pub by now.

If someone steals your license plate, the first thing to do is to report the theft to the police. Then you need to go to the Motor Vehicle Division and they will issue you a new plate. Lacey said: 

You'll want to come into the office and we can get you a new set of license plates. We'll remove the previous number off of the vehicle and we will put a new set of plates with a new number on them. 

Not all states have the freedom for people to keep their old plates. So feel free to keep those old license plates for old time's sake, you can put them up in your shop, make a birdhouse out of them, or get really creative with a piece of art.