What is the rarest license plate?
In U.S. issues, most collectors still consider the 1921 Alaska license plate to be the “holy grail” of license plates, although it’s arguable if this issue has the fewest known examples on hand. The 1912 Mississippi is also a rare one, and the possibility of 1911 porcelain Miss. plate really stirs up the pot! Some early Newfoundland plates (Canada) are probably rarer than all of these, as there a no known examples of certain issues between 1920 and 1923 – I can’t imagine a rarer plate than one for which no known examples exist. In international license plates, the top three tough ones are North Korea (extremely isolated government), Vatican City (tightly controlled, very few vehicles), and a standard low number issue from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (tiny island, few vehicles). Plates from the Sovereign Military Order of Malta are also extremely hard to find, but SMOM is sort of a marginal jurisdiction, that few collectors will actually attempt to add to their foreign set. Similar rare
