Minnesota License Plate Laws: Mounting, Permits, and Penalties

Minnesota license plate laws require most vehicles to display two plates, one on the front and one on the rear, mounted upright and securely, kept clean and readable, and lit at night so the rear plate can be read from 50 feet away.¹² Break the display or tab rules and you are usually looking at a petty misdemeanor. The statutory ceiling is $300, but the actual amount on most plate tickets runs closer to $105 once the surcharge is added.³

How Plates Must Be Mounted, Lit, and Kept Visible

Each plate has to be fastened so it will not swing, mounted horizontally in an upright position, and displayed with the letters and numbers facing outward. You are responsible for keeping the plate legible. Dirt, grease, or anything else that makes the characters hard to read is a violation, and so is any material that covers letters, numbers, or the state name. That includes clear or colorless coatings that reduce reflectivity.¹ Tinted plate covers and decorative frames that overlap the plate’s text are the most common way drivers get ticketed under this rule.

At night, the rear plate must be lit by a white light strong enough to be read from 50 feet behind the vehicle, and that light must come on automatically whenever the headlamps or auxiliary driving lamps are on.² A burned-out plate bulb is enough for a citation even if the plate itself is mounted correctly.

Where Registration Stickers Go and When to Replace Them

The rear plate carries two stickers. The expiration month goes in the lower left corner, and the expiration year goes in the lower right. New stickers must be affixed within ten days after the last day of your expiration month.⁴ Driving on expired or missing tabs is a separate citable offense from anything wrong with the plate itself, so do not renew online and then leave the stickers in the glove box.

If Driver and Vehicle Services mailed your stickers and they never arrived, there is a free-replacement window: more than 14 days but less than 60 days after they were mailed, the stickers can be reissued at no charge.⁵ Outside that window, a replacement fee applies. Any deputy registrar’s office or the state’s online system can handle the request.

Which Vehicles Only Need One Plate

The two-plate rule does not cover every vehicle. Motorcycles, motor scooters, motorized bicycles, and motorcycle sidecars all display a single plate on the rear. So do trailers registered at more than 3,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, semitrailers, and vehicles displaying dealer plates.¹ Lighter trailers of 3,000 pounds or less with lifetime registration follow a different rule: the numbered plate or sticker attaches to the side of the trailer frame tongue near the hitch.

Collector vehicles, classic cars, street rods, and pioneer vehicles also receive a single plate.⁶ The catch is a real use restriction. A collector-plated vehicle can only be operated as a collector’s item and cannot serve as daily transportation. Trips to and from shows, parades, and similar events are fine; commuting is not.⁷

Some farm equipment sits outside the registration system altogether. Implements of husbandry, tractors used solely for agricultural purposes, and tractors hauling agricultural products or farm supplies to and from the owner’s usual marketplace are exempt from registration and the motor vehicle tax, as are small farm trailers under 10,000 pounds gross weight drawn by a passenger car or farm truck and used exclusively for moving agricultural products between farms or to market.⁸ These vehicles need no plates at all.

Temporary Permits Between Purchase and Plates

You are not supposed to drive on bare metal while waiting for permanent plates. Minnesota issues two main permits for the gap.

The general temporary permit under section 168.092 covers newly purchased vehicles. It must be clearly displayed in the rear window, or in another prominent visible spot if the vehicle has no rear window, and it must show the issue and expiration dates, the vehicle’s year, make, model, and VIN, the permit holder’s name and address, and the dealer or registrar information.⁹ Driving without a valid permit or on an expired one draws penalties similar to operating without proper plates.

A separate 60-day permit exists for nonresidents who buy a vehicle in Minnesota and need to drive it out of state. The fee is $1, waived when the sale information is electronically transmitted to the commissioner by a dealer or deputy registrar. The permit affixes to the rear of the vehicle where it is plainly visible and is valid only for the specific vehicle listed.¹⁰

When Plates Stay With the Vehicle You Sold

This is where people who moved here from other states get tripped up. In Minnesota, license plates belong to the vehicle, not to the owner.¹¹ When you sell or transfer a vehicle, the plates generally go with it, and the buyer handles the title transfer and registration update.

Personalized plates are the main exception. Because you paid extra for the custom combination, you can transfer personalized plates to another vehicle of the same type that you own for a $5 fee.¹² If you want to keep them off a car you are selling, contact the Department of Public Safety before the sale is finalized to arrange the transfer.

Replacing Lost, Stolen, or Damaged Plates

Plates or stickers that are lost, stolen, or damaged beyond legibility have to be replaced. The registered owner completes the Application for Duplicate Plates and/or Stickers, attaches the current registration card (or notes on the form that the card is also missing), and surrenders any remaining plates or stickers to the registrar for cancellation.¹³ Do not keep driving with an unreadable plate while you wait; illegibility is its own violation.

Penalties and Typical Fines

Most violations of the display rules in section 169.79, such as a dirty plate, a missing front plate, or a tinted cover, are petty misdemeanors. In Minnesota, a petty misdemeanor is not a crime, carries no jail time, and is typically a payable offense you can settle without appearing in court.³ The statutory maximum for any petty misdemeanor is $300.

Actual fines fall well below that ceiling, and the Judicial Council sets the amounts each year. Under the most recent published payable schedule, a general plate display violation under section 169.79 carries a base fine of $30 plus a $75 surcharge, for a total of $105. Failing to display current plates also totals $105. Failing to keep plates clean and visible under section 168.013 is charged as a misdemeanor rather than a petty misdemeanor and runs a $100 base fine plus the surcharge, for a total of $175.

A plate ticket does not automatically raise your auto insurance rates. Minnesota law defines a “chargeable traffic violation” as one an insurer may use to apply a surcharge, but a violation only becomes chargeable if you are convicted or forfeit bail on it. The statute does not single out plate display violations, so whether an insurer treats a conviction as chargeable depends on that insurer’s underwriting guidelines and the specific offense.

Plate Impoundment for Serious DWI Offenses

Enforcement is not limited to display tickets. For serious impaired-driving offenses, the commissioner is required to issue a plate impoundment order. A “plate impoundment violation” includes:

A DWI conviction, test refusal, or related license revocation within ten years of a prior impaired-driving incident.
A commercial driver’s license disqualification tied to a test refusal or search warrant revocation within ten years of a prior incident.
A DWI, test refusal, or related offense committed with a blood alcohol concentration at twice the legal limit or higher.
A DWI or related offense committed with a child under 16 in the vehicle, if the child is more than 36 months younger than the offender.
Driving after license cancellation for being deemed inimical to public safety.¹⁴

When plates are impounded, the officer issues a temporary vehicle permit valid for seven days if the vehicle is registered to the violator, or 45 days if it is registered to someone else. Reinstatement after impoundment costs $50 per vehicle, and the commissioner may require special registration plates and participation in an ignition interlock program before standard plates come back.¹⁴

1
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 169.79 – Vehicle Registration; Displaying License Plates
2
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 169.50
3
Minnesota House of Representatives. Traffic Citations
4
Minnesota Department of Public Safety. License Plates
5
Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Vehicle Registration
6
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 168.10 – Collector Vehicles
7
Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Collector Class Specialized License Plates
8
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 168.012
9
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 168.092 – Temporary Vehicle Permit
10
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 168.091 – 60-Day Temporary Vehicle Permit
11
Minnesota Judicial Branch. Car Title Problems
12
Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Personalized License Plates
13
Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Application for Duplicate Plates and Stickers
14
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 169A.60 – Administrative Impoundment of Plates