Delaware license plates: the only tag that needs a notary to change hands

Start with the default, because it is the opposite of what buyers from most states expect. When a Delaware vehicle is sold, traded or gifted, the plate does not automatically go with it. The owner may retain it — and the state is explicit that this holds whether the vehicle is going to a dealership or to a private buyer.

What you may then do with a retained plate is the genuinely unusual part. It can be moved to another vehicle registered in your name, which is ordinary enough. It can be held indefinitely against a future purchase, which fewer states allow. Or it can be given to someone else entirely — the plate detaching from both the car and the original owner.

That last option is why Delaware has a plate culture at all. A number that can be kept, banked and handed on is a durable thing, and short numbers in a small state have been treated as heirlooms and traded as assets for generations.

When a seller does decide to let a qualifying low-digit tag go with the vehicle, Delaware does not accept a handshake. It requires form MV73, the Seller’s Affidavit to Transfer a Low-Digit Tag with Vehicle, and the requirements on it are unusually strict for a motor vehicle form.

The affidavit records the seller’s full name, the plate number, the buyer’s name, and the make, model, year and VIN of the vehicle it travels with. Where two names are joined by AND on the registration, both sellers sign. Then it is sworn before a notary — and the Division requires the original document bearing a raised or stamped notary seal. A scan or a photocopy will not do.

The threshold is set by the scarcity of the number and the class of plate, not by the value of the car. A five-digit tag on an expensive vehicle needs nothing special; a three-digit tag on a work truck does.

If you are unsure which class a plate belongs to, the registration document names it. Guessing is not worth it, because the affidavit is the difference between a transfer the Division will process and one it will not.

Delaware states the purpose without varnish: the affidavit is necessary to protect the Division, dealers and buyers from any disputes involving ownership of the license plate. That sentence tells you the disputes were real enough to warrant a notarized form.

Consider the situation it prevents. A short tag has independent value. A seller hands over a car with the plate still attached, then later asserts that only the vehicle was sold and the number was always meant to come back. Without a sworn record naming both parties, the plate and the VIN, that becomes one person’s word against another’s — over an item that can be worth a meaningful fraction of the car.

Delaware permits black-and-white porcelain and stainless-steel plates to be registered to a vehicle, ordered through the Delaware Historic Plate Company rather than issued over a DMV counter. Where a tag number qualifies, an owner who wants one can arrange it after completing the title work with the Division.

The result is the row of black plates on older cars that visitors notice and residents take for granted. For a buyer it is worth understanding as a signal about the owner rather than the vehicle: someone who commissioned a porcelain plate for a number has been deliberate about that car, which is weak but real evidence of how it has been kept. It says nothing verifiable about the mechanical condition, and it should not move your price.

Owner identity is not available from a plate. The federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act limits personal information in state motor vehicle records to enumerated permitted uses — insurers handling claims, parties to litigation, licensed investigators working within the statute, employers verifying commercial licenses. A private person curious about another driver has no permitted use, in Delaware or anywhere else.

Given how mobile Delaware tags are, a plate is a particularly poor proxy for a vehicle here in any case. The number may have been on three cars and two owners. The VIN is the only identifier that stays with the machine. Our license plate lookup guide sets out the permitted uses and what the paid lookup sites are really selling.

• Establish early whether the tag is part of the deal — silence is not agreement
• If a low-digit tag is included, insist on MV73 executed and notarized at the title handover
• Check the VIN on the affidavit against the VIN on the car and the title
• A seller keeping the plate is completely normal here and says nothing about the vehicle
• Do not let a porcelain plate or a short number influence what you pay for the car
• Pull the national title record — Delaware sits between three states and inventory moves

1. 1Take the properly signed titleSeller signature and odometer disclosure completed, with the name matching their identification.
2. 2Resolve the tag question in writingEither the seller retains it, or a qualifying low-digit tag comes with the car on a notarized MV73 original.
3. 3Bring the original affidavit, not a copyThe Division requires the document with a raised or stamped notary seal if a low-digit tag is transferring.
4. 4Register the vehicle in your nameWith your own retained plate, a newly issued tag, or the transferred number, depending on what you agreed.