Vehicle registration plates of Missouri
The U.S. state of Missouri first required its residents to register their motor vehicles in 1907. Registrants provided their own license plates for display until 1911, when the state began to issue plates.
, plates are manufactured at the Jefferson City Correctional Center and are issued by the Missouri Department of Revenue. Front and rear plates are required for most classes of vehicles, while only rear plates are required for motorcycles and trailers, and only front plates are required for trucks licensed in excess of twelve thousand pounds.
Passenger baseplates
1949 to 1966
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 at in height by in width, with standardized mounting holes. The 1955 issue was the first Missouri license plate that complied with these standards.| Image | Dates issued | Description | Serial format | Serials issued | Notes |
| Embossed white serial on maroon plate with border line; "MISSOURI" centered at top; month of expiration at top left | 123-456 | 1 to 905-000 | Monthly staggered registration introduced. All plates validated for 1949 with orange tabs, for 1950 with green tabs, for 1951 with white tabs, and for 1952 with black tabs. Plates expiring between January and August were validated for 1953 with maroon tabs, while those expiring between September and December were validated for that year with stickers. All plates were then validated for 1954 and 1955 with stickers. | ||
| Embossed white serial on maroon plate with border line; "MISSOURI" centered at top; month of expiration at top left | A12-345 | Letter corresponds to month of expiration | Monthly staggered registration introduced. All plates validated for 1949 with orange tabs, for 1950 with green tabs, for 1951 with white tabs, and for 1952 with black tabs. Plates expiring between January and August were validated for 1953 with maroon tabs, while those expiring between September and December were validated for that year with stickers. All plates were then validated for 1954 and 1955 with stickers. | ||
| 1955–60 | Embossed yellow serial on black plate with border line; month of expiration at top left and "MO" at top right | 123-456 | 1 to 999-999 | Validated with stickers each year until 1961 expiration. | |
| 1955–60 | Embossed yellow serial on black plate with border line; month of expiration at top left and "MO" at top right | A12-345 AB1-234 | First letter corresponds to month of expiration | Validated with stickers each year until 1961 expiration. | |
| 1961–66 | Embossed white serial on maroon plate with border line; "MISSOURI" centered at top; month of expiration at top left and white box at top right containing debossed "62" | First letter corresponds to month of expiration | Valid without stickers until 1962 expiration, then revalidated with stickers each year until 1967 expiration. |
Month coding
Missouri implemented a monthly staggered registration system in 1949, when it introduced its first multi-year passenger plate. At first, serials were in an all-numeric format, with a block allocated to each month. When these were exhausted, a new format was introduced, featuring a one-letter prefix corresponding to the month. When new multi-year plates were introduced in 1955, the same all-numeric and one-letter serial formats were used, with some months then exhausting their one-letter serials and introducing a two-letter format.| Month | All-numeric serials, 1949–54 | All-numeric serials, 1955–60 | Letter code |
| January | 1 to 75-000 | 1 to 75-000 | A |
| February | 75-001 to 150-000 | 75-001 to 160-000 | B |
| March | 150-001 to 225-000 | 160-001 to 245-000 | C |
| April | 225-001 to 300-000 | 245-001 to 330-000 | E |
| May | 300-001 to 375-000 | 330-001 to 415-000 | H |
| June | 375-001 to 450-000 | 415-001 to 500-000 | K |
| July | 450-001 to 525-000 | 500-001 to 585-000 | M |
| August | 525-001 to 600-000 | 585-001 to 670-000 | P |
| September | 600-001 to 675-000 | 670-001 to 755-000 | S |
| October | 675-001 to 750-000 | 755-001 to 840-000 | X |
| November | 750-001 to 825-000 | 840-001 to 925-000 | Y |
| December | 825-001 to 905-000 | 925-001 to 999-999 | Z |
Two-letter serial formats were used exclusively from 1961 through 1978, including the twelve-year period in which Missouri reverted to the use of single-year plates. An ABC 123 format was introduced in 1979 with the maroon "Show-Me State" plate, which was issued through 1996; months which exhausted their allocations subsequently used the A1B 234 and 1A2 34B formats.
Throughout this period, the first letter in the serial continued to correspond to the month. Increasing demand resulted in each of the months from April through September being assigned a second letter code in the mid-1960s. March and October were assigned second letters in the mid-1970s, and by the 1990s all twelve months were using two letters.
| Month | Original letter code | Second letter code |
| January | A | V |
| February | B | D |
| March | C | L |
| April | E | F |
| May | H | G |
| June | K | J |
| July | M | N |
| August | P | R |
| September | S | W |
| October | X | T |
| November | Y | U |
| December | Z | Q |
Month coding was discontinued with the introduction of the white, blue and green "Show-Me State" plate in 1997, before it was reintroduced in June 2008 with the introduction of the bluebird plate. Passenger plates used an AB1 C2D serial format, with the first letter corresponding to the month as from 1949 to 1996. This time, however, one letter was assigned for February, and two letters for each of the other eleven months, with the order of the letters strictly alphabetical. Hence, A and B were assigned for January, C for February, D and E for March, and so on up to Y and Z for December, with I, O and Q not used. This system was also used on light truck plates, which used a 1AB 234 serial format, the first letter corresponding to the month as on passenger plates.
When the Bicentennial plate was introduced in October 2018, passenger plates retained the AB1 C2D serial format, with each of the months that had been assigned two letters going over to its second letter, while February continued from where its serials on the bluebird plate had left off. Light truck plates continued to use the system but changed to a 1AB C23 serial format, the first letter corresponding to the month as before.
| Month | Codes |
| January | A, B |
| February | C |
| March | D, E |
| April | F, G |
| May | H, J |
| June | K, L |
| July | M, N |
| August | P, R |
| September | S, T |
| October | U, V |
| November | W, X |
| December | Y, Z |
Optional types
Optional types on this base continue to be issued, likely until January 2009. Most, if not all, optional types on this base were available in personalized format and with certain non-passenger designations. Where applicable, this designation was printed in a small rectangle screened in the upper right corner of the plate.| Image | Type | Slogan | Serial format | Serials issued | Notes |
| Back the Blue | |||||
| Be an Organ Donor | |||||
| Breast Cancer Awareness | |||||
| Conservation | |||||
| Don't Tread on Me | |||||
| Fight Terrorism | |||||
| God Bless America | |||||
| Helping Schools | |||||
| Missouri Remembers | |||||
| Purple Heart | |||||
| St. Louis Cardinals | |||||
| Shriners | |||||
| Some Gave All | |||||
| Southwest Missouri State University |