Our license plates occasionally suffer some damage during production. We would never ship a damaged plate to you for full price, so we have decided to make them available for purchase at a discounted rate of $5.00 each.

The damage will vary by plate. The plate will either have heavy scratches, multiple light scratches, the holes may be misaligned, or the embossing may be offset from the screen printing. Please see the pictures for examples of the different degrees of damage. Stock is limited and not all products are available.

• Colors: White & Green
• Standard USA plate dimensions (12" x 6")
• Exact replica
• Metal stamped / embossed aluminum
• Shrink-wrapped

The Bell Labs UNIX License Plate is produced as seen on the thousands of giveaway plates that were created as the result of an idea by Armando Stettner to have unique swag to promote Digital Equipment Corporation and Unix. It is reported that the plate was actually a geek joke revolving around licensing. In the 80s, you needed to acquire a license to run Unix. Once that license was obtained, you had to acquire the bits and that sometimes meant even more licensing was needed. Armando Stettner would give the plate away as a joke to customers when they asked him for a Unix license, aside from the thousands given away more generally at conferences. These plates became known as the ‘geek license plate’ and are found in programmers’ offices, universities, other countries, and even in the Smithsonian!

Disclaimer: This is a decorative vanity plate intended only for display, collectible, and novelty purposes. It is not a registered license plate. This plate should not be used as a replacement for a government-issued license plate on any motor vehicle. Misuse of this product may violate local laws and regulations.