The U.S. state of New Jersey first required its residents to register their motor vehicles in 1903. Registrants provided their own license plates for display until 1908, when the state began to issue plates.^[1]

As of 2022^[update], plates are issued by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission. Front and rear plates are required for most classes of vehicles, while only rear plates are required for motorcycles and trailers.

In 1999 the state tried re-validating plates with stickers, but that scheme ended in 2004 with stickers issued to expire in 2005. Some non-passenger plates stickers extended to 2010 with stickers issued to expire in 2011 (2014 for trailer plates only). Since then passenger and non-passenger plates have been re-validated with just the registration card issued to the driver.

Courtesy plates have been issued to individuals with political connections since 1920. The current serial formats on these plates consist of three letters followed or preceded by a number between 1 and 20. On standard courtesy plates the first letter is a county code, the second letter is the first initial of the vehicle owner's name, and the third letter is the initial of the last name of the vehicle owner. Courtesy plates may also be personalized, with all three letters making up the owner's initials.

Courtesy plates can be used on several types of vehicles, including cars, motorcycles and historic vehicles. They must be approved by a NJ State Senator from the applicant's election district prior to being submitted to the MVC.^[9] The staff for the applicant's senator must also get approval from the state senator from the county that corresponds to the first letter on the plate being requested. The letter Q cannot be used on these plates, and D, O, T, and X cannot be used as the first letter.^[3]

All bases of all classes of plates from 1959 to present are still valid for display in New Jersey.^[10]