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By Melissa Daniels

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_banned.jpg.optimal.jpgPittsburgh Tribune-Review

PITTSBURGH — In a nondescript driver’s license center along the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, five PennDOT employees decide what meets the definition of offensive.

Plays on “WEED” or “ACID” — prohibited.

Variations of “SEXY” or “EVIL” — denied, along with original idioms such as “SEXNAZI” and “HELLKAT.”

Pennsylvania drivers send in 200 to 300 applications for vanity plates each week, all of which these employees check for offensive or graphic implications. Requests pour in, even though the state raised the cost of custom registration from $20 to $76 last year as part of a transportation funding bill.

“There has always been a great interest for people to express themselves through their license plates,” PennDOT spokeswoman Jan Huzvar said. “We do have what we call a ‘do-not-issue’ list.”

When vanity plate applications arrive, PennDOT license specialists check them against a list of 20,000 dirty words and banned phrases. They look up Internet slang and scroll through acronym dictionaries.

They notify the applicant if a proposed plate is against the rules, offering a chance to appeal, Huzvar said.

Exceptions do occur. Several years ago, a lawn care service was denied use of “GRASS” for a plate, a word shot down as slang for marijuana. When considering the ownership, PennDOT approved the application.

The employees never allow racist, sexist or otherwise derogatory terms. Banned are curse words, some body parts, some brand names and combinations of letters or numbers that are difficult to read.

Messages that are distinctly anti-government — “ENDFED” or “PUTSCH,” a synonym for uprising — are a no-go. So is the Pittsburgh term for an obnoxious person: “JAGOFF” and corresponding forms.

Officials add denials to an evolving list.

“Something that means something today didn’t mean anything 10 or 15 years ago,” Huzvar said. “Words keep getting added, and some plates that might’ve appeared in the initial list might be approved.”

When the plate’s one-time fee rose in July 2014, the state collected more than $837,000 through April, up from about $484,000 from June 2013 to July 2014.

The cost increase does not appear to have significantly affected the number of plates issued — yet. In calendar year 2014, Pennsylvania drivers had 288,389 custom license plates, about 400 fewer than in the year before.

Allegheny County drivers have more than 21,000 custom plates, the most in the state, trailed closely by Montgomery County.

Customized plates are a common choice for classic car owners who don’t opt for one of the state’s classic or antique plates.

Ron Libengood, owner of Fort Pitt Classic Cars service and refurbishing shop in Sharpsburg, said about half of his customers have classic or antique plates. Many have vanity plates, designed to represent the car’s identity, such as the 1970 Plymouth Barracuda dubbed “OLD FISH,” or the 1963 Corvette Stingray with the owner’s initials.

Libengood’s 2004 maroon Chevrolet Corvette is personalized with a play on the sleek ride and his surname, “LIVNGUD.” He and his wife dreamed that up during a drive back from a Corvette museum several years ago.

“On the way back, we were noticing all these specialty plate names, and we thought, ‘We have to have one for ourselves,’ ” he said. “Every time we talk about the plate or we see the plate, we remember that ride we were on, coming back from Kentucky.”

Andrew Wilson, 21, a John Carroll University student who is interning with Libengood in the summer, said car enthusiasts are likely to spend a little extra on a plate if they want to give it a proper identification, even with the fee increase.

“The license plate is just another detail that goes along with the car,” he said. “It’s an expensive hobby already.”

For drivers considering a customized plate, Huzvar recommends checking the PennDOT website for availability. Users type in characters to see if the plate could be accepted. Some users, she said, purchase the plates for friends or family.

“It makes a nice gift,” she said.