Why does Mississippi issue different plates for each county?

Maybe so police can pull people over from out of county

You ain't from around here are you, boy? We don't allow that sort of thing here in Bumfuck County.
That would assume things like lynchings still happen in Mississippi.
Yep, police out there are predatory as fuck. They know it's low income and they'll harass any poor soul they can.

If they didn't spend all that money on different license plates for each county, they have to spend it on education and we all know that sure shit don't want to do that.

Wait, other states don't? I dunno, I live in Mississippi, I always thought the other states did the same. Guess I never really paid that much attention.

If it counts for anything, at least Mississippi doesn't require two tags, one for the back and one for the front, they only require the rear tag.

Also, our vehicles don't require inspections anymore, which is both a bonus for your wallet, and also very frightening when you realize how many vehicles out there are on the verge of brake failure or something equally dangerous.

Oklahoma only has back plates but not for each county and no inspections but that is a bad thing not good. Allows shitty cars to remain on the road.
- Indiana is the same, rear only, no inspections. Our counties are numbered by alphabetical order and that number is on the plate to differentiate, but the plates are the same.
- I'm in Louisiana. We have inspections but I don't believe the actually matter. Take a quick walk through any parking lot and you'll find tons of cars that have both valid stickers and glaringly obvious problems that should keep them off the road.
Also, our vehicles don't require inspections anymore, which is both a bonus for your wallet, and also very frightening when you realize how many vehicles out there are on the verge of brake failure or something equally dangerous.

I like how you supported small government a d then realized why it was small and what's at stake, in the same sentence.
- LOL, I don't think Mississippi ever cared much in the first place. Back in the day, Mississippi actually did require inspections, for all of $5.
  
  They didn't bother checking the brakes or much of anything really, except make sure all the lights and the horn work. Sometimes they might even make sure your seatbelts are intact and latch correctly.
  
  I remember sometime in the late 90s helping my dad push his Buick into the inspection bay. They didn't even care that the car literally didn't run, he still passed inspection, because all his lights and horn worked! 😂🤣
County names on the license plate is only a thing in some southern states. All other states just show the state.
What state requires a front and rear tag? Seems excessive?

Edit: People in here not understanding the difference between a tag and a license plate

Edit apparently it's common for both to be called tags... Depending where your from... To make this whole thing confusing...
- I think most states, I can at least speak for New England and most of the East coast.
- Cars should have both, so they can be uniquely identified both coming and going.
  
  For example when you run over a road pedestrian by not stopping for a red light, as he sees you coming and jumps out of the way he might see your plate, whereas once you’ve run over him, cracked his hips and given him a concussion he may not be able to read your rear plate
- All of the Northeast.
- California requires front and rear plates.
- MN requires plates on both sides and when you renew your registration they give you tabs for both sides too. It doesn't make much sense to me to require plates on both sides if you are only going to put the tabs on one side.
- I think most countries require front and rear plates. I find it odd yours is kind of 50/50.
- Maryland does.
- It sounds like maybe you’re talking about the registration decal when you say “tag”.
  
  Virginia requires them on both front and rear plates.
- In response to your other comments, yes I should have said plates instead of tags. Here in MS, they're basically one and the same, every year you stick a new tag sticker on your plate.
  
  Oh, by the way, here in Mississippi, when you go to get a license plate, the office you go to is the tag office.
  
  Same thing, at least here anyways.
- Ohio used to, but now we have county tags instead.
  
  The reasoning had been in case you only saw the front of a reckless driver
- Probably doesn’t help that people from other country’s are chipping in…
- My tag is on my front windshield.
I was pretty certain Florida did. At least when I lived there decades ago…
- My Florida tags didn't have a county listed, but my Tennessee ones do. Looking more into it, it appears Florida allows you to have it say your county, Sunshine State, or In God We Trust.
  
  Everyone I knew just had sunshine state, figured they were all like that unless you got a custom tag

Iowa also has county names on their plates as well. I think it is probably a mix of:

that's how we've always done it
kinda cool to see where people are from and display where you're from
makes it easier to spot "out of place" cars for suspicion/police reasons (bleh, probably helpful in racial profiling too. pessimistic take...)

Also just guesses.

My guess is plate assignment/registration was delegated to county offices from the start.

Montana has number prefixes by county. Fun for plate spotting and intercounty ribbing. Though anyone can just get vanity plate if they wanted.

Don't know if there's much reason for it, but plates and registrations are administered by each county Treasury office.

To make more work and be inefficient

Big government money wasting liberals
- In Mississippi lol

My speculation is based on who hands them out.

states I’m familiar with do not show county. Plates are handed out by a DMV/RMV, which is a state agency
for those states that show county, are the plates handed out by a county level agency?

In GA, the state oversees vehicle registration but the counties actually do the tax collection/license plate issuance. For reference we have counties on our plates

I don’t understand this question at all.

The consensus seems to have fallen on vehicle license plates / registration tags / whatever they're called wherever you might be, and it was also my first guess, even though I'm not from the US. That said, I do watch a few things on YouTube that might have primed me to think of those first and not any other kind of plate.

TL;DR: OP's probably not talking about crockery.
I don't understand what OP is asking either, even with the upvoted response to your comment. What do Mississippi license plates look like?

I live in a different state, and we have the option to have either our state's motto on our plate, or the county that we live in. I chose the county that I live in. When I drive around, I see many others displaying the county that they live in as well. Is Mississippi's system similar to this? I don't understand why it would be a hassle on the part of the state to print different license plates for different people. They already do that anyway.... I don't get how that would be using excessive resources.

When I have to renew my vehicle registration, it is either done online, within kiosks at certain grocery stores, or at a government building within the county I live. It doesn't seem like a confusing or weird system at all to me. But again, I don't know how it works in Mississippi.
- I’m British, but I’m genuinely interested in how “number plates” as we call them, work in different countries.
  
  What’s a tag then? Cause I thought that was a license plate…
  
  This is a number plate, just in case you’re interested.
  
  Edit, just wanted to add….its yellow for the back, white for front, and you have to have both.

So you don’t have to go over to the next county just to eat dinner

My WAG would be that they need more busywork for the prisoners.

Probably something to do with how poorly educated they are.

Meanwhile European license plates being standardized across the whole Union.

Your guys' are prettier to look at, whilst ours are all about the intended function. Not sure which approach I like more.