This is one of the many things I like about Florida. There is only one tag -- nothing to spoil the appearance of the front of the car, and no inspection or tax stickers to clutter up the windshield. When I lived in Virginia, we had two tags and three windshield stickers -- inspection sticker, personal property tax sticker, and an emissions inspection sticker.
As for that Florida plate, there is of course the standard plate but you can also choose from some others -- don't know the total but it's gotta be around 100. Then, there WERE the "collectible" plates, which were only $19 a year and the only stipulation was that the car be over 20 years old. These were discontinued, the reason being that so many of them were being seen on rusty junkers that were anything BUT collectible. But they have been replaced with "Antique" tags; I'm not sure the total criteria or price, but the car now has to be 30 years old. In my case I have a tag that matches the year of the car. Yes, if you can find a tag that matches the model year of your car, you can assign it permanently -- just send the tag to Tallahassee, they will validate it with a new registration and you're set. You still put small month/year stickers on the tag, but the tag itself remains. By the way, back in the day there were county designations as well as weight, but they don't matter today -- still, it's nice to try and keep things correct. My tag is 12WW787. 12 is Lake County; Sarasota is 16. The WW is indeed correct, as it's a very heavy car. Actually I understand if a T-Bird does not have A/C, it's a W, but if it has A/C it's a WW. The A/C gives it just enough to tip the scales.
Seems a little funny, the tag in 1964 is orange with blue lettering -- Gator colors. Though not intentional, It raised a few eyebrows, so for 1965 the tags went to Seminole colors.
A couple of interesting websites about Florida tags:
Florida License Plate Gallery
Florida License Plate
