In Ontario, as in many US states, you can now get permission to use
"Year of Manufacture" plates. You must find a set of plates that were issued for that type of vehicle (i.e., you cannot put taxi cab plates on a truck, etc..) and the plates must be in perfect condition. I am told that the province does not allow restored plates but if these are done correctly they would not know. The drawback is the cost. Last time I looked it was CDN$237.30 - identical to the cost of ordering vanity plates. This is grossly ufair as the vanity plates are custom stamped and supplied by the province while the YOM plates are supplied by the client and the province need only do paperwork.