What you may be seeing as "front plates" could actually be vanity plates which look like real license plates. F'rinstance I have an Aruba plate, it does appear genuine, says "WNSURF". It was a souvenir. I get asked about being from Aruba surprisingly frequently, so it seems to fool the hoi-polloi. I've seen Margaritaville plates which look like Florida plates. I see also people here in the land of expatriates quite frequently putting their native-state plates on the front of their cars. Although why anyone would brag on being a Yankee is beyond me. ;-)