New Hampshire Veteran and Gold Star Number Plates

RSA 261:87-b is the plate for a veteran who does not qualify for one of the RSA 261:86 categories, and it is a paid plate rather than a free one. Paragraph I authorises the director to issue special plates to be used on motor vehicles owned by veterans of the United States armed services, in lieu of other plates, with a design determined by the commissioner and "distinct from the design or designs of those plates issued under RSA 261:86". So a veteran plate and a disabled veteran plate look different, which is what makes the RSA 261:86 parking rule administrable. Who may have one: "veterans as defined in RSA 21:50, I(a) and veterans discharged or released from duty in the United States armed forces with a general discharge under honorable conditions". That phrasing is a leftover. RSA 21:50, I(a)(2)(C) already includes a general discharge under honorable conditions, so the second limb adds nothing to the first as the definition now stands. It survives from before the definition was broadened and is harmless, but a veteran told that a general discharge does not qualify can point at either limb. Proof is "in a form authorized by RSA 21:50, I(b)", which is the 24-item document list in the definition section: any DD Form 214, 215 or 217, a DD Form 2 (Retired), the older service-specific forms including WD AGO 53-55 and the NAVPERS and NAVMC series, an NGB Form 22, National Archives forms, a Verification of Service letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs, a notarised statement of service from a commanding or administrative officer, and any other document the director of the division of veterans services approves. That is a genuinely useful list for a veteran whose DD214 is lost. The cost: the regular motor vehicle registration fee plus "the $4 per plate fees under RSA 261:75". Renewals are charged the fee assessed for standard motor vehicles under RSA 261:141. So this plate costs a few dollars more than a standard plate, once. Transfer: "The plates furnished pursuant to this section are non-transferable, except that the surviving spouse may use the plates indefinitely after the death of the veteran until the date that the surviving spouse remarries." A widow or widower keeps the plate. The word "indefinitely" is the operative one, and remarriage is the only ending event named. RSA 261:87-c covers Gold Star plates, and it splits them three ways with definitions in paragraph I. A "gold star mother" is the mother or stepmother of a person killed while on duty in the United States armed forces. A "gold star father" is the father or stepfather. A "gold star family" member is "an immediate family member, who is not a gold star mother or father, of a person killed while on duty in the United States armed forces." Paragraph II furnishes one set of plates for one vehicle owned by a qualifying individual, and paragraph III makes them share a single base design approved by the commissioner, "distinguished solely by wording on the plate, specifying 'Gold Star Mother,' 'Gold Star Father,' or 'Gold Star Family.'" Paragraph IV requires documented eligibility. The trigger is "killed while on duty", which is broader than killed in action and does not require a combat zone. A parent or sibling of a service member killed in a training accident is inside the section. Two older plate sections a reader may encounter in secondary material are gone. RSA 261:87 and RSA 261:87-a were both repealed by 1999 chapter 291, section 2, effective September 14, 1999. Citations to either are citations to repealed law. A third veteran plate arrived on September 8, 2026 and it is a fundraising plate rather than a recognition one. RSA 261:97-g creates a Special Veteran Number Plate renewed annually for $30 per set, "in addition to the regular motor vehicle registration fee and any other number plate fees otherwise required". The proceeds fund the New Hampshire First for Veterans Program through the fund in RSA 261:97-h. It is the most expensive of the three veteran plates and the only one where the money goes to veteran services rather than to the highway fund, so the choice between it and the $4 plate in this section is a choice about whether to donate roughly $30 a year. RSA 261:86 and RSA 261:87-b interact once, and it is covered in the disabled veteran plate entry: a permanently and totally disabled veteran may take one free set of these RSA 261:87-b plates instead of the accessibility-symbol plates, and loses the free parking by doing so.