Cut License plate, Illegality/do-ability? Options

[snagmor]

So Ive seen some cars, both on the road and on the interwebs, with regular license plats that have either been cut or folded so that all you can see is the numbers.
They look super classy, but I cannot find a whole lot of information on it. I was wondering if anybody else has ever done this themselves or heard of anybody who has?

I got pulled over today for not having my front mounted so I need to get it on there asap, but If this is legal then I'd definitly be doing this pretty soon.
I quickly grabbed these two pictures but I was more thinking of going for a look closer to the first one.
If anybody has any input on their illegality please let me know!

[snagmor]

@Diego, we all know you are the coolest, way to rub it in
@jordisonjr, did you have to take your bumper off to mount yours like you did?
@RabidTRD, yeah and I think that looks good on your car I just never really cared for how it looked when it was centered at all on mine.

Hopefully I can figure smething out before nice mister motorcycle cop catches me doing the speed limit in a sports car again, and needs a reason to ticket me xD