FlourChild, they still have the numbered county tags.
It's just that there are a LOT of specialty tags. All you have to do to get your own is petition with the required number of signatures of people who say they'll buy them. Square dancing, nuclear blast veterans, river conservation...not to mention colleges and universities....I
didn't even know there was a Selma University!

Here are a couple of links...it's Lauderdale County (41 - Florence) but the tags are offered in every Alabama county:

Alabama Distinctive Car Tags (broken link)
Alabama Distinctive Car Tags (broken link)