On my 1966 GT350 I’ve been using the method Bob mentioned ever since the restoration, and I don’t think the pins have ever been dragged across the plates. But I still have marring because of the vibrations that occur when driving the car. I suppose one of the plastic shields mentioned above might stop that, but at this point it’s too late for the plates currently on the car. So I just keep driving & smiling. The most fun I have with my car is giving rides, and no passenger has ever complained about the scratched hood pin plates.
If I was more interested in appearance I’d replace those plates and protect the new ones with a combination of two suggestions here in this topic. I’d use Bob’s suggestion to press the plates down before removing or inserting the pins to avoid dragging the pins across the plates (something I’m already doing). And I’d use GT350Lad’s suggestion to keep plastic discs in there for everything except shows. That should stop the marring caused by the vibrations of actually driving the car.
Steve