British Registration Plates--The theory!
Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 11:04 am
As a follow on to the question raised in the topic "Plus 2S end of production" & also in other earlier topics
"What do the registration letters & numbers in GB mean?"
Well I'll start the ball rolling with what I know & hope that other more knowledgeable posters will be able to add more & correct the mistakes I may make.
Most importantly the number allocated to a British registered vehicle stays with that vehicle for life; that is with the exception of the "cherished number plate"
The "cherished plate" is a series of existing numbers & letters which may be offered for sale to people prepared to pay the price for "the privilege" & it has turned into a money making enterprise not only run by specialist dealers but also by the DVLA, the issuing authority in GB.
Initially British registration letters & numbers were white characters on black background.
There was a letter or up to 3 letters followed by a series of numbers & the usual total number of characters was 6
The letters used were actually allocated to the then recognised counties & those allocated series of letters were applied by some written rules that I'm not conversant with.
However the number PYD 686 (an old motorbike of mine) was a Somerset registration.
As you can see there is no relationship between the letters & the county; whereas in Germany the letters are more easily deciphered e.g. M = Munich & FFB = Furstenfeldbr?ck.
Here the larger towns are honoured with fewer letters & smaller towns lumbered with more as can be seen by the examples given.
However here the registration number is not "for life". If a vehicle changes owners & the owners live in different registration areas the vehicle needs to be re-registered.
e.g. I sell my car from Dachau with the number DAH-66 JP to someone in Munich.
That car will get a Munich number e.g. M-2457 DJ and the ex number DAH-66 JP goes back into the pot for re-use within the Dachau area.
In France, as I understand it, it is the numbers that define the area in which the vehicle is registered & I think that 75 = Paris & 92 = the Calais area.
In GB prior to 1963 not much interest was shown in the age of an owners vehicle but in order to give the Automobile manufacturers a sales boost the Government introduced a suffix letter to the registration number.
This additional letter informed everyone about the age of the vehicle
e.g. BOB 625B was newly registered in 1964 ( "A" being the 1st suffix letter issued in 1963)
The whole alphabet with the exclusion of "O" "I" "Q" (I think that's all) due to possible confusion with the similar numbers 0 & 1
The system was a success in increasing car sales because Sheeple began to need the latest registration number on the car standing in the driveway of their house.
They call it "Street Cred' these days.
Once "Z" had been achieved at the end of the registration number the system was changed so that the "Letter" was now added to the front of the registration with the other letters & numbers swapping places; e.g. A 321 LOT.
So the snob value number plate system was extended yet another 20 or so years
Obviously this system had a limited duration until the letter Z was reached.
At this point, when the British car industry was at the point of collapse, the government announced a new vehicle registration system under the disguise of once again being able to recognise which part of the country the vehicle was registered.
A new set of letter codes was introduced in order to do this & the reason given was that certain counties had, due to government re-organisation, completely disappeared from the Maps of the country.
Once again these letters bore/bear no immediately identifiable relationship to the area of first registration.
But! Now new registrations were introduced twice a year!
This, the government said, was to reduce the glut of new registrations in January of the new year & sometime in the middle of Summer another registration year number was issued.
The new January registration numbers started with 01 e.g. KS 01 HVA & the Summer registrations with 50 e.g. KS 50 HVA.
The new system not only extended the "newly registered" vehicle system for another ~50 years but also provided the opportunity for Sheeple to have the "latest number" twice a year & possibly prevent a total collapse of the British Car industry!
With regard to "cherished numbers" I'm not too sure of how that works with the exception of knowing that some people pay massive amounts of money to get some of them & it is a completely legal system.
What confuses me now is that "Kit Car" builders can now buy period numbers whereas at one time they had to have numbers with a "Q" suffix.
I've left a few holes so may the discussion commence?
Cheers
John
P.S. To our friends across "the Pond" & on t'other side of t'World everything as clear as mud now?
_________________
"What do the registration letters & numbers in GB mean?"
Well I'll start the ball rolling with what I know & hope that other more knowledgeable posters will be able to add more & correct the mistakes I may make.
Most importantly the number allocated to a British registered vehicle stays with that vehicle for life; that is with the exception of the "cherished number plate"
The "cherished plate" is a series of existing numbers & letters which may be offered for sale to people prepared to pay the price for "the privilege" & it has turned into a money making enterprise not only run by specialist dealers but also by the DVLA, the issuing authority in GB.
Initially British registration letters & numbers were white characters on black background.
There was a letter or up to 3 letters followed by a series of numbers & the usual total number of characters was 6
The letters used were actually allocated to the then recognised counties & those allocated series of letters were applied by some written rules that I'm not conversant with.
However the number PYD 686 (an old motorbike of mine) was a Somerset registration.
As you can see there is no relationship between the letters & the county; whereas in Germany the letters are more easily deciphered e.g. M = Munich & FFB = Furstenfeldbr?ck.
Here the larger towns are honoured with fewer letters & smaller towns lumbered with more as can be seen by the examples given.
However here the registration number is not "for life". If a vehicle changes owners & the owners live in different registration areas the vehicle needs to be re-registered.
e.g. I sell my car from Dachau with the number DAH-66 JP to someone in Munich.
That car will get a Munich number e.g. M-2457 DJ and the ex number DAH-66 JP goes back into the pot for re-use within the Dachau area.
In France, as I understand it, it is the numbers that define the area in which the vehicle is registered & I think that 75 = Paris & 92 = the Calais area.
In GB prior to 1963 not much interest was shown in the age of an owners vehicle but in order to give the Automobile manufacturers a sales boost the Government introduced a suffix letter to the registration number.
This additional letter informed everyone about the age of the vehicle
e.g. BOB 625B was newly registered in 1964 ( "A" being the 1st suffix letter issued in 1963)
The whole alphabet with the exclusion of "O" "I" "Q" (I think that's all) due to possible confusion with the similar numbers 0 & 1
The system was a success in increasing car sales because Sheeple began to need the latest registration number on the car standing in the driveway of their house.
They call it "Street Cred' these days.
Once "Z" had been achieved at the end of the registration number the system was changed so that the "Letter" was now added to the front of the registration with the other letters & numbers swapping places; e.g. A 321 LOT.
So the snob value number plate system was extended yet another 20 or so years
Obviously this system had a limited duration until the letter Z was reached.
At this point, when the British car industry was at the point of collapse, the government announced a new vehicle registration system under the disguise of once again being able to recognise which part of the country the vehicle was registered.
A new set of letter codes was introduced in order to do this & the reason given was that certain counties had, due to government re-organisation, completely disappeared from the Maps of the country.
Once again these letters bore/bear no immediately identifiable relationship to the area of first registration.
But! Now new registrations were introduced twice a year!
This, the government said, was to reduce the glut of new registrations in January of the new year & sometime in the middle of Summer another registration year number was issued.
The new January registration numbers started with 01 e.g. KS 01 HVA & the Summer registrations with 50 e.g. KS 50 HVA.
The new system not only extended the "newly registered" vehicle system for another ~50 years but also provided the opportunity for Sheeple to have the "latest number" twice a year & possibly prevent a total collapse of the British Car industry!
With regard to "cherished numbers" I'm not too sure of how that works with the exception of knowing that some people pay massive amounts of money to get some of them & it is a completely legal system.
What confuses me now is that "Kit Car" builders can now buy period numbers whereas at one time they had to have numbers with a "Q" suffix.
I've left a few holes so may the discussion commence?
Cheers
John
P.S. To our friends across "the Pond" & on t'other side of t'World everything as clear as mud now?
_________________