| "The Motor Car Act 1903" started everything | | | | reason unknown). |
| off. It said that every car had to be | | | | |
| registered with a county council or county | | | | The letters I Q Z O and U were never used as |
| borough council, and every car had to display | | | | a suffix letter in fact I Q and Z were never |
| a unique identifying number issued to them by | | | | used at all. By 1983 they faced the same |
| such a council. | | | | problem but deftly extended the system by |
| | | | reversing the number plate giving a letter |
| Initially each council was issued one letter | | | | first then up to 3 numbers then a space then |
| to use on the number plates , they could not | | | | 3 more letters. The first letter now gave the |
| have known how popular the motor car was to | | | | age of the car. Prefix number plate system |
| become and as the number of cars increased | | | | |
| they quickly ran out of combinations ,so they | | | | The Prefix Number Plate System |
| started to use two and then three letter | | | | |
| combinations. By 1963 several councils were | | | | Table of "Age identifier " Prefix Letters. |
| close to the end of their allocation, so a | | | | |
| 7th digit was added to the Number Plate | | | | A 1 Aug 83 - 31 Jul 84 H 1 Aug 90 - 31 Jul |
| System. This extra digit was a letter ,so | | | | 91 R 1 Aug 97 - 31 Jul 98 |
| post 1963 numbers had three letters then a | | | | |
| space then up to 3 numbers and then another | | | | B 1 Aug 84 - 31 Jul 85 J 1 Aug 91 - 31 Jul |
| letter this last letter gave the age of the | | | | 92 S 1 Aug 98 - 28 Feb 99 |
| car. | | | | |
| | | | C 1 Aug 85 - 31 Jul 86 K 1 Aug 92 - 31 Jul |
| Suffix Number Plate System | | | | 93 T 1 Mar 99 - 31 Aug 99 |
| | | | |
| The Suffix Number Plate System | | | | D 1 Aug 86 - 31 Jul 87 L 1 Aug 93 - 31 Jul |
| | | | 94 V 1 Sep 99 - 29 Feb 00 |
| Table of "Age identifier " Suffix Letters. | | | | |
| | | | E 1 Aug 87 - 31 Jul 88 M 1 Aug 94 - 31 Jul |
| A 1 Jan 63 - 31 Dec 63 H 1 Aug 69 - 31 Jul | | | | 95 W 1 Mar 00 - 31 Aug 00 |
| 70 R 1 Aug 76 - 31 Jul 77 | | | | |
| | | | F 1 Aug 88 - 31 Jul 89 N 1 Aug 95 - 31 Jul |
| B 1 Jan 64 - 31 Dec 64 J 1 Aug 70 - 31 Jul | | | | 96 X 1 Sep 00 - 28 Feb 01 |
| 71 S 1 Aug 77 - 31 Jul 78 | | | | |
| | | | G 1 Aug 89 - 31 Jul 90 P 1 Aug 96 - 31 Jul |
| C 1 Jan 65 - 31 Dec 65 K 1 Aug 71 - 31 Jul | | | | 97 Y 1 Mar 01 - 31 Aug 01 |
| 72 T 1 Aug 78 - 31 Jul 79 | | | | |
| | | | It may be noted that the letters I and Z ( |
| D 1 Jan 66 - 31 Dec 66 L 1 Aug 72 - 31 Jul | | | | used for N.Ireland) are missing as are Q ( |
| 73 V 1 Aug 79 - 31 Jul 80 | | | | reserved for kit cars and repaired write offs |
| | | | etc) and the letter U ( reason unknown). |
| E 1 Jan 67 - 31 Jul 67 M 1 Aug 73 - 31 Jul | | | | |
| 74 W 1 Aug 80 - 31 Jul 81 | | | | By 2001 the problem was looming again and the |
| | | | current system was introduced. Now each |
| F 1 Aug 67 - 31 Jul 68 N 1 Aug 74 - 31 Jul | | | | number plate has 7 digits and the first two |
| 75 X 1 Aug 81 - 31 Jul 82 | | | | letters give the region of the country where |
| | | | the car was first registered, followed by two |
| G 1 Aug 68 - 31 Jul 69 P 1 Aug 75 - 31 Jul | | | | numbers which give the age of the car and |
| 76 Y 1 Aug 82 - 31 Jul 83 | | | | then three random letters . An example of |
| | | | this could be NE51 XXX. The NE tells you the |
| You may notice that a further complication to | | | | car is from the North East of England (a |
| the number system came in 1967 when , under | | | | table of these region identifiers is below ). |
| pressure from the motor car industry the | | | | The 51 tells you it was registered in |
| changeover date was moved to August in an | | | | September 2001 and the last three letters |
| attempt to smooth out new car puchasing by | | | | mean nothing. Current Number Plate system |
| the public. It may also be noted that the | | | | Current U.K. Number Plates System The first |
| letters I and Z ( used for N.Ireland) are | | | | two digits of each car registration denote |
| missing as are Q ( reserved for kit cars and | | | | the area of the country where the vehicle was |
| repaired write offs etc) and the letter U ( | | | | first registered. |