A Brief History Of UK Number Plates

As roads became more and more populated in the late 1800s, a solution was required to be able to trace vehicles in the event of an accident or contravention of the law, so in 1903 the Motor Car Act was passed and number plates were introduced. Prior to this, there was no proper way to legally identify a vehicle.

It became mandatory that every single vehicle using the roads from January 1st 1904 was to be registered to its local authority and display a number plate. However, some of the first number plates had already been issued by late 1903.

Number plates have been hot stuff ever since they were first released and people realised possible combinations could form words or names, making them extremely desirable… and valuable.

Between 1903 to 1963, the Motor Car Act introduced the “dateless” style of registration. It’s in the name. They contain no age or year identifier and can thus be assigned to any vehicle regardless of age. Eg. 1 A – 9999 YX

The first number plate issued by the London council was A 1. It was secured by the 2nd Earl Russell having had his butler queue at the councils offices overnight. You can read more about A 1 and other famous number plates here. Notably one of the country’s most valuable number plates, it is currently owned by Prince Jeffri, brother of the Sultan of Brunei.

Single digit number plates were given to the largest counties. One’s beginning with “B” was given to Lancashire and “C” was given to Yorkshire, “Y” was given to Somerset and so on in no alphabetical order. Smaller regions were issued two letter combinations. For example, “AA” showed Hampshire, “AB” showed Worcestershire, “FP” Rutland and so on. As areas continued to expand and grow, so did the combinations of possibilities on number plates.

The letters “I” and “Z” were restricted to the whole of Ireland and the letters “D”, “S” and “V” were initially restricted to Scotland. In Ireland and Scotland, registrations boroughs or counties were allocated codes in alphabetical order, which were followed by county boroughs. For example, in Ireland, Antrim was issued “IA” And Armagh was issued “IB”. In Scotland, Aberdeenshire was issued “SA” whilst Argyl was given “SB” and so on.

There are many reports, but none that we can confirm that DY 1 and Y1 were amongst the very first to ever be issued. Dateless number plates are extremely popular for their symbolism of history, decadence, panache and their vehicle age concealing capabilities.

In 1963, after exhausting all possible combinations of number plates, the Suffix style of registrations were introduced. The suffix number plates ran from 1963 to 1983. This time, a single letter at the end was incorporated and to be used as a year identifier. Suffix style plates comprise three letters followed by up to three random numbers followed by the year signifying letter. The letters “I”, “O”, Q”, “U” and “Z” were not used as local office identifiers. eg AAA 1A – YYY 999Y The very first suffix number plate to issued in 1963 was recorded to be AHX 1A.

Midway through the suffix style of registration, it was agreed that local county office had become overwhelmed with number plate processing and so an allocated centre in Swansea called the DVLC was set up. We know the agency as the DVLA.

By 1982, the Suffix number plates had reached Y and so from 1983 onwards, the sequence was reversed and named the Prefix style. The first letter was the age identifier and would again start with an “A”. It would be followed by one to three numbers, which would be followed by three letters. The letters “I”, “Q” and “Z” were never issued. e.g. A1 AAA – Y999 YYY.

In 2001, a new style of number plate was introduced, the “current style”. The first two letters of the number plate are called “memory tags” and represent the area code of the local registration office of the vehicle, the two numbers that follow signify the year the vehicle was registered in and these numbers are then followed by three random letters (eg AA02 AAA – YY72 ZZZ). The letters “I”, Q” “Z” are not used as local office identifiers but it is possible to have a “Z” in the random 3 letter combination, however, “I” and “Q” can not be used.

Introducing the new and current style of number plates was extremely beneficial to the car sales market. As car owners were always keen to have the latest year and model on the road, sales would always dry up close to the new plate release date in August. The current style of number plate now sees two issues a year, one in March and the other in September. So a 2020 car will show “20” but if registered from September to February will always have ”50” added to it, so would display “70. A 2021 car would show “21” but show “71” if registered in September or later. The current style of registration can accommodate for 12.6 million combinations each year. It has been estimated that it will run out of combinations in 2050, at which point it can just be reversed.

As the private trade of number plates between motorists continued to grow, the DVLA saw that money could be raised. On the 17th of December 1989, the DVLA offered 74 lots for sale at Chistie’s in South Kensington, London. The DVLA has since sold over 6 million number plates totalling over £2 billion. In 2018 alone, the DVLA brought in £116 million through number plate sales for the treasury. These figures do not include VAT or auction fees.

We’ve seen the popularity of personalised registrations increase year fold. Whether it be for investment, a symbolisation of wealth or simply to add that finishing touch when personalising your vehicle, chosen well, they bring in great yields. A market untouched by the recession, that continues to grow to despite any economic circumstance, we have solid reason to believe that private number plates as investments are as solid as ever.