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This page is not meant to be a definitive guide to British Registration Numbers, it is meant to give an idea of what to look for if you want to fit a UK plate to your car for shows or, for UK owners, to give you an idea of where your car was originally registered. I cannot guarantee the information is 100% accurate but I believe it will serve its purpose.

The first registration marks were made up of one letter with one number, the first (A1) being issued by London County Council in 1903.

Later formats were comprised of two letters and four numbers. These series were replaced as and when they were exhausted. So, whilst the Liverpool series KA lasted for only two years between 1925 and 1927, the series SJ was still being issued by Bute Council in 1963.

By the mid 1930s, the two letter/four number series of registration marks were exhausted in some areas and new three letter/three number series were introduced. AAA 1 was issued (by Hampshire County Council) in 1934 through to AAA 999 and the commencement of the BAA series in 1936. This process continued until the mid 1950s when marks were reversed to three numbers/three letters.

Between 1963 and 1965 councils began to issue "suffix" registration marks - three letter/three numbers and a year suffix. The registration year ran from 1 January - 31 December until 1967, when the suffix change was moved to 1 August. These plates do not have to have three numbers, the numbering ran from 1 to 999 so one or two numbers on a plate are not uncommon.

On the 1st August 1983 the order of the numbers was changed round so the year letter was a prefix rather than a suffix. The letters then ran in the same order changing each 1st August up until 'S' in August 1998. The change is now twice yearly and 'T' was issued in March1999.

From August 1990 ('H' reg.) Registration Legislation was changed to allow people to pick a personalised registration number, the plates still followed the same prefix format but you could chose one or two numbers and three letters to make up your own plate. 'Premium' plates, eg M1KES, are generally not issued on request but are auctioned. These plates are also available with A and B prefix letters to attach to cars registered from August 1983 and 1984 respectively. These plates may be attached to any vehicle registered after these dates but not to an earlier vehicle so it is not unusual to see a new car with a registration letter several years old. Letters that cannot be used are I, Q, U, and Z.

Number Plate Colours

Vehicles registered up to the 31st July 1972 (up to and including 'K' reg.) may display plates with a black background with either white or silver lettering. Vehicles registered from the 1st August 1972 ('L' reg. onwards) must have a rear number plate with a reflective yellow background and black lettering, the front plate must have a white reflective background again with black lettering. It is quite legal to fit the later yellow and white plates to an earlier car if you want to. You will find though that if you look round the cars at a show in the UK people do tend to pick a plate style that matches the colour of their car. Naturally they ALL remove these plates and fix the correct ones back on before taking their cars on the road again!

Number Plate Styles

The style of number plates changed over the years and the purist will obtain the correct style of plate to match the year of the car but for the purposes of this page I can only explain the three basic styles, these are: embossed, with separate plastic lettering and laminated plastic.

Generally if you intend fitting black plates to your car then you should go for the type with the letters embossed from the back, these would normally have silver lettering but they could also be white. The second style has raised plastic letters attached to the plate, these would normally be white. The third style which would not have been used at the time is the laminated plastic type, these will have silver lettering, they are readily available in the UK and do look smart even if they are technically incorrect.

The same three basic styles were also used with the later white and yellow plates, for earlier registration numbers either the embossed type or the type with separate letters could be used but from the mid to late 1970s these were gradually phased out and the plastic laminated type used. The letters on all of these are black.

The following tables show the years each letter was issued in.

When using these tables you have to be aware that there are many discrepancies in UK Vehicle Registering which I cannot go into here, one example is that in 1964 Swansea were still issuing three number/three letter Registrations rather than the B suffix most of the rest of the Country was using.

Suffix Letters (ABC 123 A )

Prefix Letters (A 123 ABC)

Within the group of three letters on a registration plate the second two letters (ABC123A), (A123ABC) generally show the area that plate was issued in. Over the years some areas ran out of available registration numbers and were issued another set of letters, the area that previously used these letters sometimes stopped using them but this was not always the case, the changes are shown here.

The following table shows the areas particular letter sequences were assigned to.

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