Talk:British car number plates
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[edit] Typeface
Does anybody know if the typeface used on number plates has a name, and if so what it is?
Edward 16:06, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)
- Not sure – there is a 'popular' typeface but I have seen deviations thence. – Kaihsu 22:39, 2005 Jan 22 (UTC)
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- The new mandatory typeface/font (since September 2001) is called "Charles Wright". See details here. -- Picapica 09:43, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)
BigglesPiP: The rules only say: > The Lines making up the figures must be of constant thickness > The large gaps between letters must be between the correct characters, and must be at least twice the size of other gaps.
[edit] Northern Ireland
The Northern Ireland section doesn't look right to me, though I'm not confident enough of the actual situation to edit it. I'm pretty sure that NI plates are of the form ZZZ 1234 - ie four digits. And I'm not at all sure that NI plates carry any year-denoting characters - isn't this absence one reason NI plates are often used as "vanity plates" in Great Britain? Loganberry 00:19, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I have created a new section for Northern Ireland with county codes, as well as updating the text. In the code list I have used the current official county name, so Co. Londonderry appears as "Londonderry". This does not result from any political idealogy, but because it is actually called that. I also changed the links at the bottom to reflect the fact that the body responsible for registrations is in Northern Ireland is called DVLNI and does not have "Agency" in its name. --Garethhamilton 22:21, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Text on 'EU' letters edited to explain that GB is the correct internationally recognised letter group for NI registered vehicles.
[edit] 000D000
I have seen plates with numbers such as 000D000 where each 0 may be a digit. Are these diplomatic plates? I see a high probability of them being outside diplomatic houses such as embassies and high commissions. Also, there are 000X000 ones. – Kaihsu 22:41, 2005 Jan 22 (UTC)
- For a full account of diplomatic plates in Britain (000 D 000 and 000 X 000), see this page. -- Picapica 10:03, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Various minor errors, ommissions, and random bits and bobs
I don't have time just at the moment to incorporate any of this into the article, nor do I feel inclined to do so, since I'm not in a position to verify any of the information. But I've found a number of discrepencies with other sources which would appear to indicate errors and omissions in the Wikipedia article, which I thought I may as well document here for future reference:
[edit] Scottish number plates
whilst Scotland and Ireland had special sequences incorporating the letters "S" and "I" respectively
Judging by this list of old one and two letter codes at http://www.regtransfers.co.uk/main/stories/cracking2.asp it appears that not all Scottish codes contained an 'S', eg 'G' for Glasgow,, 'AG' for Ayrshire.
I can answer that: Apart from G - Glasgow, S - Edinburgh, and V - Lanarkshire, the original 1903 scheme did indeed only allocate codes in Scotland of the form S* or *S. Only later, when all the "S" codes had been used up, were other codes issued in Scotland. Two letter codes with G or V in them were originally reserved for this purpose, but some were eventually used in England.
[edit] Allocation of old one/two letter codes
When a licensing authority reached 9999, it was allocated another two letter mark, but there was no pattern to these subsequent allocations as they were allocated on a first come first served basis.
Looking at the above list, it's plausible that initially they were allocated on a first-come-first-served basis, but it's clear that at some point an effort was made to introduce some kind of ad-hoc pattern. Eg most of the 'Lx' codes were allocated to London, several of the 'Nx' codes to Manchester, etc. Perhaps this is when the 'Sx' codes were allocated to Scotland?
[edit] List of one/two letter codes
It would be nice to have such a list on Wikipedia. Note that there are some special cases that also need to be tackled, where a three letter code was reserved for a special use. eg based on an old list I saw when I was young (in an 'I Spy' book, IIRC) although 'MC' was allocated to London, the 'GMC' sequence was IIRC reserved and allocated to Manchester for use by Greater Manchester Council. I'm also guessing that although 'AN' was allocated to West Ham, 'MAN' might have been reserved from this sequence to avoid clashing with the Isle of Man use of this code. There may be other examples.
[edit] British Military plates
We could do with some mention of these. All the ones I've seen are either of the the form two digits, two letters, two digits, or alternatively two letters, two digits, two letters.
Olav's plates site http://www.olavsplates.com/great_britain.html has some more information. (It appears from the comments on the photos that the first form is pre 1995, the latter form after. Also, it appears that the earliest plates used the central two-letter code to identify the branch of the military, but later plates didn't)
[edit] Isle of Man Plates
Judging by this site http://www.pl8s.com/i/iman.htm it would appear that things are much more complicated than we suggest here; according to this article there have been eleven different styles of plate issued on the Isle of Man (twelve if you count the brief reuse of the original format in 1971). The pictures on Olav's site would tend to corroborate much of this, and certainly shows more styles than those we describe.
Looking at the format of the Isle of Man plates, I'm guessing that they actually exist in the same numbering space as UK plates (ie an Isle of Man plate will never clash with a UK plate). Certainly the old code list shows MN as being allocated to the Isle of Man, and I'm guessing that 'MAN' was reserved out of the 'AN' sequence.
This page on the DVLA web site http://www.dvla.gov.uk/faq/faq_number_plates.htm#10 comments that a code is reserved in the new UK system for the Isle of Man so that they can adpot the scheme it they choose. I regard this as circumstantial evidence that an effort has been made to coordinate UK and IoM plates, and that they effectively exist in the same number space, but it would be interesting to know whether this is really true.
[edit] Channel Island Number Plates
It's clear from Olav's site that the numbers can vary in lenght, eg Jersey plates don't have to be five digits, older ones are four (and presumably they started at '1'). COnversely Alderney plates at no longer three digits, they're now into four (and presumably they started at '1' too?).
This also suggests that Channel Island number plates exist in a separete number space and can clash with UK plates. In the old UK scheme 'J' was apparently allocated to Durham and 'AY' to Leicestershire. If this is true it is probably worthy of note.
Guernsey plates presumably cannot clash with UK plates, since they're entirely numberic, and such plates have never been used in the UK.
The 'GBG' with a circle round appears to be just a stylistic element on the plate. Judging by Olav's site by no means all plates have it.
Roy Badami 23:09, 21 August 2005 (UTC)
The Guernsey 'H' plate thing is based on first-hand knowledge, but here's a third party to back it up: http://www.sandman-uk.com/guernsey/town.htm --81.86.106.14 17:00, 8 September 2005 (UTC)
Alderney plates are all prefixed 'AY' and are sequential from 1 upwards; as vehicles are retired the numbers are re-issued.
The GBG on Guernsey plates is stylistic as you say. To be legal abroad, a correct 'international oval' would be required.
[edit] Diplomatic plates
And another...
This page http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/haynes1/ukdiplo.htm referenced by Picapica above mentions a third kind of diplomatic plat (eg A21RXS) that we don't mentionl.
Roy Badami 01:06, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] "New F" number plates
Does anyone know anything about the "new F" number plates? --JimmyTheWig 14:57, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Personalised Number Plates
Look guys, I know you want to sell your numberplates but sneaking links into the main page here isn't the way to do it. Go whore your wares elsewhere. TiHead 22:50, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Black plates
Again having to correct this. Black plates are now permitted on all Historic Vehicles, which means any built prior to 1973. They do not have to have been registered or used prior to that date, only built. I quote from the DVLA website "Vehicles constructed before 1.1.73 may display traditional style "black and white" plates i.e. white, silver or grey characters on a black plate." Colin99 21:39, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Gibraltar
No mention of Gibraltar plates on the article. They have a very UK style of plate but with G and then numbers.
[edit] Good information source
There appears to be a good site with information about the place of origin of number plates for the previous system. Alan Pascoe 11:11, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Post Code
By law; number plates must display the postcode of the producer. I'm not sure when this became mandatory.
[edit] Temporary / Transit / Trade Plates
Does anybody know what the rules are about the temporary / transit / trade plates that are used for cars which have not yet been registered / are being delivered / test-driven? e.g. the red-lettered thing that gets put in your car when you go for a test drive etc —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.168.226.117 (talk) 19:21, 7 December 2006 (UTC).
