Portuguese car number plates

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Present Model
Present Model
Model from 1937 to 1992
Model from 1937 to 1992

The Portuguese Car number plate system for automobiles and motorcycles is simple and sequential and, presently, does not have any link to geographical locations or similar. It's just an incremental numbering system consisting of three groups of two characters, separated by dashes. This system started in 1937 with AA-10-00, then went on to 00-00-AA and recently changed over to 00-AA-00. When this last sequence comes to an end, it will by introduced the sequence AA-00-AA.

Contents

[edit] Colours

Initially there where white characters on black ground all in plastic. It changed to black characters on white ground and metal in 1992. Also, the common European blue ribbon was added with the Portuguese 'P' denominator. In 1998 a yellow ribbon on the right side was added with the month and year in which the car was first registered (e.g. 12/99 for December, 1999). This is different to other systems as in Germany where the date is the next time the car has to be checked.

[edit] Special licence plates

  • The sequences MG-00-00, ME-00-00 and MX-00-00 are only used by Portuguese Army vehicles.
  • The sequence AP-00-00 is only used by Portuguese Navy vehicles.
  • The sequence AM-00-00 is only used by Portuguese Air Force vehicles.
  • The sequence 00-00-KA to 00-00-KZ was used for second hand imported vehicles in 1997.
  • The Portuguese National Republican Guard uses the special sequence GNR-A-01 to GNR-Z-9999 in which the letter after the GNR identifies the unit inside the Guard.
  • The diplomatic vehicles use the sequences 000-CD000 (diplomats), 000-CC000 (consular personnel) and 000-FM000 (non-diplomatic embassy personnel) in which the first group of three numbers identify the country, with red characters on white and without the European blue ribbon.
  • Vehicles on sale use special plates with the name of the dealer followed by an identification number, with white characters on red and without the European blue ribbon.
  • Trailers use another sequence which consist of two groups of characters separated by a dash. The first with one or two letters is the code of the regional registering office. The second is a sequential registration number with up to five digits.
  • Vehicles for exportation use an inverse sequence of the trailers, first the registration number and second the office code. In this vehicles the letters "EXP" are placed in the yellow ribbon above the date
  • Industrial machines use the same sequence as the automobiles and the motorcycles but with black characters on red. This vehicles have an "A" in the yellow ribbon replacing the date.

[edit] Historic plates

Nowadays it is possible to get an old (white on black) number plate for historic cars. Interestingly this number is not the 'official' car license, but rather an alias for it. Therefore old-timers with black number plates also have a new License number, but it is only in the car's license, and not shown on the car itself.

[edit] Registering Office codes

The trailers and the vehicles for export have the following registering office code letters in their licence plates:

Until the 80's only the codes A, AN, C, H, L, M and P existed. After that, other registering offices were created with new codes.

In the trailers are also used the following special codes:

AM - Air Force, AN - Navy, CC - Consular Corps, CD - Diplomatic Corps, FM - non-diplomatic embassy, MG - Army and ME - Army.

[edit] History of the Portuguese licence plates

Local licence plates were issued at least since 1901, which usually consisted of the full name or the abbreviation of the name of the district, followed by a serial number. (e.g. "LISBOA 123" or "LXA. 123" for a vehicle in Lisbon).

In 1911 it was established a national car registration system. The country was divided in 5 zones (North, Center, South, Azores and Madeira), each having an identification number sequence for the licence plates, respectively N-000, C-000, S-000, A-000 and M-000. In the middle 30's there were already so many vehicles registered, specially in the South Zone which included the City of Lisbon, that the identification number was already in the 5 digits. As this created some difficulties in the identification of vehicles by authorities it was decided to change the system.

So, in 1937, the second Portuguese car registration system was established. This consisted in the sequence AA-10-00 to ZZ-99-99. The division in zones was kept. The letters AA to LZ were reserved for the South (Lisbon), the MA to TZ to the North (Oporto)and the UA to ZZ to the Center (Coimbra).

The vehicles registered with the old system had to change to the new one. In Lisbon the vehicles of the series S-000 and S-1000 changed to the serie AA-00-00, those of the S-10000 to the AB-00-00, the S-20000 to the AC-00-00 and the S-30000 to the AD-00-00. In Oporto the changes were from the N-000 and N-1000 to the MM-00-00 and from the N-10000 to the MN-00-00. In Coimbra all vehicles changed to the series UU-00-00. In the new licences, the vehicles kept the ancient numbers, with the exception of those of the tens of thousand (e.g. the vehicle C-123 would change to UU-01-23, the N-1234 to MM-12-34 and the S-12345 to AB-23-45).

The letters MG, and latter ME and MX were reserved for the Army, the AP for the Navy, the AM for the Air Force and the EP for the government civil ministries. The The letters CD, CC and FM were reserved for diplomatic vehicles (respectively for diplomatic, consular and non-diplomatic personnel), but with red characters on white ground. The letters TA, TB and TC, in red plates with white characters were reserved for temporary licences respectively in Lisbon, Oporto and Coimbra. National Republican Guard and the former Fiscal Guard had special sequences beginning respectively with the letters GNR and GF.

In the Azores and Madeira the new system was only adopted in 1962. By this time the Azores were themselves divided in three registering districts: Ponta Delgada, Angra do Heroismo and Horta. In this case the groups of letters AN were reserved for Angra, AR and AS for Ponta Delgada and HO for Horta. For Madeira were reserved the groups MA and MD. The white letters on red TD, TG, TH and TF were for temporary licences respectively in Ponta Delgada, Angra, Horta and Madeira.

In the beginning of the 80's it was decided to end with reservation of letter sequences by zones. From then on there was only a national sequence.

Still before of the ending of the reservation of letters by zones, new registering offices opened, and some groups were reserved for them: EM and EV for Évora, ZA and ZB for Braga, ZC and ZD for Vila Real, ZE and ZF for Aveiro, ZG and ZH for Guarda, ZI and ZL for Santarém, ZM and ZN for Setúbal and ZO and ZP for Faro. As Évora was considered a central office it also had a temporary licences code: TE. However most of these sequences were never used or were used already as part of the national sequence.

In 1992 with the end of the AA-00-00 sequence, a new one was introduced, the 00-00-AA. At the same time the black plates were changed by white ones, which included on the left the European blue ribbon with the national code "P".

In 1998 a yellow ribbon with the date of the first register of the vehicle was introduced on the right side of the plate.

In 2006 the 00-00-AA sequence ended, and the 00-AA-00 was introduced.

[edit] Former Portuguese Overseas Territories Plates

The models of Portuguese car plates were followed by the then Portuguese colonies. At the beginning the model of 1911 was followed. Each colony had a group of one to three letters which designated the colony itself or a district inside the colony. The letters were followed by a serial number (eg. G-1234 for a car registered in Guinea or CVS-1235 for one registered in the south-east district of Cape Verde). In the 50's and in the 60's the licensing systems in all colonies were changed to systems based in the Portuguese one of 1937. By territory the sequences used were:

  • Angola: Axx-00-00 - the second and third letters were reserved by district
  • Cape Verde: CVx-00-00 - the third letter identified the district (S: southeast, B: northwest)
  • Portuguese Guinea: G-00-00
  • Portuguese India: Ixx-00-00 - the second and third letters were reserved by district (IGA to IGZ for Goa district)
  • Macau: M-00-00 and latter Mx-00-00 - the second letter was sequential
  • Mozambique: Mxx-00-00 - the second and third letters were reserved by district
  • São Tomé and Príncipe: STP-00-00
  • Portuguese Timor: T-00-00 and latter TP-00-00

With some minor differences, this systems are still in use in São Tomé and Príncipe, Mozambique, Macau, Cape Verde and Angola.

[edit] See also

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