Vehicle registration plates of Bulgaria
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The standard Bulgarian license plates consist of a blue vertical strip (the European strip) on the left side of the plate containing the European flag (or the flag of Bulgaria) and the country code of Bulgaria (BG), always followed on a white surface, using black font, by the one- or two-letter province code, four digits and a final two-letter code, called a series. They thus take the form X(X) NNNN YY.
The format XX AAAAAA may be used instead the standard one, where A represents either letters or numbers chosen by the owner (a name for example). The price of such a custom plate is €3,500 (BGN7,000), so these are rare.
Since 1992, the letter license plate codes use letters common to both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, no matter whether they have the same phonetic value (as per ISO 3166-2:BG). Thus, letters like "T" and "K" may not be misleading, but using Latin "B" (/b/), "H" (/h/), "P" (/p/), "C" (/s/), "Y" (/i/), "X" (/ks/) to substitute Cyrillic "В" (/v/), "Н" (/n/), "Р" (/r/), "С" (/s/), "У" (/u/), "Х" (/x/) are an example of intentional false friends.
In use are also three other types of plates: NNN T NNN — plate for transit of unregistered vehicle through Bulgaria; NNN H NNN — plate for a new vehicle, not registered yet; NNN B NNN — temporary plate for car dealers. These three types use a white background with black text and a red vertical strip on the right side. Usually, the expiry date is inscribed on the red strip.
Since 2006, all military vehicles' plates are subject to change with the new ones: the letters "BA" (for Bulgarian Army) and 6 digits — the form is BA NNNNNN. The same form is adopted for the new license plates of the Civil Protection Service of Bulgaria, beginning with "CP" (for Civil Protection) followed by 6 digits — CP NNNNNN. On the left side of both kinds of plates there's a blue vertical strip, same as the one described above.
Contents |
[edit] License plate codes
| Current province code | Province | Old province code (pink fields indicate changed codes) |
|---|---|---|
| A | Burgas Province | Cyrillic Бс, Б |
| B | Varna Province | Cyrillic Вн, В |
| BH | Vidin Province | Cyrillic Вд, ВД |
| BP | Vratsa Province | Cyrillic Вр, ВР |
| BT | Veliko Tarnovo Province | Cyrillic ВТ |
| C or CA (since 2006) | City of Sofia | Cyrillic Сф, С, А |
| CC | Silistra Province | Cyrillic Сс, СС |
| CH | Sliven Province | Cyrillic Сл, СЛ |
| CM | Smolyan Province | Cyrillic См, СМ |
| CO | Sofia Province | Cyrillic СФ |
| CT | Stara Zagora Province | Cyrillic Сз, СЗ |
| E | Blagoevgrad Province | Cyrillic Бл, БЛ |
| EB | Gabrovo Province | Cyrillic Гб, Г |
| EH | Pleven Province | Cyrillic Пл, ПЛ |
| H | Shumen Province | Cyrillic Ш |
| K | Kardzhali Province | Cyrillic Кж, К |
| KH | Kyustendil Province | Cyrillic Кн, КН |
| M | Montana Province | Cyrillic Мх, М |
| OB | Lovech Province | Cyrillic Лч, Л |
| P | Ruse Province | Cyrillic Рс, Р |
| PA | Pazardzhik Province | Cyrillic Пз, ПЗ |
| PB | Plovdiv Province | Cyrillic Пд, П |
| PK | Pernik Province | Cyrillic Пк, ПК |
| PP | Razgrad Province | Cyrillic Пз, РЗ |
| T | Targovishte Province | Cyrillic Тщ, Т |
| TX | Dobrich Province | Cyrillic Тх, ТХ |
| X | Haskovo Province | Cyrillic Хс, Х |
| Y | Yambol Province | Cyrillic Яб, Я |
[edit] Army and Civil Protection plates
Additionally, there is a special code for Bulgarian Army and Civil Protection vehicles:
| Current code | Entity | Old code |
|---|---|---|
| BA | Bulgarian Army vehicles | Cyrillic В, red on a white plate |
| CP | Civil protection vehicles | Cyrillic ГЗ |
[edit] Diplomatic plates
Diplomatic and consular car number plates are similar to ordinary ones, but are recognizably different in their color: white symbols on a red background without the blue "Europlate" elements. Plates starting with "C" indicate diplomatic status, "CC" indicate consular status, while "CT" is used for cars belonging to other staff of diplomatic representations. Additionally, the first two digits of the numeric group represent the country of the diplomatic or consular mission to which the vehicle belongs. Two smaller digits in the upper right corner denote the expiry year of the plate.
[edit] Foreigner and temporary plates
Finally, cars belonging to foreigners and imported into Bulgaria for a limited period of time are blue with white characters, starting with "XX", followed by four (meaningless) digits and two small digits denoting the expiry year.
