Latest Updates on Car Registration Plates in Great Britain
Car Registrations Information – Suffix, Prefix and Year Letters
Many people are confused with the car registrations system in Great Britain. What do all of those letters and numbers really mean? How can you tell how old a car is from its number plate? These questions and more will be answered in this useful guide to car registration plates.
The system of issuing a vehicle with a registration mark (the official term preferred by the DVLA) began in December 1903. Local Licensing Authorities were set up in different areas across England, Scotland and Wales.
Each Licensing Authority was given a letter of the alphabet, or a combination of letters which were also paired up with a number to create a registration mark. The registration mark was stamped onto a plate and displayed on the vehicle. This became known as a number plate.
London was in charge of issuing the letter ‘A’, letter ‘B’ registrations were introduced in Lancashire and ‘C’ letter combinations were issued by the West Riding of Yorkshire. There are still a few of these original combinations around today.
The system worked well until the supply of car registrations could no longer meet the demand. Nearly three decades later some Local Licensing Authorities had run out of registrations. It became necessary to introduce three letter combinations and in July of 1932, ARF 1 was the first three letter car registration to be issued in the county of Staffordshire.
It was another three decades before there was a radical change in system of issuing car registrations. It was decided that a new system would not only identify the vehicle, but also indicate how old the vehicle was. In February 1963 Middlesex County Council issued AHX 1A, the first three letter suffix registration. All car registrations issued prior to February 1963 became known as dateless or ageless number plates and are now highly sought after as attractive personalised number plates for modern day cars.
Examples of Dateless Registrations; ALR 486, 72 PG, LHL 13
Any number plate with three letters, a number and the letter ‘A’ at the end meant it was issued between the 1st of February 1963 and the 31st of December 1963. These became known as suffix registrations.
Examples of Suffix Registrations; AJB 159A, MJS 5K, BEN 84V
It was only two more decades before the registrations system was changed again so that the year letter was placed at the front of the registration. These became known as prefix registrations.
Examples of Prefix Registrations; B652 DSJ, J85 HMC, L725 SAH
The first of September 2001 saw a completely new system introduced. The new style or current style registration consists of two letters, two numbers and three letters. Now rather than using a letter to indicate the year of registration, a number system is used.
Examples of Current Style Registrations; YH02 KTD, FL56 XOY, BK10 PLX
That brings us right up to date and hopefully you now know a lot more about car registration plates in Great Britain.