The first series of number plates were issued in 1903 and ran until 1932, using the series A 1 to YY 9999. The letter or pair of letters indicated the local authority in whose area the vehicle was registered, for example A – London, B – Lancashire, C – West Riding of Yorkshire. In England and Wales the letter codes were initially allocated in order of population size (by the 1901 census) whilst Scotland and Ireland had their own sequences incorporating the letters "S" and "I" respectively, which were allocated alphabetically: IA = Antrim, IB = Armagh, etc. 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. There are three interesting anomalies where a zero has been issued – The Lord Provost of Edinburgh has S 0 and his Glasgow counterpart has G 0 while the official car of the Lord Provost of Aberdeen has RG 0. In addition the Lord Mayor of London has the registration LB 0.

Unique Number Plates

Y B-ZAR?

Because his license plate is APRIST — short for apiarist, a fancy word for beekeeper.

“Lots of people don’t get it, because it’s not a very common word,” said Clark, who keeps honeybees in the backyard of his Old Louisville home. “Every once in a while, somebody sees is and asks me about beekeeping and honey. But the whole point of a vanity plate is to create a word which is just like the real words but is itself a puzzle, so when you’re driving down the road, it’s ‘Oh, yeah, I got it!’”

Registration Number Auction Bidding Service. Why not let us take the strain. We can bid on your behalf upto a pre-arranged figure based on actual market values, avoiding the pitfalls of 'auction fever' and paying too much.

Our years of experience assure you of a professional service at all times. We can keep you informed during the auction by telephone so you will always know how the bidding is going.

You can advertise your registration number on our site for a one off payment of only £99 inc VAT. This means that we will promote your registration and professionally handle the transfer process once a buyer is located. You do not pay us any commission, we simply charge an administration fee to list your number at the start and the registration is then advertised at the figure you require until sold. If you are unsure about the market value of your number, please leave the 'Price Required' box blank and we will advise you by email of the ideal selling price.

Since the dvla introduced the bsau145d legislation it has been increasingly difficult for motorists to obtain number plates with anything other than legal spacing.

There is however another line of argument for the defence of the serial mis spacer. They say that a number plate that has been altered to make a word or a name is much more memorable in the event of an incident.
They also argue that the dvla blatantly auction registration numbers that would be virtually worthless without mis spacing.

Acrylic Number Plates

Acrylic number plates sigify the registration mark of a vehicle.

They can be made of different materials, but more commonly seen are metals and acrylics. But as to how the standard specifications on the use, make and display guidelines of number plates are, it would vary with every city and country. There are some who would prefer to have their number plates more personalized. As long as how it is obtained abides with the regulations, such is possible. In fact, motorists of today are starting to appreciate better the value of vanity plates.

Eric Morecambes Cherished Number Rescued!

Eric Morecambe’s 1971 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow has been spared from the scrapheap at the last minute.

Peter Yates, who runs a wedding car firm in Morecambe, spotted the car in a Shrewsbury junkyard just 24 hours before it was due to be dismantled.

He said finding the car – which had the number plate EM100 when Morecambe owned it – was a ‘miracle’.

The car was owned by the comic from 1971 and 1974 – as shown by the original order note – and Yates says it still smells of cigar smoke.

How the car came to be in a scrapheap is unknown. Seven years ago the car, including the personalised number plate, sold for £36,000 at auction.

Located in the heart of East Yorkshire, Image Registrations offer a fast, friendly and efficient service for buying and selling cherished vehicle registration numbers. Our team of trained staff will professionally handle your transfer as swiftly as possible, with some transfers taking just 24 hours from receipt of documentation. We offer advice without technical 'jargon', and are always competitive on price. Our valuations department can give you an accurate market value on your registration number by post or by e-mail. Del Stanley
As well as having an internet presence, we also regularly advertise in many of the 'National' publications where we offer a selection of registrations owned by us for sale.

DE51YRE private number plate for sale

DE51 YRE registration available through Image Marks with £500 discount available in January only. Call 01482 627 628 and speak to one of our team.

More great offers available at www.Image-Reg.com

'The 1 CUE cherished Number offers a unique chance to show the world you are at the top of your game' Bruno Morris of Image registrations told us.

Cherished numbers are a great investment and now is the perfect time to start your collection.

When replacing your number plate you should make sure that the correct material has been used to manufacture the plate. It should be made from a reflective material. Front number plates must display black characters on a white background and rear number plate must display black characters on a yellow background.

Diplomatic Plates ‘D’ what are they?

Diplomatic plates

Since 1979 cars operated by foreign embassies, high commissions, consular staff, and various international organisations have been given plates with a distinguishing format of three numbers, one letter, three numbers. The letter is D for diplomats or X for accredited non-diplomatic staff. The first group of three numbers identifies the country or organisation to whom the plate has been issued, the second group of three numbers is a serial number, starting at 101 for diplomats (although some embassies were erroneously issued 100), 400 for non-diplomatic staff of international organisations, and 700 for consular staff. Thus, for example, 101 D 101 identifies the first plate allocated to the Afghanistan embassy, 900 X 400 is the first plate allocated to the Commonwealth Secretariat.

2010 Car Number Plates

We’re now just over a month away from the introduction of the 2010 number plate on all new cars hitting the road after the beginning of March.

While the excitement surrounding the introduction of new number plates may go over some people’s heads, during the past few years a real demand has grown for personalised plates, with some selling for an absolute fortune at auction.

Music legend Elton John’s former number plate ELT 70N recently went up for auction for just under £1,000, but that’s nothing compared to the £113,815 one crazy person (in the nicest sense) shelled out on a 1 HRH number plate auctioned by the DVLA at the beginning of 2009. And even that has some way to go to surpass £254,000 paid to take ownership of the 51 NGH plate.