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!’”

The UK’s most expensive number plate to date is the F1 registration number purchased by a British businessman for £440,625 in 2008, though that’s just small change compared to the £7m spent by Abu Dhabi-based Saeed Khouri on the 1 number plate – officially the largest sum of money ever spent on a registration number.

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.

The Motor Car Act 1903, which came into force on 1 January 1904, required all motor vehicles to be entered on an official vehicle register, and to carry number plates. The Act was passed in order that vehicles could be easily traced in the event of an accident or contravention of the law. Vehicle registration number plates in the UK are rectangular or square in shape, with the exact permitted dimensions of the plate and its lettering set down in law.

Number Plate Suppliers, do they have to be registered?

The short answer to the question is YES.

If you are buying a cherished plate through a registered (MIRAD) dealer who is also a registered number plate supplier (RNPS) with the DVLA then they can supply the plates for you.

Sales manager at Image Registrations Bruno Morris said “if we are supplying the cherished number to the client and transferring it onto the vehicle for them then we already have established proof of ownership and identity during the transfer procedure. It saves the customer a lot of hassle by enabling us to supply the registration plates with the completed paperwork”.