Your country's license plate numbering scheme

[Fuzzy Llama]

Hm, we had a thread like this some time ago. It naturally evolved into 'look what a cool licence plate I've seen the other day'

Nevermind.

Polish licence plate system from year 2000 till today

Polish plate number consist of two parts, first of which is a county (powiat) identifier (2 or 3 letters). So called 'urban counties' (which are larger cities) gets shorter, 2 letter long identifiers, the rest ('rural counties') gets the longer ones. The city of Warsaw is an exception, because while it legally constitutes one county, each of its 16 districts got their own identifier.
The first letter of the identifier is the same in every county in a district (województwo. In addition there are separate indicators for the Military (U-) and police and civil agencies (H-)
The map below shows the distribution of the identifiers, more precise info can be found on Wikipedia:


Until recently the number was only 7 characters long, so while urban counties used sensible numbering schemes like AB 12345, AB 1234C and AB 123CD, the rural ones was a mess - there were combintations like ABC D123, ABC 12DE, ABC 1D23, ABC 12D3, ABC 1DE2, ABC DE12 (ABC 1234 wasn't used because it collided with the previous system). Right now 8th character is allowed, so the rural counties are allowed to use ABC 12345 etc. combinations, but it's up to county if it want to exhaust all 7-characters combinations before adding the 8th one.

The design of the plates is simple - black text, white background, euroband at left-hand side (with a flag prior to year 2006).
Examples of the plates:




Apart from those there are also temporary plates (red font on white), plates for historic vehicles (black on yellow) and diplomatic plates (white on blue). Wikipedia nicely covers everything you want to know

[Alqaszar]

Germany has a rather complicated system:

A code consisting of 1, 2 or 3 letters denotes the origin of the car. The codes are allocated to the "Kreise" (counties) ot to incorporated cities which don't belong to a Kreis. Sometimes the term "Landkreis" is also used.

Then follow one or two letters and up to four numbers. The total number of characters on a plate isn't to exceed 8 so there won't be combinations like "ABC DE 1234". This is mainly possible because the greater entities with more numerous immatriculations use the one- and two-letter codes, while the smaller ones use three letter codes.

So the length of the plate may vary. Shorter combinations are normally reserved for motorbikes or American-sized plates (since they are smaller), but you can also see normal cars wich "short" combinations. Mostly you will see LL LL NNNN or LLL LL NNN.

B is Berlin, M is Munich, HH ist Hamburg, KLE is Kleve (small county in the lower Rhine area) etc. Some exception do exist: The city of Hanau got its own code (HU) despite the fact that it belongs to the Main-Kinzig-Kreis county (MKK). Some cities do have partially autonomous parts. So is Völklingen (VK) near the French border officially a part of the city of Saarbrücken, but still has its own degree of independence.

The current system has been introduced in 1956. Back then, all the denomination codes have been assigned, not only for the territory of West Germany, but also for East Germany (former GDR) and even the parts of Germany that today belong to Poland and Russia.

Over time, administrational reforms have deleted old entities or created new ones, so that some codes disappeared and new codes could be seen. Interestringly enough, the code of my car (VIE) was introduced for the town of Viersen, then abolished in 1970 because the town became part of the county "Kempen-Krefeld" (KK). Then, in 1975, the county was changed again and the new name was Viersen county and VIE was reintroduced! There's only one other code in Germany that encountered the same fate.

Since the late 1990s the Euro-type plates were introduced. The numeration an codification stayed the same, but the font changed and the appearance of the seal stickers which is a kind of validation sticker that makes the plate valid. In Germany, you will have the plate manufactured by a plate-maker and then you go to the DMV to get the stickers. Only after that, you can put them on your car and drive around with them.

Other official organisations used the local code, but with no further letters, only numbers after the code. Police, firefighters and vehicles of the county and city administrations used those plate, but they have also been abolished recently. The former state-run postal and railway services had their own plates (starting with BP for Bundespost and DB for "Deutsche Bundesbahn"); but since both organisations became private companies those plates became invalid.

Some federal organisations use their own plates, as well as the administrations and governments of the Bundesländer (lands). The federal police used the BG code (Bundesgrenzschutz), but recently the new code BP was introduced due to the renaming of the corps to "Bundespolizei".

Please be aware that the regular police is issue to the lands. The plates are either the official plates used by the land (eg. "NRW 4 1234" in North-Rhine Westphalia; the first 4 is in this case the code for the department of internal affairs) or the police cars get the code of the capital of the resp. land (e.g. WI for Wiesbaden in Hessen or DD for Dresden in Saxonia).

Temporal plates start with the local code and a number wich begins 04 or 06. 04-Plates have no blue feature on the right a red band wich contains the date of expiration (short-time immatriculation). 06-plates have the blue band, they are issued to dealers etc. as a text plate.

Export plates have no blue band, start with the local code, then numbers, then letters. They also got a red band on the right with the expiration date. Those plates replaces the "famous" big oval plates with the Z on top and numerals on the lower line. They seem to be a bit popular, they even appeared in the "Simpsons".

Diplomatic plates start with a 0 (zero), then a two or three number code for the state or organisation, then a serial number up to three digits. If a plate is lost, the same combination will be re-issued, but with the suffix A. Non-diplomatic staff uses B or BN plates (for Berlin or Bonn) and a number code corresponding to the respective diplomatic plate.

Consular plates carry the local code and a number starting with 9.

Plates of the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) start with a Y and then a serial number with up to six digits. Some special army plates belonging to German forces at the NATO headquarters in Germany have plates with X and a four-digit number.

"Oldtimer" plates (cars older than 30 years) get an H suffix.

[Fargo Wolf]

Canada's Number Plates:
http://www.canplates.com/index.html

Covers all Provinces and Territories right from when they were first issued, to the present day. It's fairly complete, but some plates I know are missing for the British Columbia page.

P/U trucks (also full size vans): 2 letter 4 number AB 1234 or 1234 AB
Construction equipment prefix X and 4 numbers (mostly heavy equipment such as excavators and backhoes) X 1234

[CptSchmidt]

I think Quebec plates look the best in North America.

I'm not familiar with the variations of plates from the other provinces, but I noticed the Nova Scotia plate section is missing the special 'birds at risk' and 'veterans' plate you can get.

http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/rmv/regis...ationplate.asp
http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/rmv/regis.../vet-plate.asp

For more information on NS plates, visit the Service Nova Scotia website: http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/rmv/registration/default.asp

[Fargo Wolf]

While it does have recent plates,it doesn't have the newest ones.

Number plate fans often rank Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Vermont, as having the most attractive plates.

[Norsko]

Norway:



Quite simple; Two letter districtcode (http://www.vegvesen.no/Kjoretoy/Kjop...Bilskiltserier), Followed by five digits.

[Fargo Wolf]

Originally Posted by Norsko

Norway:



Quite simple; Two letter districtcode (http://www.vegvesen.no/Kjoretoy/Kjop...Bilskiltserier), Followed by five digits.

Why was there such an uproar when the country started requiring insurance validation decals?

[woutero]

License plates were introduced in 1898 in The Netherlands, and had a couple different schemes. The first ones were linked to the person rather than the car. Next came a system where the first letter represented the province where the car was registered. Since 1951 the current system is in use. The licens plates are given out in order, so you can track down how old a car is by the plates. There is no local or regional differentiation.

From Wikipedia:

The current Dutch licence plate system uses black letters on a light-reflecting yellow background. The previous series used white reflecting letters on a dark-blue background. Their numbering schemes however are the same.

Dutch car number plates can be formatted as follows


Letters nowadays do not include A, E, I, O, U to avoid profane or obscene language. The letters C and Q are not used, to avoid confusion with the zero. Letters and numbers are given out in strict alphabetical/numeric order. Hence, a Dutch licence plate says all about the date of registration of a car, but nothing about where the car comes from or to whom it belongs.

[Maks33]

Russian Federation has two-digital coding system for regions:

In several large regions three-digited codes with leading digit "1" are used:

A map of regional codes:


Diplomatic license plates use digital coding for countries and international organizations (by three digits in the left):


Military license plates use digital coding for combat arms. For example:
15 - Internal troops (the same as National Guard)
18 - Emercom
23 - Rocket troops
34 - Air forces
45 - Navy forces
50 - Moscow Military Command (land forces)
67 - Airborne troops


Information can be found here:
http://avto-nomer.ru/newforum/index.php?showtopic=4917

Former USSR had several literal coding systems.

[Norsko]

Originally Posted by Fargo Wolf

Why was there such an uproar when the country started requiring insurance validation decals?

Don´t know, have not heard about this. Thought they have been there forever

[Mr_Dru]

The Netherlands

For auto vehicles these letters are being use: D, F, G, H, J, K, L, N, P, R, S, T, X, Y, Z
For example: 25-GHF-5 or 08-KL-PR

Trucks/busses: B
BG-HJ-52 or 09-BK-RT

Motorcycles: M
MG-GH-85

Vans, pick-ups, small busses: V
28-VGH-3 or VH-89-59

Caravans: W
HW-59-GH or WG-FD-89

Military: Groundforces- KL, KN, LM, KZ. Marine- KM. Airforce -KA, KP, KW
KL-89-58

Foreigner without a diplomatic status: GN, BN
GN-25-59

Corps diplomatic: CD
CD-59-SN or FS-CD-89 or 12-CDH-8

Justice: CDJ
CDJ-965

Royal family: AA

[ScraperDude]

In Ohio our plates are ABC 1234. Some of the old ones from early 2000 are in the format AA11AA IE my old plate: DM37PR but those were only issued for a few years.
Our counties are noted by a sticker with a number in the lower left corner and our annual renewal sticker on the lower right corner with the month and year it expires. Only the renewal sticker goes on the back plate none for the front plate.

If I remember correctly there are Euro plates (French) issued on Saint Pierre & Miquelon. Which is the only North American area I know that has official use of Euro style plates.

[Fargo Wolf]

Originally Posted by Norsko

Don´t know, have not heard about this. Thought they have been there forever

I think they were first introduced in the very late 90s. People were pissed off because they now had to apply the decals to show proof of insurance. I think there is/was a decal showing where in the country the car was registered (I'm far from certain on this bit though)

[Gareth]

For Great Britain (not Northern Ireland)...



The Euroband is optional and unofficial variations are used, often being British flags instead of the Euro flag, or English, Scottish & Welsh flags. 'UK' can often be seen instead of 'GB' as can 'ENG' for England, 'SCO' for Scotland and 'CYM' for Wales (Cymru).

The first letter is a regional designation. The letter usually represents something. 'B' stands for Birmingham. Others are more obscure, for example 'G' represents 'Garden of England', which is Kent & Sussex apparently. The second letter is a local office identifier within that region. Birmingham only has one office, but 'Garden of England' has two; those being Maidstone (letters A-O) and Brighton (P-Y). 'Z' isn't used either as a first letter or second letter, neither is Q or I.

The age identifier increments every six months. The first six months denote the actual year. So this year, it was 10. For second half of the year, 50 is added onto the year; so now it's 60. The example above is from the latter half of the year 2001 (51).

The last three letters are random.

[Uppsala]

Sweden uses a format with three letters and three numbers. The system is the same like Hungary. Only non-accentuated letters are used from A to Z, so the first license number was AAA 001. When the AAA 001 is not exist anymore a new car get that number but it takes some years before a new car get an old number.

You can order personalized plates, but those cost about 500 €.

Some combinations with the letters are not in use and forbidden. So you never see a car in Sweden with GAY, or GOD. You don’t see GUD too because that's God in Swedish language. KUK is forbidden too because that's cock in Swedish language. Also DUM is another forbidden combination. Political combinations are also forbidden.

The Swedish plates don't have the sticker anymore like it have at the picture. Since 1 January 2010 they are not in use anymore. More and more people take them of now. And new plates don't have a sticker of cause.

Swedish plates are almost identical to Lithuanian plates, and they can be confused. Also Hungarian plates can be confused with the Swedish. But Hungary have a dash between the letters and the numbers. Sweden and Lithuania don't have any dash so that’s a reason why the can be confused and that happen quite often too.

I think Lithuania and also maybe Hungary copied the Swedish system in 1990s.

[eskandarany]

In Egypt The previous system was simply to write both the type and the governorate.
Recently there are new number plates which are being implemented throughout the country. These plates comprise of Arabic Letters and Eastern Arabic Numerals, occasionally also with transcribed Latin Letters and Western Arabic Numerals. Excluded are many Letters and the Numeral 0. Each plate is headed with the words (EGYPT مصر - sometimes the EGYPT is omitted)
-NUMERALS: ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩
-LETTERS: أ ب ج د ر س ص ط ع ف ق ل م ن هـ و ي

The colour of the plate identifies its type
lightblue=private
orange=taxi/'communal rental'
green=diplomatic(embassy/agency identified by the first 3 numerals),
darkblue=police
red=transport/farm
grey=publicservice(incl public bus)
brown=trade
yellow=special(limousine,customs,etc.)

The Letter-Numeral String identifies Governorate:
3 letters + 3 numerals = Cairo Gov.
2 letters + 4 numerals = Giza Gov.
3 letters + 4 numerals = Other Gov.s

[Please note that my transcription is not necessarily that used on plates; my source is in Arabic but I thought I'd let you know what the Arabic sounds like. I haven't found a proper source on transcription, but I used what seems to be true]

س = S = Alexandria
ر = R = Sharqia
د = D = Daqhalia
م = M = Monoufia
ب = B = Beheira
ل = L = Kafr-esh-Sheikh
ع = E = Gharbia
ق = K = Qaliubia
ف = F = Fayyoum
و = W = Bani Suef
ن = N = Menya
ى = Y = Asyout
هـ = H = Souhag
ط س = T S = Suez
ط ص = T C = Ismailia
ط ع = T E = Port Said
ط د = T D = Domyat
ط أ = T A = Shamal Sina'
ط ج = T G = Ganoub Sina'
ط ر = T R = El-Bahr El-Ahmar
ج هـ = G H = Matrouh
ج ب = G B = El-Wadi El-Gedid
ص أ = C A = Qena
ص ق = C K = El-'Oqsor
ص و = C W = Aswan

To Illustrate:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfwuLNn9uzY

[EEH]

The standard Bulgarian license plate consists of a blue vertical strip (the European strip) on the left side of the plate containing either the flag of Bulgaria or that of the EU 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 numerals and a final one- or two-letter code, called a series.

Vehicle registration plates of Bulgaria - full description


Current plates (sportal.bg):


Pictures of older plates here.

[christos-greece]

In bold characters

Athens, today: IXX 0000

Athens, few years back and older before 2003:
ZXX 0000 , YXX 0000

In other towns and cities of Greece
Thessaloniki: NXX 0000
Trikala: TKX 0000
Kalamata: KMX 0000
Sparti (Sparta): AKX 0000
Heraklion, Crete: HKX 0000
Volos: BIX 0000
Larisa: PIX 0000
Lamia: MIX 0000
Kerkyra (Corfu): KYX 0000
Chios island: XIX 0000

Generally the same goes for the rest of Greece in each region...

[Catmalojin]

Ireland:

Since 1987, Irish registration plates have had the following layout:

YY-CC-SSSSSS

YY = Year (e.g. 90 for 1990, 00 for 2000, 10 for 2010)
CC = 1- or 2- digit county (or, in two cases, city) identifier. (e.g. D for Dublin, SO for Sligo)
SSSSSS = a 1- to 6-digit sequence number, in numerical order of registration.

The top of the plate has the name of the county/city in Irish (e.g. Baile Átha Cliath for Dublin). All plates feature the blue EU strip to the left since 1991.

There are no "personalised" plates available, and once a car is registered it retains the same plate - i.e. they are non-transferable.

Numbers can be reserved though, but the cost is €1,000 for doing so. In Dublin (D), Cork (C), Limerick City (L) and Waterford City (W) the "1" plate is always reserved for the mayor.

Reserved numbers are usually for luxury cars (e.g. 911 for a Porsche 911, or 750 for a BMW 750), or some businesses such as radio stations (e.g. Dublin radio station FM104 registers all of its vehicles with a number ending in "104", such as 38104).

Imported cars are registered based on the year of first registration in the original country, not year of importation.

Vehicles for the Irish Defence Forces have a black background with silver letters and numbers (they don't have the county name in Irish either).

The county/city codes are as follows:

C - Cork (Cork City and County Cork)
CE - Clare
CN - Cavan
CW - Carlow
D - Dublin (Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin)
DL - Donegal
G - Galway (Galway City and County Galway)
KE - Kildare
KK - Kilkenny
KY - Kerry
L - Limerick (City)
LD - Longford
LH - Louth
LK - Limerick (County)
LM - Leitrim
LS - Laois
MH - Meath
MN - Monaghan
MO - Mayo
OY - Offaly
RN - Roscommon
SO - Sligo
TN - North Tipperary
TS - South Tipperary
W - Waterford (City)
WD - Waterford (County)
WH - Westmeath
WX - Wexford
WW - Wicklow

[Uppsala]

I think Ireland must be the first country with real Euroband.