License plates must be reflective with a simple background. The rear registration plate must have a yellow background and the front plate must have a white background. Vehicles built before 1 January 1973 may use black and white plates. Therefore, the advice for motorists is to stay on the safe side and stick to traditional 2D license plates. If you have a two- or three-wheeled motorcycle or tricycle that has a four-wheeled vehicle body, you MUST attach a licence plate to the front and rear of the vehicle. “Remember that you can make your vehicle look as old as you want, but you can`t make it look newer than it is. For example, you cannot put a Y license plate on a vehicle registered T, but you can choose any prefix range from A to T. Each registration has an issue date that you need to check to make sure your vehicle doesn`t look newer than it is. [65] However, you can affix private licence plates registered in 1955 to a vehicle registered in 1949, as there is no annual display to determine the age of release. In the late 1990s, the range of available figures began to run out again, exacerbated by the switch to semi-annual changes to registration letters (March and September) in 1999 to smooth the wave of registrations each August, so a new system had to be adopted.
It was decided to explore a system that would be easier to remember and read more clearly for witnesses to vehicle-related accidents or crimes, while respecting a normal standard plate size. As long as these embossed signs are uniformly black and the license plate complies with the other legal standards of BS AU 145e, 3D gel license plates are completely legal. According to license plate manufacturers, the main difference between 3D gel plates and 4D plates is that the latter use laser-cut acrylic signs glued to an acrylic background, resulting in a sharper and better defined writing effect. Criminals sometimes use copies of legally used license plates on a vehicle identical to the one used, known as “cloning,” to avoid identification. [68] A routine computer check conducted by police shows that the licence plate matches the type of vehicle and does not appear suspicious. Recording 1 sold for £7.25 million and is the highest price paid for a plate – in the UAE. It was bought in 2008 by Abu Dhabi businessman Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri. In 2014, the registration 25 O broke a new record[45] when it was purchased for £518,000 by Ferrari dealer John Collins; the disc now sits on a Ferrari 250 SWB that once belonged to rock star Eric Clapton. F1 and RAC3R registration are considered the most coveted license plates by fans of super sports cars and Formula 1.
The RAC3R registration is a suffix plate issued in 1976, the same year that British racing driver James Hunt won the Formula 1 World Championship. [46] The plate covers all the different forms of running, making it extremely desirable. Other popular plates are BO55 EGO. It was already sold at auction in 2016, where the owner rejected the highest claim of £127,000. In the UK, licence plates must meet the following criteria set by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA): It is extremely important to ensure that your license plate complies with the law. In the best case, an illegal license plate cannot see that you are not passing a TÜV. In the worst case, if you are stopped by the police, you can face a hefty fine of up to £1,000. Since many vehicles registered before 1963 were scrapped, some of their “undated” plates were transferred to other vehicles before 1963 as personal licence plates. They can be valuable and can also be used to hide the age of an older vehicle. Many classic cars and classic cars no longer carry their original license plates, as owners are offered high premiums for desired registrations.
In addition, registrations in Northern Ireland are also considered “undated” and are often transferred to vehicles outside Northern Ireland. [66] Coaches frequently operate in other parts of the United Kingdom and their registration numbers were originally issued in Northern Ireland. On 1 August 2008, the Government of the United Kingdom issued a regulation requiring the presentation of identity cards and registration documents when licence plates are manufactured by a retailer. [69] The organization producing the licence plate must provide its name and postal code, usually in small print at the bottom centre, to facilitate the tracing of false plates and their purchaser. [4] This requirement was introduced in 2001, when the new font style and two-digit year identifier came into effect, and applies to all licence plates produced after that date, regardless of the year of manufacture of the vehicle. The industry standard front license plate measures 520 mm × 111 mm (201/2″ × 43/8″). The rear plates are the same size or measure 285 mm × 203 mm (about 11″x8″) or 533 mm × 152 mm (about 21″x6″). There is no fixed legal dimension other than an absolute minimum margin of 11 mm, which corresponds to a minimum height of 101 mm (one line) and 199 mm (2 lines) for vehicles and 86 mm for imported single-line vehicles and 164 mm for two-line motorcycles or imported vehicles, the total length is based on the registration number itself. in which the smallest possible licence plate is 1 with a minimum dimension of 36 mm × 101 mm for a vehicle or 32 mm × 86 mm for a motorcycle or imported vehicle; while a 7-digit license plate without 1 or I has a minimum size of 460 mm × 101 mm (one line) or 255 mm × 199 mm (two lines) for a car or 231 mm × 164 mm for an import or motorcycle.
Owners of vehicles registered in the UK who do not already have the EU-sized “GB” plate can display registration plates with one of the national emblems listed below as well as letters. The full wording or abbreviation is used. [24] Certain three-letter combinations were not permitted for the use of a licence because they were considered offensive. These included ARS, BUM, GOD, JEW, SEX and SOD. [37] [38] DUW was published in London for several months in 1934 before being discovered as the Welsh word for God and was withdrawn. [30] Even then, there were records that today would be called valuable licence plates. One was RAD10 (BBC) and another was IND1A (Indian High Commission). Vehicles with this Euro symbol on their registration plate will no longer have to use the traditional Oval National Identifier (GB) when travelling within the European Union.
All vehicles registered in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales bear the GB distinguishing sign in accordance with international conventions. In 2015, a new system with a pure digital format was introduced. This is a five-digit number (zeros less than 10000) in red on white, with DVLA authentication on the right. It is issued centrally and there is no regional indicator. [64] It should be noted that 4D licence plates may be delivered with characters set to one of the different depths. The standard size for a motorcycle number in the UK is 9″ x 7″ (228mm x 178mm), although this size can be changed as long as the characters displayed on the licence plates are not changed. Full registration, i.e. an individually shaped plate above the legal minimum size of 9″ x 7, may be possible.
[11] You can be fined up to £1,000 and your vehicle will fail the TÜV test if you drive with incorrectly displayed license plates. Any registration plate manufactured after 1 September 2001 must have the following dimensions: Examples of British plates with national emblems on an optional blue nationality stripe (emblems may also be displayed without blue stripes). Old British licence plates had white, grey or silver characters on a black background. This type of registration plate was abolished in 1972 and could only be worn until 2012 on vehicles registered for the first time before 1 January 1973.