I've just seen a late-model Mercedes with pink(front) and orange(rear)plates with two letters, a zero, and three letters. Can any backroomer explain it?
P.
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Can't explain the number format, but I think the colours you describe are normal white and yellow number plates with the pink coloured protective film still intact.
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It's not a military plate, is it?
www.licenseplatemania.com/landenpaginas/engeland.h...m
(strangely enough I was looking up what I now know to be the foreign diplomat registrations which I saw many of in London this weekend when I read this post).
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Thanks for the link, Girlydriver.
No, it didn't appear to be a military vehicle,- civilian driver. The explanation of the colours makes sense, though.
P.
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That website is a real eyeopener and shows that you can find most anything on t'interweb.
A lot of work gone into that site...
Lee -- Without bills, magazines and junk mail, there is no mail
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Yes. It is an interestingsite but slightly misleading on the allocation of numbers to geographic counties since it seems to have relied on modern information and not what was really the situation before local government reform. I checked two of my pre-1960 cars and I know both the attributions are wrong on that website. For example, SE is given as Aberdeen when it was actually issued by the now extinct county of Banffshire in the county town only. I visited the record office there when I bought my one owner Ford Pop.
To the original question, it reads like a foreign plate, but if RHD aren't there some Irish plates like that?
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The original Irish plate was in the XXX 111 or 111 XXX format or on later cars in black with silver numbers, reflective plates front were identical to the UK spec and a red reflective rear - whilst strange to UK eyes were perfectly logical in that it allowed a red "light" to the rear.
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The original Irish plate was in the XXX 111 or 111 XXX format or on later cars in black with silver numbers, reflective plates front were identical to the UK spec and a red reflective rear - whilst strange to UK eyes were perfectly logical in that it allowed a red "light" to the rear.
Well recalled, Pugugly! That's a while back - 1986 to be exact.
Northern Irish plates are of the format ABC 1234, white at front and yellow at rear as per the UK.
Until December 1986, Southern Irish plates were of similar format: ABC 123. Of the letters, the last two denoted the county, e.g. TI for Limerick, SI for Dublin. The first was assigned at random, so TTI was issued in Limerick during the early 70s, but FTI wasn't issued until the mid 80s.
Plates were officially white at front and red at back, as stated above. Black plates with silver letters were never official, but started to appear in the mid 80s.
In January 1997 the current system of year/county/number was introduced. Plates were now white, front and back. So 98 CE 5678 was issued in Co. Clare during 1998. Imported cars are registered with the year of manufacture, hence some pre-87 plates can be seen.
One last change - it is now obligatory for Southern Irish cars to diplay white plates front and back with the EU roundel on a blue background to the left of the plate and the name of the county in which the car is registered written in Irish above the registration number. Not displaying a plate of this format is listed as a failure point for the national car test (MOT) - irrespective of when the car was first registered.
So now you know :-)
- Gromit
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"Black plates with silver letters were never official"
They were in the old days sort of post 1922 to early 70s. (God I'm old)
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FWIW, I believe this site to have the most accurate info:
www.richardsonclan.plus.com/history.htm
It includes the full history of number plates in the UK, or as much as most mortal would ever be interested in...
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Military plates are 2 letters 2 number 2 letters KT 75 PW for example. They are also old 'letters on metal' type ie non-reflective and their trailers are registered as sepaerate vehicles, not the reg of the vehicle that is pulling them. There are diplomatic plates which are some combination of 3 letters, a D in the middle, and 3 numbers and three. Plenty to be seen illegally parked all over the West End - diplomatic immunity you know!
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Was in Holland recently, and I'm sure some cars there had pinkish plates. Couldn't discern a pattern to which cars had them though. Any Dutch readers?
Tim{P}
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Dutch was my first thought.....
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www.dna.nl/
Wow ! just Googled into this....
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Double wow!! Thirty four number plates issued in Tristan da Cunha since 1969.
I am glad the internet wasn't around when I started collecting numbers of passing cars as a kid (Beeching killed the railways, you see) or I might have become fixated for life.
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Certainly not a Dutch plate anyway. H that made me chuckle out loud !
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Initial thought : What sort of idiot dedicates their life to this sort of thing....
Half hour later I'm still on the same site... Thule Air Base indeed!
Shame UK plates are so dull.
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I've just seen a late-model Mercedes with pink(front) and orange(rear)plates with two letters, a zero, and three letters. Can any backroomer explain it? P.
Simple as reflective film still applied (as noted previously) and X n0 XXX ? i.e. a vanity plate like T 10 ARA or similar, slightly rearranged to try to spell something?
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That was one of my thoughts but its XX o XXX so there's a digit missing whichever way its re-arranged.
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It looks as if this could (at least in theory) provide the answer, with a resident of Victoria (or possibly another Australian state)having taken delivery of his new MB from the factory and fitted in a visit to UK, before shipping it home - perhaps even with reduced tax implications:
tinyurl.com/ktq72
Jack
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That was one of my thoughts but its XX o XXX so there's a digit missing whichever way its re-arranged.
Not necessarily - a older vanity plate of the "year letter prefix, number 1-20 and any three letters" variety would fit the bill.
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