The UK's car number plate system began with The Motor Car Act in 1903. Since then, every car in the UK has had a unique number plate. At first, they were registered with local councils.
When number plates were first introduced, it wasn't known how popular the car would eventually become. In fact, there was a massive underestimation and at first only one letter was used by each council. This was then combined with three numbers. Having rapidly run out of combinations, two and three-letter combinations began to be introduced.
Two and three letter combinations had a limit too, obviously. In 1963, a further change was made. This led to the usage of three letters, followed by three numbers, followed by another letter. The final letter indicated the age of the car, although a few letters weren't used - specifically, I, Q and Z.
In 1983, cars were so common that the system was again expended, but there was a relatively simple solution. Instead of beginning with three letters and ending with one, car number plates instead started with one letter and ended with three. This meant that the first letter was now the one which identified the age of the car.
By 2001, the new reversed number plate system was reaching the end of its life and that is when the current system began. A modern number plate has seven digits, as with the two preceding formats, but instead of having the age given via the letters, it is now the numbers which do the job. They appear after two initial letters and before three more letters. The second digit is the year and the first will be either a 0 or a 5 which states whether the car was registered in the first or second half of the year.
Those first two letters provide further information about the car. They state the area of the country where the car was registered, so NE will mean the car is from the North-East.
When number plates were first introduced, it wasn't known how popular the car would eventually become. In fact, there was a massive underestimation and at first only one letter was used by each council. This was then combined with three numbers. Having rapidly run out of combinations, two and three-letter combinations began to be introduced.
Two and three letter combinations had a limit too, obviously. In 1963, a further change was made. This led to the usage of three letters, followed by three numbers, followed by another letter. The final letter indicated the age of the car, although a few letters weren't used - specifically, I, Q and Z.
In 1983, cars were so common that the system was again expended, but there was a relatively simple solution. Instead of beginning with three letters and ending with one, car number plates instead started with one letter and ended with three. This meant that the first letter was now the one which identified the age of the car.
By 2001, the new reversed number plate system was reaching the end of its life and that is when the current system began. A modern number plate has seven digits, as with the two preceding formats, but instead of having the age given via the letters, it is now the numbers which do the job. They appear after two initial letters and before three more letters. The second digit is the year and the first will be either a 0 or a 5 which states whether the car was registered in the first or second half of the year.
Those first two letters provide further information about the car. They state the area of the country where the car was registered, so NE will mean the car is from the North-East.
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