The History of UK Car Registration Numbers

We're so used to cars having number plates that it may come as a surprise that cars had already been on our streets for nearly a decade before someone thought they needed registration. Without number plates, there was no way to hold a motorist accountable for an accident or a breach of the law, as long as he could get away fast enough. The Motor Car Act was passed in 1903, and Earl Russell camped out overnight to get the first ever registration, A1, for his Napier.

The history of car registrations has been a perennial struggle to balance the need for short, easy-to-remember sequences with the need for increasing numbers of registrations as cars became more and more popular.

Originally, plates showed the local authority where the car was registered (A for London, AA for Hampshire) plus a number from 1 to 9999. By the 1930s, though, the numbers were running out, and a change was made in 1932; a third, serial, letter was added, and the numbers cut to three, giving the format ARG 999. These numbers ran out, too, and the 1950s saw a free-for-all with reversed codes (numbers first) appearing. But even these were running out by the sixties, so in 1963 a final letter was added, this time giving the date of registration. In 1982, the year suffixes got to Y, and the sequence started again at A but as a prefix instead. (Z isn't used, because it looks like the number 2.) When the letters ran out again, the present system, with the year indicated by numbers (starting at 51 for 2001) was introduced.

Most cars carry the standard plates they were issued, but as Earl Russell's example showed, there's always been a demand for exceptional plates. Over £100m was spent on personalised number plates in 2016. The most expensive plate ever, '1', went to an Abu Dhabi businessman for £7m; Afzal Khan of Bradford only paid £440,000 for his 'F1', but has reportedly turned down an offer of £6m for it, and Roman Abamovich paid £285,000 for 'VIP1'.

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