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UK registration marks from 1904 to August 2001

The first system of motor vehicle registration used in Great Britain and Ireland used a one or two letter prefix followed by a number with up to four digits, eg: A 1, AB 23, AB 1234.

The letter prefix indicated which local authority issued the registration mark (as listed in the table below).

When these ran out, a system that used a three letter prefix with a number containing up to three digits was introduced, eg: ABC 1, ABC 12, ABC 123.

The same two-letter local authority codes were used with an extra letter in front.  Therefore, in the mark ABC 123, it is the "BC" that indicates the issuing authority.  (The single-letter authority codes were only ever used on their own, never with an extra prefix letter.)  The first of these three-letter marks was ARF 1, issued by Staffordshire County Council in July 1932.

With the growth of motoring, this system began to run out of combinations too, so the range was increased by reversing the marks, putting the numbers first, eg: 1234 A, 1234 AB, 123 ABC.  The first reversed mark was 1000 E, issued by Staffordshire County Council in April 1953.  Middlesex County Council was the first authority to issue a three-letter reversed mark: 1 AHX in September 1953. Some of the reversed combinations containing 1, 0, I and O could have been confused with marks issued under the preceding systems, so these were not issued.  The starting points for the reversed one-letter and two-letter marks varied.  For example, 500 UR, 1001 FK, 2001 BH, and 501 AW were all the first marks issued in their series.  Some series had breaks in them, for example: PX went from 1 PX to 99 PX then skipped to 1000 PX, whence it carried on to 9999 PX.

Although there were all these variations in the one-letter and two-letter reversed marks, the three-letter reversed marks were more consistent, almost always running from 1 to 999.

All the systems described so far ran concurrently and each individual authority moved onto the next system as it needed the marks.

By the early 1960s, the marks were starting to run out again.  This time, a new system was introduced across the board.  The new marks followed the three-letter, three-number format but with an additional letter suffix.  These marks with a suffix always start with three letters, although the numbers run from 1 to 999, eg: ABC 1A, ABC 12A, ABC 123A.  The suffix letter changed each year: A for 1963, B for 1964, &c.

The adoption of this system was not immediate; only a few authorities used the A suffix, the first being Middlesex County Council when it issued AHX 1A in February 1963.  Most authorities fell into line with the Bs but a few held out for another year and started in 1965 with the C suffix.

In Ireland (both Northern Ireland and Eire) the year-letter suffixes were not adopted.  The range of markes there was extended by moving to three-letter four-digit marks.  Despite becoming independent, Eire continued to use the same system of registration marks up until the end of 1986.

In Great Britain more cars were sold at the beginning of the year; the change of suffix on 1 January each year added to this trend.  Lobbying from motor vehicle manufacturers was successful in changing the system so that the letter change occured on 1 August in order to spread the demand for new vehicles. This change occured with letter E, which only ran from 1 January to 31 July 1967.  The date sequence for the year-letter suffixes is listed in a table below

In 1983, the life of the system was extended by reversing the system, eg: A23 ABC, A123 ABC.  These reversed year-letter registrations did not use the full range of numbers available: they ran from 21 to 999.  The low numbers were being kept back so they could be offered for sale to people wanting personalised registration numbers.  From August 1991 other numbers were removed from the normal series and sold as "DVLA Select Registrations".  The other "Select" numbers were: 22, 30, 33, 40, 44, 50, 55, 60, 66, 70, 77, 80, 88, 90, 99, 100, 111, 200, 222, 300, 333, 400, 444, 500, 555, 600, 700, 777, 800, 888, 900 & 999.  666 was also removed from the normal series, but it was not issued a a Select Registration either.

At the end of the 1990s, this system started to show the strain and it became neccesary to change the suffix every six months: on 1 March and 1 September each year.

The date sequence for these year-letters is listed in a table below

The year-letter suffixes ran out on 1 September 2001.  A completely new system, sweeping aside all the old local authority codes, was introduced on that date.

Special letters

Some letters in registration marks have special uses. The letters I and Z were never used in Great Britain, being exclusive to Ireland.  Q was originally only used for temporary registrations, eg: foreign visitors; as a year-letter it indicates that the age of the vehicle is not known (or not proven).

Banned marks

There are some combinations of letters that have not been issued in case they offended someone.  The trouble started right back at the start of registration with the letters BF allocated to Dorsetshire County Council.  In those days BF was taken as an abbreviation for "Bloody Fool" and several motorists took exception to being labelled thus.  The numbers were issueded as far as BF 162 at the end of 1904.  Dorsetshire was allocated a new letter combination: FX.  Motorists who already had a BF mark could swap it for an FX one.  The few remaining unchanged BF marks still in use at the beginning of 1921 were re-registered with FX marks.

Other series of marks that have been withheld for similar reasons are: WC, ABF, APE, ARS, ASS, AWC, BAS, BBF, BOG, BUB, BUG, BUM, COC, COK, DAM, DUW, FUC, FUK, FUX, GOD, HOG, JEW, LAV, MAS, NBG, POX, SEX, SOD, SOT, UBF, UFF, UWC and WOG.  The reasons for most of these being withheld is reasonably obvious; a couple form Welsh or Gaelic words.  UFF perhaps needs further explanation: it is an abbreviation for a banned paramilitary organisation in orthern Ireland.

As well as these complete series, there have been other individual marks that have been withheld when the complete registration mark resembles an offensive word.  Of course, there are always some combinations that slip through the net unnoticed and, on the other hand, some of the ones that have been banned in the past seem inoffensive in modern times.  For example: the entire series from WOG 1 to WOG 999 was issued by Birmingham CBC in 1958.  It was not until the WOG nnnT series started in 1978 that the alarm bells began to ring in officialdom and no more were issued.

The Local Authority codes

The Year Letters

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