By John Engstrom –
When was your plate issued? English license plates are issued to the car itself and generally will stay with the car for the life of the car. The license plate formats have changed a lot over the years. Before 1932 the plates were a two letter and two number system. The letters indicated where the plate was issued and the numbers were issued randomly. By 1932 they had run out of two letter/ number combinations so they converted to a three letter and number system. The first area to issue these plates was Staffordshire in July of 1932 with ARF 1XX. By the 1950’s they were again running out of numbers so what they did was reverse the order. Starting the number plates with 3 numbers and then 3 letters. By the early 60’s they had again run out of possible combinations. Starting in 1963 and running until 1982 the plate was issued with a suffix letter code indicating what year the plate was issued.
These are the plates you can ID by the suffix letter code. 1963-1983 numbers system. The letters indicated where the plate was issued and the numbers were issued randomly.
- A = 1963
- B = 1964
- C = 1965
- D = 1966
- E = Between January 1967 and July 1967
- F = Between August 1 1967 and July 31 1968
- G = Between August 1968 and July 1969
- H = Between August 1969 and July 1970
- J = Between August 1970 and July 1971
- K = Between August 1971 and July 1972
- L = Between August 1972 and July 1973
- M = Between August 1973 and July 1974
- N = Between August 1974 and July 1975
- P = Between August 1975 and July 1976
- R = Between August 1976 and July 1977
- S = Between August 1977 and July 1978
- T = Between August 1978 and July 1979
- V = Between august 1979 and July 1980
- W = Between August 1980 and July 1981
- X = Between August 1981 and July 1982
- Y = Between August 1982 and July 1983
NOTE: Some of the letter prefixes were not used because they were reserved for other purposes or reserved for other areas of Britain.
1983-2001 Letter Prefix code- After again, running out of combinations, the letter/ number code was reversed and the year indicator was the prefix of the plate. Like the above registration date range, these also ran between August 1st and July 31st of the year indicated.
- A = 83-84
- B = 84-85
- C = 85-86
- D = 86-87
- E = 87-88
- F = 89-90
- G = 90-91
- H = 90-91
- I = 91-92
- J= 92-93