About Platecheck and UK vehicle registrations
Platecheck allows you to trace the history of UK and pre-1987 Republic of Ireland vehicle registration marks.
FAQ
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UK vehicle registration
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About Platecheck
What does Platecheck do?
Unlike most existing sources, which will give you vehicle information, Platecheck will provide details about the registration itself. This can be useful when dating photos and videos, or when trying to find out more information about older vehicles that are not on the DVLA database, or have been exported overseas since their original registration.
Prior to 1974, vehicle registration in the UK was the responsibility of local authorities. Only records of vehicles still in use were transferred to the DVLA and many local authorities discarded their original vehicle registers after DVLA centralisation.
Some vehicles will have carried more than one registration mark, e.g. if the original owner retained the registration and transferred it to a different vehicle, the original vehicle would receive a new registration. Therefore the ‘date of first registration’ may not actually indicate the age of the current registration mark on a vehicle and so, when trying to date a photo or trace a vehicle’s ownership history, the age of the registration itself may provide useful information.
How does Platecheck work?
Platecheck does not contain a record of every single registration number! Instead, Platecheck checks the pattern of letters and numbers to determine if these match a known registration format, and then examines the details to locate area codes, age identifiers and sequences known to have been used. Due to the way Platecheck works, it will not identify all personalised 'select' registrations or irregular marks issued out of sequence.
Platecheck doesn’t provide information about the vehicles themselves: the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry service will do this, along with other companies who offer similar services, such as the AA. Platecheck does not store any ownership or any vehicle data. All of the information available through this site has already been made publicly available in a range of automotive industry and enthusiast sources.
What does Platecheck recognise?
Platecheck will recognise 1, 2 and 3 letter UK and Ireland registrations without a ‘year letter’, post-1963 UK registrations with year letter suffixes and prefixes, and the current series of UK registrations issued since 2001. Platecheck also recognises Northern Ireland registrations with 2 or 3 letters and up to 4 numerals, and Republic of Ireland registrations with 2 or 3 letters and up to 3 numerals issued before the change to the current Irish format in 1987. Information is also included for post-1949 military vehicle registrations, diplomatic registrations, and Isle of Man registrations.
At present, Platecheck will not recognise post-1987 Republic of Ireland registrations, pre-1949 military vehicle registrations, general identification marks / trade plates, trailer registrations, or number plates from other countries.
Do the number plates shown on Platecheck use the correct typeface?
The typeface used on Platecheck is based on the post-September 2001 UK standard Charles Wright typeface. Prior to 2001, a very similar but slightly wider font was used, which is replicated on Platecheck for older registrations. Many number plates produced before the early 1980s used raised riveted digits of a slightly different typeface, often with more rounded characters, which is not replicated here. Some older registration plates had characters pressed into the metal plate, and these were usually in a similar, but not identical, typeface to that shown on the site. The very first registrations were originally hand painted in white onto a black background.
The original typeface used for diplomatic number plates was designed to be difficult to replicate. The illustrations shown on Platecheck use a similar, but not identical, web font from Google Fonts. Many modern diplomatic registrations now use the standard UK vehicle registration typeface.Are there any limitations?
Platecheck will currently return the same date range for most three letter registrations with the same area code and format: e.g. AAA to YAA prefix registrations were issued between 1934 and 1960. It is hoped to expand the database to provide more detailed results as a future development, e.g. AAA 1 - AAA 999. As Platecheck is not a full database of all vehicle registrations, the site will not give an accurate record of any numbers omitted or void from each series or unusual marks issued out of sequence.
At present Platecheck will return matches for all three letter combinations since 1963 with a year letter or age identifier digits, unless the area code is known not to have been in use during that period. In reality, only certain combinations were issued with each year letter depending on demand in each area. It is hoped to refine this to provide more accurate results at a later date. Likewise, Platecheck will return matches for most area codes with every age identifier in the current system, even though not all codes are used in each period.
Platecheck will not contain information about any new registration formats introduced after the site was last updated.
Privacy
Does Platecheck collect my data?
Searches are anonymous and no personal data is tracked directly by the site authors directly. Your IP address, browser and operating system details may be collected by our hosting company for analytical purposes. The site is hosted by, and uses web technologies from third party companies to enable search functionality and formatting such as web fonts. The reporting form uses reCAPTCHA v3 verification which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Registrations
Was A1 the first car registration in the UK?
Probably not. When vehicle registration was introduced in 1903, single letter codes from A – Z and double letter codes starting from AA were allocated to all eligible local authorities within Britain and Ireland in advance of the system commencing. Most local authorities commenced registration in December 1903 or January 1904, including London County Council with the ‘A’ series. A small number of authorities commenced registration earlier, in November 1903: these are thought to include Bath County Borough Council, Buckinghamshire County Council, Hastings County Borough Council, and Roxburgh County Council. Many local records have been lost, making it difficult to be certain, however sources suggest a possible candidate for Britain’s first registration is DY1 issued by Hastings County Borough Council on 23rd November 1903.
What different formats have been issued?
Starting in November 1903, registrations were issued with a one or two letter area code, representing a local authority, followed by up to four numerals starting at 1 and ending at 9999, e.g. A1234. When the first local authorities exhausted all their possible combinations in 1932, a serial letter prefix was introduced, followed by a two letter area code and up to three numerals, e.g. ABC123. When these combinations ran out, from 1953, some local authorities reversed the format and used the numerals followed by one, two or three letters, e.g. 123ABC. A year letter suffix was introduced in Great Britain in February 1963 to provide more capacity, in the format ABC123A, with the suffix letter changing on 1st January each year. The year letter was phased in gradually by all local authorities, with all registrations in England, Scotland and Wales featuring the year suffix C from January 1965. To help spread car sales more evenly through the calendar year, the change of the year letter moved to 1st August from 1967. The format was reversed in August 1983 with the year letter prefix A, e.g. A123BCD. In 2001, the current system was introduced, featuring a two letter local identifier code, followed by a two digit date identifier, and three further letters to give a seven character registration unique to the vehicle: e.g. AA51ABC.
Until the 1960s, plates had white or silver characters on a black background. Reflective plates were first trialled from early 1964 and permitted from 1967 onwards; these featured black characters on a white background at the front, and on a yellow background at the rear. Reflective plates were made mandatory for new vehicles in 1973; the law was subsequently changed in 2014 to allow vehicles in the 'historic vehicles' tax class over 40 years old to display the older white or silver characters on a black number plate, and this rolled forward until an amendment in 2021 which permits only vehicles registered prior to 1980 to carry this format of plate. Any vehicle registered between 1973 and 1980 would have originally displayed reflective white and yellow plates when new.
Ireland originally followed the same format as the UK (being part of the UK when the system was first introduced in 1903). Both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland continued to use the same six character registration format as Great Britain after Irish independence, with forward and reversed combinations being issued, but neither adopted the year letter system. In 1966, Northern Ireland introduced a serial letter prefix, but with up to four numerals rather than three as in the rest of the UK and Ireland, and this format is still in use. The Republic of Ireland continued issuing registrations with three letters and up to three numerals until 1987, when a completely new system was introduced. When reflective plates were introduced, the Republic of Ireland originally used a red background for rear plates rather than yellow, as used in the UK, however since the new format was introduced in 1987 rear plates have had a white background as with front plates, and these now use a European layout with a narrower typeface.
Military registrations in the UK since 1949 have been in the format of two numerals, two letters, and two numerals, e.g. 01AB23. In 1994, this format was reversed to AB01CD. Unlike most other modern UK registrations, many military registration plates continue to be silver or white digits on a black background.
A special diplomatic registration format was introduced in the UK in 1979 in the form of three numerals, a single letter D or X, and three further numerals, e.g. 123D456.
The Isle of Man has followed a similar format to the UK, using the codes MN and MAN which were never allocated on the UK mainland. The Isle of Man has never issued registrations with a year letter or date identifier, and when a suffix letter was introduced in 1974 this was treated as an additional serial letter despite being in the same format as the UK registrations of the time, e.g. MAN 1Y.
Sources
The following sources are worth consulting to find out more about the history of vehicle registration in the UK and Ireland and contain more detailed information than is included on this site:
Disclaimer
Platecheck is a private website and is not associated with the DVLA, the UK or Irish government or any local authorities. The information provided on Platecheck is believed to be correct at the time of publication. You should not rely on information from this website as a basis for making any business, legal or other significant decisions, and the website authors cannot be held liable for any errors, or charges arising from the use of any information from this site. While Platecheck is checked for security, please browse responsibly and ensure your device has up-to-date protection against viruses and other security threats. The authors cannot be held responsible for any damages as a result of browsing this website.