|
There is a trade in used plates in England: You can transfer plates to another car (costs £80 AFAIK) as long as you don't make it appear newer than it is, plates issued since 1963/64 have a date of issue letter or number.... The 1'st plate to be issued was A1 in 1904, those early plates were 1 or 2 letters then up to 4 numbers, any 1 or 2 letter plate is very expensive in the plate market, the lower the numbers the more they cost, those that spell something go for a lot as well, E.G. RAD 10 (radio) owned by the BBC AFAIK. Rude or offensive spellings are banned but some sometimes slip through the net.
Nowadays the 1'st letter of a plate is an area of registration identifier: mine is F which is issued to the Nottingham & Lincoln offices, the 2'nd is E which is random, (FA to FP is the Nottingham office, FR to FY is the Lincoln office, Q,U & Z aren't used) then 17 which is the year of registration, then 3 random letters. When you sell your car the plates usually stay with it, although you can keep them & transfer it to your new car. (for a fee of course) A few years ago we bought my late Father-in-law an old style plate for for his 70'th birthday, it was L70 EAH, L was for his nick name, 70 for his birthday & EAH his initials, it cost £240 + £80 transfer fee, he transferred it onto 4 different cars he owned...
|