The standardised format for registration plates among member states of the European Union was introduced in November 1998 in Council Regulation (EC) No 2411/98. This format took inspiration from the registration plates, which had already been introduced in several of the member states including Portugal and Germany.

This common format is not mandatory in all of the European member states, being optional in the UK, Sweden, Finland and Cyprus. However, Denmark and Belgium will introduce it by 2010.

The specifics of Euro plates require registration marks to be on white or yellow plates printed with black characters and they must be longer than they are tall. There are still many variations across the European Union, however. For example, in the UK white plates are used on the front of vehicles, while yellow ones are displayed to the rear; France follows this same system. Luxembourg and the Netherlands use yellow plates to the front and rear. The UK uses plastic plates while throughout the rest of the European Union metal plates are commonplace.

The format of the EU plates includes of a blue strip down the left hand side, which contains the European Union symbol of twelve yellow stars. Beneath this symbol should appear the code for the country in which the vehicle has been registered. Member states that do not follow this format have an additional requirement placed on vehicles, when travelling internationally, to display an oval nationality sticker to the rear to enable their easy identification.

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If you decide to sell a personalised registration plate that you have entitlement to, there are many ways that you can proceed. You may wish to advertise privately or you may decide to approach a registered dealer who can handle the sale for you.

The first step is to get a free valuation for your mark. Some dealers may charge for this service, but there are plenty of companies out there who offer the service for free. You should receive a valuation within around 48hours.

On valuation, if you decide you would like to go ahead with selling your registration mark through a dealer, you should check their terms and conditions and the fees charged. You should also make sure you are entirely comfortable working with them. You must then provide confirmation to the dealer that you agree to have him advertise the mark on your behalf.

The dealer will advertise your registration plate in the way he thinks is most likely to achieve a sale. Often, interested parties will make offers below the advertised selling price and your dealer should make you aware of any such offers. The final decision on whether or not to accept a lower price always rests with you.

Should you be successful in selling your plates, there will be paperwork to complete, but the dealer should talk you through every step of this process. Once the sale is complete, the proceeds will be forwarded to you and you will relinquish any entitlement to the registration mark.

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Jonny Leroux has been a car enthusiast since he was a young boy. He even goes so far as to class himself as a ‘petrol head’. By the age of 10 he was a fervent Ferrari enthusiast, collecting memorabilia and attending all the shows. In fact he even painted the Ferrari ‘prancing horse’ logo on his bedroom wall.

It is, therefore, no surprise that Jonny sat his driving test as quickly as possible, passing just four days after his seventeenth birthday. From that moment on, most of his spare cash was spent on cars and he says that remains true, even to this day. However, it wasn’t until he turned 21 that he discovered personalised registrations. His first plate was R80 JON, which he later sold for double the price he had originally paid for it.

Leroux then came up with the idea of matching people who have uncommon names with appropriate personalised registration plates. This process made profits for him and left his customers delighted to have their own personalised registrations.

Jonny has gone on to set up his dream business, organising days out at motor racing circuits, including Brands Hatch and Spa-Francorchamps. The success of his company has allowed him to finally purchase that dream Ferrari F355 GTB in gunmetal grey. Of course his dream car would not be complete without the dream registration plate, so he has fitted it with the plate, 76 JL, which denotes his year of birth and initials.

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The new style registrations follow a format that is intended to avoid the need to change the system for a number of years to come. All plates start with a two-letter prefix, are followed by two digits, which identify the year of manufacture and always end with three letters. An example is DY51 HFS. The new style registrations have been in effect since the second half of 2000, which has earned them the name ‘millennium plates’. This distinctive layout replaced the prefix registration format, which was rapidly running out of available alphanumeric combinations. It was only with the introduction of this style of registration that the letter Z was permissible on a registration mark, but only within the last three letters, not in the prefix.

The prefix letters were originally used to identify the area where the car was manufactured and registered. In the example provided earlier, the DY would denote registration in the Brighton area.

As these new style registrations have two digits, which act as an age identifier, they can only be transferred to vehicles of the same age or older. You cannot, therefore, use a transferred registration mark to make your vehicle appear to be a newer model than it actually is. With regards to the example registration, DY51 HFS, this could be transferred to any vehicle manufactured on or since 1st September 2001. This regulation applies to all previous registration formats that include a year identifier.

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Vehicle registration plates are commonly known as number plates and since 2000 the State or Territory Government has issued them. Prior to 2000 the Commonwealth government issued some plates. The number plates are assigned to a vehicle for life and may be recalled if they become unreadable or for any other reason that the government considers necessary. New plates are issued if the vehicle moves to another state.

Originally, Australian number plates consisted of white characters on a black background. Every state and territory was assigned plates, which followed the same format, three letters followed by three numbers. For example, the plates assigned to Queensland ran from QAA000 to QZZ999 and Victoria received GAA000 through to GZZ999. While this system was effective for a time, by 1980 many states had run out of available combinations and the system had to be abandoned. The Australian Capital Territory, however, continued to issue this style of plates until the end of the 1990s.

Following the demise of the old system, all states and territories were left to issue their own design of plates. Some, such as Victoria and New South Wales, kept the original three letter and three number combination, but started again from scratch, while Queensland adopted three numbers followed by three letters. Each state has continued to adapt their number plate system. The only state still using the format of three letters followed by three numbers is Victoria.

All vehicles registered in Australia are required to have a sticker on the lower left hand corner of the windscreen or rear window, which changes annually on a six year cycle; blue to red to purple to brown to green to orange. These labels are an indication that the vehicle’s registration fee is up to date.

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Price is an important consideration if you are thinking of purchasing a personalised registration plate. The cost can vary from a few hundred pounds through to tens of thousands of pounds. Purchasers of personalised plates must also pay the fees associated with the transfer of the plates. Obviously, the higher your budget, the more options that will be available to you. However, depending on what you are looking for you may be able to find a plate to suit your requirements for a modest price.

If you are looking for a plate that is already assigned to another vehicle or that someone else has entitlement to, then you have no option but to wait and see if it ever comes on the market. The DVLA cannot and will not disclose the personal details of anyone using a particular registration mark that is not available for transfer on the open market.

There are many registration marks that never have been and never will be issued for sale, due to the strict government issuing rules. UK registration plates consist of between two and seven letters and digits and formats depend on the style of registration. You have the option to choose between dateless, prefix, suffix and new-style registrations. Most UK plates contain three numbers and four letters. There are, of course, some that contain fewer letters and digits, but these are rare and as such, tend to be considerably more expensive.

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Bill Spence has accumulated quite a collection of personalised number plates over the years, having managed to acquire BS 15, BS 38, BS 43, BS 47 and BS 4747. However, it was his acquisition of the elusive BS 1, which provided him with one of his happiest moments.

Bill, who lives in Orkney, was very happy to have purchased the plate so that he could bring it back to his home in Orkney, from where it originated over 100 years ago. He originally bought the plate to put on his Jaguar XK8, as it displays his initials, but then he decided to delve further into the history of the registration number.

He approached the Kirkwall Archive in Orkney and discovered that, in his own words; “It was originally assigned to William MacLennan of Grainbank who held the registration for eight years until 1912 when John McEwan, Rector of Kirkwall Grammar School, obtained it. Subsequently it was assigned to the manager of the National Bank in Kirkwall, George Drever. Then in 1921 Charles Haydon of Lynnfield put the number on his new Crossley.”

He continued, “Eight years later the number was in Victoria Street, Stromness when the car was owned by Robert Cursiter; then, in early 1930, the Crossley bearing BS 1 was sold to John M. F. Groat of Moasound, Longhope.”

Bill recalls, “I first saw BS 1 on the old Crossley in JMF’s coal store in the 1950s soon before it left Orkney to go to Sheffield, where it was allocated to Bob Stanley.”

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UK registration plates conform to the 1998 European standard design, which requires white or yellow plates with black lettering. This EU standard also requires a blue strip on the left hand side of the plate, which contains the symbol for the European Union, with the code for the vehicle’s country of origin displayed below. This blue strip is not mandatory on UK registration plates and many drivers choose not to incorporate the EU symbol on their plates. Others have the blue strip on their plates, but rather than the EU symbol, they take the opportunity to display their country’s national flag above letters that denote the country, for example SCO for Scotland, CYM for Wales and ENG for England. These codes are not recognised or authorised internationally, but are allowed within the UK. A vehicle displaying one of these alternative plates must also display a GB sticker to identify the vehicle as British if it is being driven internationally.

Current standards, set out in the Road vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001, requires letters and numbers on UK registration plates to be 79mm in height. The typeface on motorcycle registration plates must be 64mm in height.

The font used on registration plates is known as ‘Charles Wright 2001′, which is an updated version of the original Charles Wright font from 1935. The width of the characters has been reduced from 57mm to 50mm to allow space for an extra character and the optional EU blue strip.

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Unissued registration numbers can be obtained direct from the DVLA. You can also purchase registration marks from private sellers or registered dealers. When you buy a personalised number plate you are paying for the right to have that mark assigned to a vehicle registered in your name. Registration marks are not items of personal property and, as such, the Secretary of State owns all registrations.

Registered dealers of personalised registrations sell previously issued registrations from their own stock and on behalf of private sellers. They also sell brand new registrations that have been purchased direct from the DVLA.

There are two options available to you if you purchase a personalised registration from a registered dealer. If you choose to only buy the registration mark, you will have to arrange with DVLA to assign the mark to your vehicle and pay the appropriate fee. In this instance, your chosen dealer will issue you with the paperwork to confirm your purchase of the mark. If you have purchased a previously unissued registration, you will be provided with a V750 Certificate of Entitlement. This confirms the registered dealer as the purchaser and your name as the nominee. If you have bought a previously issued registration, you will receive a V778 Retention Document, which will show details of the person selling the registration as the ‘grantee’ and your details will be recorded as the ‘nominee’.

The other option is to purchase the registration mark through a ‘buy and assign’ scheme. In this case, the dealer should take care of everything for you and you will be sent a letter authorising you to have the plates made up.

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You wouldn’t go to a DIY store to buy the Sunday roast, so why would you not go to someone who specialises in supplying and maintaining left hand drive cars in London and the Home Counties. Not only will you get a good deal from the left hand drive car specialist, he will be able to help with important details such as insurance. Insuring your left hand drive car does not have to be more expensive that a right hand drive car, there are insurers that the left hand drive cars London retailer can put you in touch with, going to your regular insurance company may not be the right way to go.

Your left hand car dealer will save you money in other ways too, by using his services it is almost certain that the left hand drive car will cost you less money, you will save hard earned cash buying through the left hand drive cars London specialist as he knows where to source the best cars. You will get a far better choice through the specialist dealer, it won’t be a one off sale for him, that’s what he does, he retails these cars. So no matter what your choice may be, family car, prestige, manual or automatic, use a left hand cars London retailer, you will not regret it.

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