For almost as long as there have been cars on the road in the UK, there have been car number plates, or vehicle registration plates, attached to them.  Each of these plates displays a seemingly random series of letters and numbers, usually in reflective material unless the plate is extremely old.

On many plates you’ll see the EU Country Identifier at the far left. The identifier for Great Britain is a vertical blue band with a circle of stars on it, and beneath the circle the letters “GB” for Great Britain.  Following the Country Identifier are two letters, commonly known as the Area Code, or memory tag.  These indicate the local registration office: the first letter identifies a very broad area, and the second letter identifies the registration office within that area.   For example, plate identifiers beginning with A were issued within Anglia, those beginning with P were issued in the Preston area.  Within Preston, for example, you’ll find 18 issuing offices, each of which is indicated by the second letter.

The following two digits are the age identifier.  If the plate was originally issued between March and August of a year, the digits of that year will be displayed: 11 for plates issued between March and August of 2011.  If issued between September and February of the following year, the numbers would have 50 added to them.  So plates issued between September of 2011 and February of 2012 would display a 61.