Suffix private plates explained
Three letters, then numbers, with the year letter at the end. Issued from 1963 to 1983.
What a suffix registration mark is made of
- Letters
- Three at the front. On this example, ABC.
- Numbers
- One to three. On this example, 12.
- Year letter
- The last character. On this example, D, which is 1966.
Will it fit my vehicle?
A suffix registration mark can only go on a vehicle first registered on or after the day its letter came in.
How do you read the year from it?
A is 1963 and the letters run forward to Y, skipping I, O, Q, U and Z. The letter is at the END, which is the difference between a suffix registration mark and a prefix one. A to D each took a calendar year. In 1967 the changeover moved from Jan. to Aug. to take the peak off the new-year sales, so E ran seven months only and every letter from F onwards spans two calendar years: F was issued from Aug. 1967, and Y from Aug. 1982.
What are they good for?
The letters come first, so a suffix registration mark reads as a word or a set of initials before anything else does. They suit older vehicles, and many are old enough for black and silver number plates.
How must the characters be spaced?
Every number plate we make complies with British Standard BS AU 145e. On a standard modern car number plate, characters are 79mm tall and 50mm wide, with prescribed spacing of 11mm between characters and 33mm between the two groups. The registration must not be rearranged or deliberately respaced to make it read as something else. An illegally displayed registration can fail an MOT and lead to a fine of up to £1,000.00.
Black & silver number plates
Black number plates with white, silver or grey characters may only be displayed on qualifying historic vehicles manufactured before 1 Jan. 1980 and registered in DVLA’s historic tax class. The age of the registration mark itself does not qualify the vehicle, so an old Northern Irish registration transferred to a modern car must still be displayed on modern legal number plates.
What makes a number plate legal sets out the measurements in full, and private plate styles shows every style side by side.
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