Registration Number Plates

Registration number plates were introduced at the turn of the century and has developed a long way since that time.

One of the first plates onto the market was A 1, apparently Earl Russell in his Napier, queued outside of the local office back in 1903 and was issued the number plate A 1 free. That plate is currently not on the market, but if it were, you would expect it to fetch more than half a million pounds.

When BF was introduced it was interpreted by some as "bloody fool" and promptly withdrawn.

By 1932, most of the two letter codes had been allocated so the system had to be developed further.

The decision was made to add a third letter making up a 3 letter code such as DBC 123.

Private car production actually ceased during the second world war, so such less registration numbers were needed. Then, after the war, there was a surge in vehicle ownership with the result that some series of letters and numbers were issued in a reversed format. ie: with numbers first. A computerised system in 1974, was set up to cope with all the registration number plates that were being allocated to vehicles.

Garages were given blocks of registration numbers to allocate to cars that they sold.

A new system later on was introduced called Automatic First Registration and Licencing (AFRL). This allowed garages to use the computer system, linked directly into Swansea (DVLA) system and tax disks were issued directly from the garage. This is currently what happens for brand new vehicles.

You will currently be driving a vehicle. All number plates have an intrinsic value so we have invented and developed a computer generated Instant Free Valuation Service. So, if you are curious to know the worth of your number plate, then just try our system out. It takes only a few seconds and you get the answer straight away, no waiting, and no delay. We are the only dealer to have invented this system and we are very proud of it. However, if you are ready to buy, please try out our clever search, remembering that we have been successfully matching up clients with their ideal registration number plates for more than 25 years.