Prefix Registrations Explained (E.G. X666 EON)

Prefix registrations are those which follow the format of a single year identifying letter (in the example above the X), then a number which can be 1, 2 or 3 digits in length (The above is an example of a three digit prefix with the number 666), and then finally three more letters (EON).

New Style Registrations Explained (E.G. SK54 MPK)

New Style registrations are those which follow the format of a two letter prefix (in the above example the SK), followed by a two digit year identifier (the 54 above) and finally three more letters (MPK). The New Style reg became the current standard for vehicles from the second half of 2000 - hence they are sometimes reffered to as Millennium Plates - and replaced the exhausted prefix format. For the first time in UK registrations the letter Z was allowed as a character in the last three letters - but not in the prefix. The two digit number in the registration would originally have been used to to determine the age of the vehicle it was being displayed on - as shown in the below table.

The two prefix letters of this registration would originally have been used to identify the area of the country in which the registration was issued (in the above example the SK indicates that this registration would have been released in Scotland, most likely from the Edinburgh DVLA Vehicle Registration Office.). As these registrations have an age identifier (the two digits), you can only assign them to vehicles of the same age as the registration or younger. As with all registrations that carry a year identifier you can make your vehicle look as old as you want, but not one day newer. So, for example, the above registration - SK54 MPK - could be assigned to any vehicle first manufactured after 01/09/2004, but you'd be unable to put it on a vehicle that was manufactured before that date as you would be giving the impression that the vehicle was more modern than it is.

We presently have 15,011,299 unique new style registrations on our database which you can search

Suffix Registrations Explained (E.G. FVL 144M)

Suffix registrations are those which follow the format of three letters (in the above example FVL) a number which can be 1, 2 or 3 digits in length (The above is an example of a three digit suffix with the number 144) and finally a single year identifying letter (in this case M). The final letter (or suffix hence the name of this style of registration), would originally have been used to determine the age of the vehicle it was being displayed on - as shown in the below table.

Dateless Registrations Explained (E.G. TOA 123)

When registrations were introduced in 1903, and before the suffix format came into effect in 1963, they had no discernable year identifying numbers or digits on them. With a registration like this it's impossible to tell (without insider knowledge) how old the vehicle displaying it is. Prefix registrations are so called because their initial letter (prefix) identifies the age of a vehicle, suffix registrations because their trailing (suffix) letter identifies the age of the vehicle and the new style reg can identify a vehicle age from the two digit number they contain. All of these styles of registration follow the rule that they cannot be assigned to vehicles that were manufactured before their date of issue. But because dateless registrations are considered dateless (hence their name), these registrations can be assigned and displayed on vehicles of any age. Because these format registrations date back to pre-1963, they're considered the cream of the crop in the numberplate world. They're often very difficult to come by, simply because vehicles they were originally on will have long since been scrapped. They do, however, come with a history attached to them and you can be sure that the reg you're buying will be one of only a small number of similar reg still on the roads. Dateless reg come in various configurations, either with 1, 2, 3 or 4 digits followed by 1, 2 or 3 letters, or the reverse with 1, 2 or 3 letters followed by 1, 2, 3 or 4 digits. The single or consecutive letters in the registration would originally have been able to identify the area of the country in which the registration was issued (in the above example the TOA indicates that this registration would have been released in Birmingham).