In message ,
Martin Underwood writes

I'd have thought that U and V were fairly easy to distinguish - unlike a
letter D, a letter O and a digit 0 which *can* very easily be confused in
the square font that's used on numberplates. OK, so you won't have an O or 0
in the year position, but D and O are allowed interchangably in three-letter
part of the numberplate. DDO, DOD, ODD, OOD and other permutations are
extremely hard to distinguish.

And U was used in the Isle Of Man for MAN xxxU, AMN xxxU etc.
registrations similar to British ones.
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

"Steve Fitzgerald" ] wrote in message
...
In message , Martin
Underwood writes

I'd have thought that U and V were fairly easy to distinguish - unlike a
letter D, a letter O and a digit 0 which *can* very easily be confused in
the square font that's used on numberplates. OK, so you won't have an O or
0
in the year position, but D and O are allowed interchangably in
three-letter
part of the numberplate. DDO, DOD, ODD, OOD and other permutations are
extremely hard to distinguish.

And U was used in the Isle Of Man for MAN xxxU, AMN xxxU etc.
registrations similar to British ones.

I didn't know that? So did they use the letter suffix to denote the year? If
so, did it start at the same time as in Great Britain - ie A=1963, B=1964
etc? If so, I presume it went out of sync in the early 80s when IOM used U
and GB used V.

In message ,
Martin Underwood writes

And U was used in the Isle Of Man for MAN xxxU, AMN xxxU etc.
registrations similar to British ones.

I didn't know that? So did they use the letter suffix to denote the year? If
so, did it start at the same time as in Great Britain - ie A=1963, B=1964
etc? If so, I presume it went out of sync in the early 80s when IOM used U
and GB used V.

They followed the same basic sequence as us although I don't know if
they adopted it at the same time. MAN xxxA - MAN xxxY then Axxx MAN -
Yxxx MAN. They seem to have arbitrarily also used MAN xxxx and xxxx MAN
over the years too. They are currently using the series (I think
they're up to) GMN xxxA - GMN xxxY having started at AMN a few years
ago. The marks MAN and MN were reserved for their use and were never
used on the mainland. The London office that issued AN multiples never
used MAN for that reason.

It certainly doesn't seem to follow our years and one just follows on
from the last one.
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

In article ,
Martin Underwood writes
I didn't know that? So did they use the letter suffix to denote the year?

Initially, yes.

If
so, did it start at the same time as in Great Britain - ie A=1963, B=1964
etc?

Except only London used A.

If so, I presume it went out of sync in the early 80s when IOM used U
and GB used V.

Earlier: MAN xxx T was in use within days of S registrations appearing
in Great Britain.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
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Please reply to the Reply-To address, which is:

In message , Clive D. W. Feather
writes
In article ,
Martin Underwood writes
I didn't know that? So did they use the letter suffix to denote the year?

Initially, yes.

If
so, did it start at the same time as in Great Britain - ie A=1963, B=1964
etc?

Except only London used A.
I believe that Staffordshire was the only other local authority to do
so.

--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

"Clive D. W. Feather" wrote in message
...
In article , Martin
Underwood writes

Except only London used [the suffix] A.

I never knew that. So did all other parts of the country keep the older
formats (eg ABC 123, 123 ABC, AB 1234) for an extra year and then change
over in 1964 to ABC 123B? Typically British: change something, but don't
change it everywhere at the same time!

I know that initially the changover of letter occurred on 1 January, until
they realised that this caused a rush in car orders just as garages and
distributors were returning from their Christmas holidays. I believe the
change to August-to-July "years" was in 1966. So does that mean that:

A, B, C ran from Jan-Dec
D ran from Jan-Jul
E onwards ran from Aug-Jul

making D a short "year"?


Of the pre-1963 formats, was there any difference between the ABC 123, 123
ABC, AB 1234 formats other than that one gave way to another when an
individual authority had allocated all its numberplates? I ask because the
plot twist at the end of the film "The League of Gentlemen" hinges on an
observant boy noticing that the registration on the robbers' truck should
have related to a car rather than a lorry - does this mean that numberplates
were of a different format in the two cases?

Anyone know why Northern Ireland never adopted any of the year-letter
formats. I'd have thought the army would have wanted a unified system so
that British soldiers' private cars were not quite so obviously different
from Northern Irish residents' cars, so as to lessen the chance of them
being IRA targets.

Martin Underwood wrote:
I know that initially the changover of letter occurred on 1 January, until
they realised that this caused a rush in car orders just as garages and
distributors were returning from their Christmas holidays. I believe the
change to August-to-July "years" was in 1966. So does that mean that:

A, B, C ran from Jan-Dec
D ran from Jan-Jul
E onwards ran from Aug-Jul

making D a short "year"?

More or less, but E was the short year, and the changeover in 67.

London's use of A suffixes didn't extend to buses - there were never
any A reg Routemasters until some got re-registered when the original
numbers got valuable.

But Aldershot and District did have A reg buses, and I don't think
they were registered in London.

Anyone know why Northern Ireland never adopted any of the year-letter
formats. I'd have thought the army would have wanted a unified system so
that British soldiers' private cars were not quite so obviously different
from Northern Irish residents' cars, so as to lessen the chance of them
being IRA targets.

I think it was for compatibility with the rest of Ireland, though it
continued after the Republic went over to a new system in the late
'80s. I think they use the same system as the rest of the UK now.

Disclaimer: I didn't look any of the above up.

Colin McKenzie

Colin McKenzie ) gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying :

Anyone know why Northern Ireland never adopted any of the year-letter
formats. I'd have thought the army would have wanted a unified system
so that British soldiers' private cars were not quite so obviously
different from Northern Irish residents' cars, so as to lessen the
chance of them being IRA targets.

I think it was for compatibility with the rest of Ireland, though it
continued after the Republic went over to a new system in the late
'80s. I think they use the same system as the rest of the UK now.

No, they're still their own sweet way. There's no "space" in the current UK
system for any NI regi offices - besides, they don't even use DVLA - they
use their own registration authority.

Colin McKenzie wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 3 Jan 2005:

I think it was for compatibility with the rest of Ireland, though it
continued after the Republic went over to a new system in the late '80s.
I think they use the same system as the rest of the UK now.

Not as far as I know - I think they are still on 3 letters/4 numbers.
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 2 January 2005

I wrote:
But Aldershot and District did have A reg buses, and I don't think they
were registered in London.

Disclaimer: I didn't look any of the above up.

I just looked this up, and it seems my memory was fooled by the AAA
nnn C numbers. Sorry.

Colin McKenzie