About Private Number Plates

UK number plate styles

There are four basic styles of registration plate in the UK. 

Current

The current style of care registrations was introduced in 2001. This style comprises seven characters. The first two letters indicate the region in which that car was registered, followed by two numbers indicating the vehicle's age.

E.g. NX04 BOB

Prefix

The Prefix style of UK plate was used from 1983 to 2001. The first letter indicates the vehicle’s age (hence its name, ‘prefix).

E.g. W44 BOB

Suffix

Suffix style plates were issued from 1963 and 1983.This is the reverse of the prefix style plate. They use the structure BBB*A, where A is a letter which represents the period that the vehicle was first registered, and * is a 1-3 digit number

E.g.  BOB 46K

Dateless

Issued from 1903 to 1963, dateless plates are often regarded as ‘original cherished marks’ and are highly sought after. These registrations can be any combination of up to four numbers and three letters, there is no indication of the vehicle's age (hence the name, ‘dateless’.)

E.g. BOB 300

Plate years

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