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British period license plates

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ichthos

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Anyone ever bought a custom period British plate for their car? I found one guy on Ebay that has these made in England, but the limit seems to be 7 characters. My vehicle ID has nine characters, and I wanted to use this as my front plate like Whitephrog did. Other sources or ideas? Thanks,
Kevin
 
Just be prepared for some Brit to see a photo of yer car with said plates and start jumping all over you.

This is what happened to me:

"You bloody Yanks. Think you're so smart. Take them phony British plates off your car. You're an embarrassment to the free world. I know ALL the encoding of plates on the British Isles, there has never been any such plate issued."

And no, I am not making that up.

So, I posted to the forum he said that on, "You know, you're right. There never have been plates like that issued on the British Isles. How could I have thought such a thing.
Except, they're SINGAPORE!"

OOooooooooOOOOOpppppsssss!

So, remember, if someone does fling poo your direction, tell them they are Malaysian Plates or some such rot.
Mine really ARE Singapore plates, I have the registration booklet to prove it....
 
I have a British plate on the front of my Sprite. I watched the mechanic make the plate by putting the plastic characters through holes in the plate and then using a soldering iron to melt the tabs that came out of the back. That was when I took delivery of it at Donald Healey's dealership in England in January of 1962. My 1962 Ohio plate (that I bought last year) in on the rear of the car. My original plate number (7339WD) indicates that the car was first licensed in Warwickshire. Look for me at Elkhart Lake.
 
Ray, your BE is just perfect almost. I love it I really do. One day I hope we can park side by side.

Your exhaust pipe and muffler should be black me thinks.

I also love the english plate. Excellent, just excellent.
 
I lived over there for a while and have a couple plates. You can get any plate you want made. The plate comes with the car over there from the start, its on the car when you buy it and it never changes cradle to grave. You can tell by the first letter what year the car is. I had a 1972 Mercedes and it was an L reg. That means that all 1972 model cars started off L-XXXXX. If you broke a license plate there were any number of local people that could make you a new one. Its not like here where it comes from the government. Don't pay a lot for a plate, because it doesn't work the same way over there.
 
From the 30's until 1962 they started with a letters-numbers sequence, then when that ran short, reversed it to a numbers-letters sequence. Letters issued were regional.

Starting in August 1962 thru 1983 it was three letters, three numbers then a letter starting with A and ending with Y not using I,O,Q or Z for year identifiers. There are also regional identifiers in the letters Example AAA 123A would be issued between August 62 and July 63.

In August 83 they reversed the system - A letter starting with "A" again, three numbers and three letters. Example, A123 AAA would have been issued between Aug 83 and Jul 84.

Now they use a system of Regional identifier letters, year of issue numbers and sequence.

That's what little I learned about the numbering system while living there.. If I'm wrong, someone with more knowledge will surely set me straight. :banana:
 
My Singapore plates (the ones on the car and the spare set that were NZ Diplomat) are plastic numbers inserted into metal plate and formed over on the back. Most look like some kind of heated press, as the pins are round and even.
 
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