Identify this number plate.

[PhilW]

I found an old British plate in a box of British car parts I bought. It's a large, old black plate with large silver numbers - J 414 . Is there a way to find the year this plate was issued and should I check to see if the car is hiding in a barn near-by?

Phil.

 

[William]

I believe the British version of the DMV is the DVLA, and I understand that they can check old license plate numbers to see when and where they were first issued, as well as to what kind of car. Try www.dvla.gov.uk for starters. (watch, I'm not paying attention, so you're probably in England and know all this!!!).

Hope this helps. Pics?

-Wm.

 

[Steve]

The letter J suggests that the plate was originally issued in the city of Durham, England. 414 would indicate a very early vehicle indeed, although there is no easy way to find out what kind of vehicle it was issued to. Regardless, if you think that the vehicle might be tucked away in a barn nearby, why worry about what it might be? Half of the fun is in the hunt!

 

[JamesWilson]

Maybe its from Jersey.

The "J" is certainly used to denote cars there recently.

https://www.anglia-models.co.uk/saloon-photo66.htm

Shows a photo of a 1962 Ford Anglia with a silver on black plate J 689.

Given Steve's answer this may just be confusing things, but it may be possible....

 

[Steve]

James is perfectly correct. They did use J for Jersey, as on the Anglias (nice shots by the way, my first car was a 105E Anglia) but J on its own was used in Durham early on too. So, it could be either, I guess, depends on the age of the plate...........

 

[JamesWilson]

Just an odd thought.

I believe the size of the characters changed at some point with larger letters & numbers used on the earlier cars I believe. Do you know when that happened? It might be one way of refining whether its a 20s/30s Durham or 50s/60s Jersey plate....

 

[Steve]

Good idea. It was the initial description that it was large that made me go the Durham route. Could you measure the height of the letter and numbers? That should tell us.