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Introduction to Dateless Number plates
Due to the rise in traffic, by 1903 it became necessary for each vehicle to be easily identified and so the
UK number plate system was introduced, with the registration mark 'A1' being the first number plate issued in London. Registration marks would be
issued in sequence and relate to the area of the country where the vehicles were registered. Each DVLA vehicle office (formerly known as the DVLC)
would have their own unique letter sequences that they would assign to newly registered vehicles. Dateless number plates were issued up until 1963
when they were replaced by Suffix style number plates.
The reason that these number plates are now known as “Dateless” is simple– they
have no reference to the age of the first vehicle they were registered to. It is perfectly legal for a dateless number plate to be re-assigned or
transferred to any age of vehicle. This feature is the same as Northern Ireland registration marks which also date from the same era but are still
being issued today. These are in more plentiful supply so they tend to be cheaper in price and can be easily identified as they always contain either
a letter I or Z. The main benefit of dateless number plates and the reason why they are very popular is that they hide the ages of the vehicles that
they are displayed on.
Examples of UK Mainland dateless number plate layouts :
We have built 4 areas to help you find the perfect dateless number plate
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dateless number plates by lowest price first
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Simple dateless registration search
Exact dateless registration search