While American licence plates can vary quite dramatically in terms of style and appearance, especially when it comes to the amazing array of vanity plate ideas, it’s a different story over in Europe. The designs are far more uniform, as can be demonstrated by exploring the history of them.
For instance, in the U.K., while the formats have changed over time, they have always conformed to a particular and strict style. Pre-1963, they had what are now known as ‘dateless’ plates; these were typically (but not always) in a 3 X 3 format, with a group of up to three letters alongside a group of up to three numbers. And while the combination of letters and numbers would be unique, it would not include information that would date the plate or vehicle.
That changed in ’63. At this point, most plates adopted a 3 X 4 “suffix” style; three letters, followed by three numbers, then one letter — that final letter would be the date designation, referring to the year the car was first registered. Once the alphabet was depleted, minus letters like ‘I’ and ‘Z’ which could be misread as numbers, the suffix style swapped to a 4 X 3 “prefix” style, with a date-designating letter preceding three numbers, then three letters. Some prefix and suffix plates would be shorter, with just one or two numbers rather than three, although the date number always remained.
Come 2001, a new design was implemented. All plates would now be seven digits long. Two letters, which designated the area in which the car was registered, followed by two numbers for the date, and then three random letters at the end. Over time, British plates also moved from silver-on-black colors to black-on-white at the front and black-on-yellow at the rear.
Most EU countries operate similar systems. German plates, for example, are all black-on-white and use a one-to-three-letter area identifier, then either one or two letters and one to four numbers to create the unique identifier. Combine such systems with prescribed font sizes — too small may make them harder for police and speed cameras to read, and too large might be considered unnecessary — and the standard European Union (E.U.) plate size effectively decided itself.
