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The history of personalised number plates in the UK

Number plates in the UK, particularly personalised car registrations, are an easy and surprisingly inexpensive way of putting your mark on your motor vehicle.

The whole concept of car registration plates began at the turn of the 20th century, as the world began to see a sharp rise in the number of cars on the roads. It was actually the Dutch who first came up with the idea, but it didn’t take long for other nations to adopt the scheme and the UK launched its own system of registration plates in 1904.

The very first car number plate to be manufactured was comprised of just two digits: A1. Even back in 1904, one Englishman by the name of Earl Russell recognized the status that this distinctive registration would bring with it and so he decided to camp outside the registration office in London to ensure that he got it.

This system of just a few digits continued until it could no longer supply enough variations to keep up with the ever-expanding car manufacturing market. Something had to be done, and so the system was redeveloped to incorporate more letters and numbers, allowing a greater number of unique plates to be created. But it was, of course, only a matter of time before the market ran out of number plates again, and since then the whole system has been completely overhauled three more times, most recently back in the year 2000.

Not surprisingly, all these changes have given rise a great number of weird and wonderful registration marks, some of which sell at auction for tens of thousands of pounds. Of course, you can get your hands on a private reg for just a fraction of this these days, and this site has been written to help you do just that.

Read the information supplied within the site to begin your search for the perfect car number plate. There are plenty of helpful hints and tips, from finding a cheap plate to acquiring an Irish mark. You will also find guidance relating to the legal-side of private registration marks.

Also see our information pages on personal and home finance.

See our sister site WiseBizz for advice on how to create your own business card designs.

© The Pink Fridge Online Magazine 2008 - Number Plates UK

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