The Letters at the Beginning of Number Plates Mean Something

Driving along, I'm one of those inveterate wonderers. Why are central barriers at exactly that height? Who designed and drew the images used in road signs? Why aren't lorries designed to be more aerodynamic? One of the triggers for my wondering are number plates. I'm fascinated by those foreign ones you see flitting through Kent, but I'm also interested in our own.

Now you might think that these are just random jumbles of letters and numbers, but there is some method in the apparent madness. As you can see from the diagram above, the first two letters are geographic tags, and the first two numbers are date codes. So, like some twisted alphabet primer, here's a list of what all those geographic tags stand for:

• A is for Anglia: Peterborough (AA-AN), Norwich (AO- AU) and Ipswich (AV-AY)
• B is for Birmingham
  
• C is for Cymru (Wales): Cardiff (CA-CO), Swansea (CP-CV) and Bangor (CW-CY)
• D is for Deeside: Chester (DA-DK) and Shrewsbury (DL-DY)
• E is for Essex
• F is for Forest & Fens: Nottingham (FA-FP) and Lincoln (FR-FY)
• G is for the Garden of England: Maidstone (GA-GO) and Brighton (GP-GY)
• H is for Hampshire: Bournemouth (HA-HJ) and Portsmouth (HK-HY). HW is for the Isle of Wight.
• K is for Luton and Northampton (yes, go figure): Luton (KA -KL) and Northampton (KM-KY)
• L is for London: Wimbledon (LA-LJ), Stanmore (LK-LT) and Sidcup (LU-LY)
• M is for Manchester and Merseyside: Manchester (MA – MY) and Merseyside (MN). MAN is for the Isle of Man.
• N is for the North: Newcastle (NA-NO) and Stockton (NP-NY)
• O is for Oxford
  
• P is for Preston: Preston (PA -PT) and Carlisle (PU-PY)
• R is for Reading
  
• S is for Scotland: Glasgow (SA-SJ), Edinburgh (SK-SO), Dundee (SP-ST), Aberdeen (SU - SW) and Inverness (SX-SY)
• V is for the Severn Valley: Worcester (VA – VY)
• W is for the West of England: Exeter (WA-WJ), Truro (WK WL) and Bristol (WM -WY)
• Y is for Yorkshire: Leeds (YA- YK), Sheffield (YL - YU) and Beverley (YV-YY)

The age identifier is simpler, with 5x being used for the second half of the year, (Sept-Feb), and 0x being used for the first half (March-Aug). So 51 would be between Sept 2001 and Feb 2002, and 02 would be March-Aug 2002. From Sept 2010, this changed to 6x and 1x.

So, at a glance, you can see where and when a car was born - or at least first registered.