from the black and white plates of France to the multi-coloured registrations of Australia, every country across the world has its own laws regarding the colours that vehicle plates must be presented in. While it hasn’t always been the case, the colours of the number plates displayed on UK vehicles today are yellow and white.

Number plate colours in the UK

For UK cars to be road legal, they must feature a white plate made of reflective material at the front of the vehicle featuring characters in black, and a yellow coloured plate at the rear with the reg in black characters.

There are a few exceptions to this rule. For example, the black and white registrations sported by UK military vehicles don’t use reflective material for their plates. The reflective surface can render vehicles more easily targeted by enemy forces.

Cars considered classic by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) are also allowed to carry the older style of registration used in the UK. These plates are black in colour and feature the index marks in either white or silver. Cars that are 40 years in age or older are afforded several allowances, such as no annual MOT tests, but they are also allowed to legally use older styles of plates that differ from the yellow and white plates more commonly seen.

Why are number plates yellow and white?

The main purpose of a number plate is to allow quick and clear identification of its numbers and letters to other motorists and the authorities alike, more information regarding how number plates work. When either an accident or criminal act occurs involving a vehicle, it provides a fast way to find out essential details for the police.

It’s vital that number plates are always easy to read in a variety of weather and lighting conditions and it was deemed by experts that black characters on a white background provide the most legible combination. Black characters on a yellow background is the second most easy to read mix of colours, and so yellow was picked for rear plates.

Why are rear number plates yellow?

If white and black is the combination that’s easiest to read, why use a yellow plate at all? According to the DVLA, having a white plate at the front and a yellow plate at the back is designed to give drivers on the road a very quick way of telling if they’re looking at the front or rear of a vehicle. With this knowledge they can gauge how likely the vehicle is to be moving away or towards their own car’s location.

It’s also illegal to show a white light at the rear of your vehicle because plates are made of reflective material and so this could cause confusion.

Adding colour to your number plate

UK plates used today must be white and yellow with black alphanumeric characters, but there are still ways to put some colour on your plate while keeping to the laws. It’s possible to add one of the UK’s national flags for a little colour on your number plates. For example, you can include the white, blue and red of the Union Jack, a red and white St George cross, or a blue and white cross of St Andrew for Scotland. You can also include a red dragon of Wales standing on a field of green.

One of the latest legal styles of number plates is 4D registrations. These plates feature specially laser-cut characters that are presented in black to be legal and are raised from the registration.

In this age of data protection, there are very strict guidelines regarding personal privacy here in the UK. However, there are still some circumstances in which it’s possible to find out who a specific number plate belongs to.

If you’ve seen a car parked on your land or left abandoned and wondered “whose number plate is this?”, read on for some steps you might be able to take to find out.

Looking up a number plate with the DVLA

There is a wealth of information you can discover about a vehicle just by glancing at it, including how old it is. This is because modern UK plates include an age indicator. You can find out even more about a car by looking up its registration online with the DVLA. You can discover if a car is taxed, its current tax rate and when it expires. You can find the exact date it was first registered and when its MOT is valid until. If the car the plate belongs to has Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) status, you’ll see this along with when its last V5 registration was issued.

You can unearth plenty of information about the car itself too. The vehicle’s weight will be listed as well as its engine size. You can see the kind of fuel it requires and further information about its CO2 emission levels. What you won’t find immediately listed is who the vehicle’s registered keeper is.

How to find a car owner by its number plate

In some cases, it’s possible to discover the owner of a vehicle or its previous owner through the DVLA, but you must have what the organisations refers to as “reasonable cause”. Such causes are listed on the government website and include discovering a driver responsible for causing an accident and tracking down the keeper of a car that’s been abandoned. If a car has been parked on private land illegally, you can also trace the registered keeper via a request.

If you’re employed by an organisation that issues parking tickets or you hand out charge notices for acts of trespass, you’ll be able to trace the owner of a plate. If your firm traces individuals suspected of committing insurance fraud, you’ll also be able to access this information – and if you are tracing a motorist who has driven off without appropriate payment for services or goods, the DVLA can also help. In this last scenario, you can also contact the police directly for information when you report the theft.

How to find an address by using a licence plate number

Since they were first introduced in the early 20th century when the Motor Car Act was officially passed, vehicle registrations have included information about the area a car was first registered. While the system for plates has changed over the years, you can still discover this information if you know what to look for.

While privacy laws in the UK don’t allow you to find someone’s address from their plate number, here at New Reg, you can use our helpful tables and search function to discover the specific region where a vehicle was first registered.

How to buy a specific number plate

If you’ve seen a number plate you wish to buy on a car, you might want to approach its owner to find out if they’re willing to sell. The DVLA won’t provide you with this personal information in this instance. With a massive selection of personalised registrations available here at New Reg, you can select from private plates where the owners have already decided to sell. Using our filtering options and helpful suggestions, there’s a good chance you’ll find a character combination close to the one you’ve seen.

For many years, if your number plate spelled out a name or resembled a well-known word, it was simply a matter of luck. Issued by the DVLA without any consideration for this, getting a plate now considered popular was a completely random coincidence.

Over time, dealers in second-hand number plates began to see trends in the kinds of plates people were buying and the amounts of money they were willing to part with to purchase them. Some plates were clearly viewed as being more valuable than others and dealers in plates began buying and selling them based on certain attributes.

While what makes a number plate valuable can depend on the purchaser’s perspective, there are some clear reasons why some registrations are more sought-after than others. Number plates may be bought and sold for significant amounts for a variety of reasons, sometimes, the number plate may be worth more than the value of the vehicle.

What’s the value of my number plate?

To get an idea of your number plate’s value, the first step is to consider the desired qualities in registrations and see if yours ticks any of these boxes.

Demand is the major factor affecting the price a plate may sell for. The more buyers are interested in your registration, the higher the amount you’ll receive for it. You may find you have many potential buyers competing to purchase your plate and this can drive up the selling price.

The age of a number plate can also be an important aspect of how valuable a plate is. The earliest number plates, sometimes referred to as dateless plates, are often highly desirable. Unlike the current registrations issued, as well as the prefix and suffix style plates that preceded them, these early plates include no age indicator. For car owners who wish to keep their vehicle’s age a secret, this can be a powerful selling point.

Shorter registrations are also highly prized. While mainly this is due to them being older number plates, there are other reasons as well why a plate with fewer characters might be considered more valuable. It’s legal to have the width of your number plate shortened providing it still possesses the appropriate margin around the characters. A smaller number of alphanumeric characters makes for a smaller plate, allowing more of the car that carries it to be seen.

Finally, if the characters on a number plate resemble a name, or popular phrase or word, this can also hike the value. The more closely it resembles the name or word, the more highly it’s likely to be valued.

How do I value my number plate?

The first step in selling a number plate is to make sure you get an accurate valuation of its worth.

Valuing a number plate on your own can take time, patience and in-depth research. A far faster and easier way to complete the process is getting expert assistance from a number plate specialist like New Reg. With our simple-to-use contact form, you can send us your registration along with some essential contact details and our team of experts will get to work. With a wealth of experience and knowledge from buying and selling number plates, we’re perfectly placed to make a plate valuation for you.

We’ll email you our assessment and let you know what your plate is worth, and if you agree, you can go ahead and sell via us. While we hope you’ll do this, you’re under absolutely no obligation to sell through us, so there really is nothing to lose by getting in touch.

While travelling on UK roads, you may have seen some variations when it comes to motorcycle number plates. From black and silver plates positioned across the front wheel, to some that use no plate at all at the bike’s front, not all motorcycles carry the same style of reg. Another element that varies is motorcycle number plate size.

You might have come across a motorbike with a very small plate at the rear – so small that both the authorities and other motorists would struggle to read it. On seeing such a plate, you might wonder if the rider is breaking UK law and question exactly what is the standard size of a motorcycle number plate? Read on for a wealth of information that will help you make certain you stay on the right side of the law.

In the UK, we have very specific rules that govern the size of these plates, so if you see a motorcycle with a tiny plate, the chances are the owner is in breach of the law.

What is the legal size of a motorcycle number plate?

The standard size of a plate is most commonly nine inches by seven inches in total. While there is no exact ruling on plate size, the letters it contains must always follow this sizing correctly. Since 2001, all the characters on motorcycle registrations have been required to be 64mm in height with a width of 44mm. The exceptions to this rule are the number 1 and the letter I.

There are also rules regarding how thick the letters are, along with the distance between letters. Both the stroke and the spacing must measure 10mm. The gap that separates the age identifier numerals and the randomly selected letters must measure 30mm and the distance between the two text lines at bottom and top are required to be 13mm. Lastly, 11mm of space must be left between the edge of a number plate and the characters it displays.

UK motorcycle number plate law

Motorbikes registered prior to September 1st 2001 are entitled to spread text on three lines if preferred, but displaying a registration on a single line is illegal. Motorcycles registered after or on September 1st 2001 can only display their number plates at the rear of the bike. Older models may display their registration at the front, but this is optional. Further information regarding motorcycle plate lighting.

Characters and colours of legal motorcycle plates

As with car registrations in the UK, the two alphabetic characters on a plate refer to the region where a bike was originally registered. These are followed by an age indicator created by taking the last two digits of the year the bike was registered in, or by adding 50 to this number if it was issued in the second half of the period. The last three letters on a bike plate are random. Those buying a brand new bike can select these characters themselves and use them to reflect their brand of bike or even their own initials. To be within the law, the registration should be spread over two separate lines and be presented on a square number plate.

As with car registrations, these rear plates on bikes must be presented in black characters on a yellow plate crafted from reflective material.

To ensure your motorcycle number plate meets the conditions set out in law, it’s worth purchasing through an experienced dealer like New Reg. We’ll ensure your motorcycle number plate matches all relevant criteria, helping you to avoid paying fines or failing your annual MOT test. Fines can be as high as £1,000, so it’s well worth making sure your plate is legal.

It became compulsory for cars in the UK to carry plates back in the early 20th century when the Motor Car Act was passed. Since then, number plates have consisted of at least one letter and one number. These alphanumeric codes were developed in order to provide the authorities, along with other motorists, with a way to identify the vehicles involved in collisions or crimes.

While all cars contain a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) stamped into certain parts like the engine block and chassis, number plates provide a far easier form of identification. Positioned at both the front and rear of vehicles, these easy-to-read plates are much simpler to spot, especially when a vehicle is on the move.

The current format of UK number plates issued includes a total of seven letters and numbers. Two letters are followed by two numbers and then three more letters to complete the index marks. While sometimes the way the letters and numbers are placed next to each other resembles words or phrases, for the most part they appear entirely random. However, if you know how to read a registration, you can tell a lot about a car with a quick glance at its plate.

If you’ve just purchased your new car with its own registration, you might be asking “what does my number plate mean?” Read on to discover the wealth of information to be found in the letters and numbers your car is sporting in its personal reg.

What do the numbers on a number plate mean?

While at one time the numbers on a plate showed simply the sequential order they’d been registered in for their specific region, today’s format uses two digits as an age indicator. These two numbers are designed to let those looking at a vehicle quickly know its age. To attempt to make an older car look younger with a newer registration is illegal.

Number plates are issued in two batches each year in spring and autumn. Plates released in the first launch take their third and fourth characters from the last two digits of the year date. For example, a plate issued in the first release for 2019 will feature a one and nine. To show a plate comes from the second batch, the year date digits are again employed but 50 is added to them. An autumn plate for 2019 would therefore show a six and nine.

If you understand how to read the age indicator, you can tell how old a car is to within six months.

What do number plate letters mean?

There are two groups of letters on the latest style of number plate – two at the very start of the registration and three at the end.

The first two letters on a plate indicate where the vehicle was first registered. Here at New Reg, you can use our helpful tables and innovative search facility to find out where your car hails from at a glance. You can look up the two-letter code and narrow down where it was registered to a very specific region. Previous formats were far more difficult to work out, with letters nominated sometimes by importance – for example, London registrations would begin with A as it was the capital city. Today, London number plates start with an L.

The three letters that end registrations are issued sequentially to dealerships selling vehicles. As they tend to be issued in massive batches, you’ll often find same make and model cars with similar registrations. The characters are used to differentiate cars from each other when they were registered in the same region and are of identical age. It is these three characters that make them unique and easy to identify.

The majority of modern number plates are generally made of acrylic, which is a type of plastic. However, acrylic isn’t the only material which has been used to create number plates. One other form of number plate you might be familiar with are aluminium number plates – sometimes referred to as pressed number plates.

The legality of these aluminium number plates however is something which isn’t entirely straightforward, and largely depends on factors such as how old your vehicle is, and when it was first registered. You may be interested in aluminium plates. You might even own an older vehicle which has these plates, but you’re unsure whether it is legally allowed on the road with them.

Whatever your situation, we’ve put together an overview of aluminium pressed metal plates, and we’ll also take a look at whether they are legal for your vehicle.

Aluminium pressed number plates – what are they?

Aluminium pressed metal number plates are essentially exactly what they sound like – they’re a type of number plate made out of aluminium. The ‘pressed’ part is referring to the letters and numbers they display, which are physically raised from the background through a process known as pressing.

Many drivers today find these plates to be aesthetically appealing, preferring them to the standard acrylic white and yellow number plates. They are especially popular on retro vehicles – especially when the vehicle’s country of origin allowed pressed plates at the time the car was manufactured. For instance, lots of people in the retro VW scene try to replicate the German pressed plates of the 80s or 90s.

As such, a wide variety of drivers are interested in using pressed aluminium plates on their vehicles. That brings us to the main question – is it legal to drive with aluminium number plates?

Are aluminium pressed number plates legal?

At one point in time, pressed plates were the standard type of number plate issued to cars. However, from March 2001 onward, rules regarding pressed aluminium plates changed. In that month, a new British Standard – BS AU 145D – was introduced, which went over exactly number plates have to be displayed for cars registered since then. This standard went on to be updated to the BS AU 145E in September 2021, where the rules surrounding aluminium number plates remained the same.

An aluminium pressed number plate would not meet the requirements of modern number plates, despite the rules not stating outright that pressed metal plates are illegal. In order for them to be road legal, number plates need to be made out of inherently reflective material – they can not have material or a coating added to them to make them reflective after the fact. Pressed aluminium plates made reflective in this way are referred to as being made ‘retroactively reflective’, and as we said, are not legally permitted.

Being inherently reflective is just one of the standards that pressed aluminium number plates don not meet. The rules also state that number plates must be resistant to bending. Pressed metal number plates are not flexible enough to retake their original shape if they end up getting bend out of it.

With all of this taken into consideration, any pressed metal number plates would not meet the standards to be considered legal for cars registered after March 2021. Whilst in the future there may be pressed plates that abide by the rules, being reflective and resistant to being bent out of shape, but as of right now, that’s certainly not the case. In order to ensure your number plates are road legal, make sure that you always purchase them from a specialist such as New Reg – it’s the best way to have confidence in your plates.

As we mentioned earlier though, at one point in time, aluminium number plates were the standard issued plates for cars. Due to this, the legality of aluminium number plates is actually very different depending on what car you own. It all comes down to what year your car was first registered in the UK.

When exactly are pressed metal plates legal?

While white and yellow acrylic plates are the standard in this day and age, cars registered in the UK in 1972 and earlier would have been issued with aluminium number plates. You may have seen these black pressed aluminium plates, featuring silver characters, still being used on the road today. The reason that they are still able to be read, despite aluminium not being an inherently reflective material, is that they are made retroactively reflective.

Cars from this time period are still allowed to use these kinds of number plates as they are deemed to be ‘classic cars’. However, the plates used by classic cars must still abide to the rules which were in place at the specific time they were issued.

Pressed metal number plates and classic cars

Vehicles which are considered ‘classic cars’ – that is, cars older than 40 which haven’t been subject to substantial modification – have a fair number of perks, many of which are related to the kind of number plates they are legally permitted to use. As we mentioned, cars which were registered during 1972 and earlier are legally allowed to make use of black and silver aluminium plates.

Vehicles from even earlier than this – from before the 1950s – are legally allowed to use black and white painted aluminium number plates. The font used on these classic number plates is also a slightly different size than modern plates. Going back even further than that, cars registered during or before the 1930s can use cast aluminium plates, forged from molten aluminium!

The perks of owning a classic car don’t stop there though. Any car the DVLA considers to be classic is not required to pay road tax. They also do not have to take part in an annual MOT test. However, they are still required to be able to function in a way that is considered safe and fit for the road.