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Removed the folowing form descritption of EU standardised plates
Between the UK and Ireland you didn't (1996) need a nationality sticker even without having EU-standard plates.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by Andy G (talk • contribs) 21:46, 7 April 2004
Zoney 20:43, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)
All new licence plates issued in Germany have the common design (you cant just buy the plates over here, they need to be issued by the registration office and carry the seal of the federal state they are registered in), but the old ones dont need to be replaced. A lot of old cars that are not used outside the country still have the old ones.
Perhaps its also noteworthy that plates are issued by local authorities in Germany and always start with a letter identifying the authority they are registered in e.g. S for Stuttgart, HH for Hanseatic City of Hamburg. They have to have the seal of the federal state, a seal stating the date when the car is required to be checked next time ( front) and a seal that the car is insured (back).
Tampering with the design is strictly verboten and can result in jail time (only in extreme cases of course, but counterfeiting the insurance seal is taken very seriously).
Simon — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.180.226.131 (talk • contribs) 21:09, 17 November 2007
Uk number plates are covered at http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/regmarks/reg_marks_current_requirements.htm which says "Since 1st September 2001 there has been an optional provision for the display of a Euro-plate for vehicles registered in the UK" and "Vehicles displaying this symbol no longer have to use the traditional oval shaped national identifier (GB) sticker when travelling within the European Union." and "The Government announced on 28 December 2001 the intention to permit the display of national flags and national identifiers on vehicle number plates. ... They will provide for the voluntary display of the Union flag, Scottish Saltire, Cross of St George and Red Dragon. Football team crests etc are not allowed."
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.44.26.73 (talk • contribs) 21:27, 5 May 2005
I added some images of European plates in this and other related articles. I expect to see more from other countries added by other Wikipedians. -- Kaihsu 15:26, 2004 Apr 25 (UTC)
"In the USA, where the international oval means nothing legally because cars must have federal-style license plates"
Any word on how one would aquire an international vehicle registration plate while in the US? Jude 21:43, 8 January 2006 CST
This is all governed by the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. I have just added some text to the article about the convention, which explains the requirements to display oval nationality stickers in the USA. In essence, the convention applies in the USA, but is waived in some cases. NFH 20:16, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
I doubt that many Americans would even know what those country ovals were. I see many such stickers that are just tourism boosting mechanisms for locations in the US. For example, a common sticker where I'm from (western North Carolina) is a black "OBX" surrounded by a black oval on a white background. This does not signify any country anywhere in the world, but is simply a reference to the Outer Banks at the other end of the state. I see LOTS of these. And lots of other ones like that. You'd probably have a hard time convincing people that the official country ovals have any legal meaning. --Khajidha (talk) 15:31, 14 November 2019 (UTC)
I was amazed to see the word "tags" used to refer to license-plate validation stickers. The word "tag" is ubiquitous in reference to the license plates themselves, but this is the only time I have ever seen it used to refer to the stickers. Would someone like to substantiate this usage? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.83.212.208 (talk • contribs) 02:52, 8 March 2005
Where are you located? I don't know anything about the "tags" issue; I've heard the word used to describe the stickers on TV (nationwide networks in the U.S.) a few times. In California, where I am, people usually refer to the plates as "plates" and the stickers as "stickers."
Can anyone else illuminate this issue as to where "tags" is being used to describe plates or stickers?
--Coolcaesar 08:25, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)
I live in VA, although I have also lived and registered a car in MD, DC, and NJ. In all of those places, I have heard plates described as either "plates" or "tags" and the stickers simply as "stickers" (except in NJ, where they were not used at the time for most classes of vehicles). The Washington Post also uses "tag" to refer to the plates themselves rather than to the stickers. I have read descriptions of the stickers as "tabs," although I have never heard that usage in everyday speech.
Which TV shows used "tags" to describe the stickers? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.83.212.208 (talk • contribs) 13:22, 8 March 2005
"Tags," "tabs" and "stickers" are all regionalisms. "Tags" mean either "plates" or "stickers" depending on where you are.211.59.191.28 07:12, 8 January 2006 (UTC)
First, I've never even heard of vanity plates in any other country than the US. Hence, I remove "In some countries", and replace this with "In the US". Second; "Some railfans have gone insane with their tags, others have gone off the deep end with their railroad themed tags." What does this even mean? It's gone anyhow. Third, I'm pointing here from other articles I edit, such as Dutch_Vehicle_Registration_Plates. Lines like "the dutch do not have vanity plates" etc. are superfluous as per my first point. WP is supposed to be internation, not aimed specifically at a US audience - thus the articles should be written so as to promote this goal. --TVPR 11:36, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)
--Coolcaesar 07:30, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Hey! Why was this page moved? I think all the North American Wikipedia users like me were perfectly happy with the way it was at license plate. It was created under the name "license plate," and nearly all of the content was drafted with reference to that spelling by North Americans, so it should stay there!
--Coolcaesar 02:05, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Which policy? However I see no reason to use American English since British English is older and should be the standard. --ckorff 10:13, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Huh? I've lived in California for a long time and never heard of this. Can we have some references for this statement? --Yath 20:36, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
The article is becoming a bit of a mess now because user DavidWBrooks took out the "Large countries with federal governments" heading which I had inserted. While trying to revise the article, I then realized something important.
The basic problem with the article is that some details of license plates vary widely from country to country, but others do not. What we need is for some user who knows a lot about license plates (I personally know a lot about freeways but not so much about plates) to isolate all the elements that are identical and put them in the front of the article under a heading like "In general," and then the other country-specific stuff can be broken off into later sections. --Coolcaesar 07:23, 7 May 2005 (UTC)
Would it make more sense to have an entry on North American license plates, European "number plates", and plates from the rest of the world? Or possibly better subdividing the existing entry? Spotteddogsdotorg 01:01, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Personally, I would support the idea of a license plate article and a number plate article, and vehicle registration plate could be a disambiguation page. Additionally, if North American plates are in a separate article then the North american article will use American english. — Jesse's Girl | Please talk! 18:34, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
This article has become very international in scope, therefore a neutral title should be chosen. I'm going to be bold and move this article to Vehicle registration plate, a neutral, specific and formal term. This move is in line with the MoS. SpNeo 18:14, 1 August 2005 (UTC)
The following text from the article is at odds with my experience:
I can only speak from my experience in California, but in that state, for at least the last 30 years, none of the above has been true. The plates are issued only once per vehicle, decals are issued yearly to indicate that registration fees have been paid, and the plates normally remain with the vehicle when it is transferred to another owner. Which states handle these things differently (if not now, then recently)? --Yath 21:50, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
First, whomever it was that said vanity plates don't exist outside the US, yr wrong. :) Many countries have them.
On Japan: Licence plates for cars & trucks in Japan are more complex than described. White background with green text means private vehicle over 660cc engine size. Green background with white text means commercial registration, same engine category. There are other options; The most common is yellow background, black text. This is referred to as a "Kei car" - private vehicle, engine size 660cc or *smaller*. Reverse colours (black background, yellow text) means, again, commerical vehicle registration. You can also see white background plates with red text, but they're very rare.
The characters on the plate are mis-described too. The top kanji are the name of the prefecture (state) the vehicle is registered in. There are 47 prefectures, and twelve (?) "designated cities' (meaning, basically, cities large enough in population to be administered as a state by themselves). The numbers next to the prefecture name indicate the registration office in that prefecture. The remainder of the characters (one hiragana character and up to four numbers) are the actual plate number. Where numbers below 1000 are needed a solid dot will be on the plate as a placeholder rather than leaving empty space. This is done to help prevent fraud.
Someone want to correct the entry? :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.152.93.75 (talk • contribs) 21:05, 2 December 2005
I think Vehicle licence is a distict thing, and should remain separate for the following reasons...
A Vehicle licence is a permit to use a vehicle on a public road, whereas a Vehicle registration plate displays an index key into a database of registered vehicles, used to identify the vehicle for law enforcement, or whatever. It could be that in some juristictions the Vehicle registration plate is the same thing as a Vehicle licence , but in others, notably the UK, the two are not related, other that the Vehicle licence, which is a small paper disc to be displayed on the vehicle, usually stuck inside the windscreen (windshield), has the vehicle's registration number (as displayed on the Vehicle registration plate) printed on it to ensure that it can only be used in that vehicle. In the UK a Vehicle registration plate usually stays with a vehicle for life, remaining the same regardless of owner, or address, and whether the vehicle is actually licensed or not, and is purely for vehicle identification purposes. It may, however, make sense to merge the licensing details from Vehicle registration plate to Vehicle licence thus making the former more generic, and concerned with the plate's function as a means of easy identification of a vehicle. De Facto 00:39, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
I think it's clear that we should not merge them. --Yath 18:45, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
How do we move this section out of the article? It has nothing to do with the topic at hand, and this is not a disambiguation page. Chris 02:24, 2 February 2006 (UTC)
Northwest Territories and Nunavut plates are well-known as irregularly-shaped, that of a polar bear. However, did not some US states, in the 1980s-1990s, have plates shaped like the state, if the state was roughly rectangular? Ones eligible for this quality would be Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas. GBC 21:46, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
In Ohio, and probably other places, we issue special orange and yellow license plates for people convicted of a DUI/OMVI. Possibly could be mentioned here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.20.127.229 (talk • contribs) 21:21, 25 May 2006
I am moving an uncited section of the info for Pakistan here, If it's correct, can someone please add a source and move it back to the article. Thanks, --Apyule 21:46, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
Don't they make licence plates in prisons (Or used to)? 68.39.174.238 02:20, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
why does my state have two different color lettering for thier plate? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.54.154.152 (talk) 21:30, 6 February 2007 (UTC).
Might it be useful to have information about the availability of and links to sites where one can find the registered owner of a car that that contained a driver who greeted you warmly but whose name you can't remember, or one that just missed you?
Obform 13:50, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
Main issue with that would be abuse...someone almost killed you on the road because they were busy talking on their cell phone, so you look up their plate, and, well, I think the rest is self explanatory.
Negativity13 (talk) 04:16, 2 July 2008 (UTC)
What is this section doing in this article at all? It's in my opinion both unrelated and half-useless (less informative than a stub).
213.162.65.17 13:23, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
The name "vehicle registration plate" is a good compromise to remove British or American bias.
However, the use of "license plate" at some places and "licence plate" at others is very annoying. My personal usage is "licence plate", but Wikipedia policy is to follow whatever spelling convention the article was first written in. If I am not mistaken, that should be "license plate". (Perhaps a note could be added at the very first instance that British/Commonwealth spelling is "licence".)
Bathrobe 07:41, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
this article doesnt say anything about if plates (the first letters) in USA depend on the city/state that you live on, or are they complitely random? 72.70.243.78 17:55, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
To: "User:Qqqqqq" you have missed the point. In America you can't look at some letters or mumbers to determine EXACTLY to the county level where they are from. For Example:
Using the above image. The "KA" means that this vehicle is/was Registered in the City of Karlsruhe county in wich has the County Seat in Karlsruhe. or "DD" Would be Dresden, "HH" is Hamburg, BZ is Bautzen, or is KI Kiel. That is just Germany However France has the last 2 numbers I think, that correspond to their Department. And for most other people One little known fact. The U.S.A. is the ONLY country in which you can 100% personalize your car registration plate. How's that for the First Amendment.>BR>
MKLPTR (talk) 07:32, 23 December 2007 (UTC)
Your comment on vanity plates is not entirely correct...Canada also has 100% personalizable (is that a word?) vanity plates.
04:20, 2 July 2008 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Negativity13 (talk • contribs)
Why are these not mentioned anywhere? In the UK, i think it's historical vehicles, can have plates with a black background and white lettering. An example can be see here: http://www.olavsplates.com/foto/gb_pwf97r.jpg —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elkrobber (talk • contribs) 13:37, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
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BetacommandBot (talk) 07:19, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
I may be nitpicking excessively, but not all the regions in this section are countries. The EU is not a country, nor is North America. Furthermore, the "North America" section does not cover North America, just the US and Canada. Mexico is part of NA (or so I was taught), but has its own separate section. I'm not sure if it's worth changing, but that jumped out at me as I cruised past this article. LoLo McSpanky (talk) 17:07, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
I removed the following text. If there is a patent, valid or otherwise, that dispute belongs between the patent holders and the relevant authorities in the various countries. I see no relevance for a Wikipedia article -- especially not in a summary section that links to the main article.
If anyone feels differently, or wants to integrate it into the main EU plate article (as opposed to the summary section here), the text I removed was:
This 'common design' is claimed to be a registered design - number 2053070 - registered at the UK Patent office by David and Nansi Mottram in 1995 [2]. However, Ireland introduced this style of vehicle registration plate on 1st Jan 1991 under regulation S.I. No. 287/1990, [3]. Portugal introduced plates with the common design in 1992, and Germany introduced plates with the common design in January 1994 [4], [5], No successful challenge has been launched upon the registered design to date.
-Stian (talk) 02:35, 4 August 2008 (UTC)
I don't believe the bit about paper plates almost everywhere. Maybe this is true in North America, if so, please state so, and cite a source. Temporary plates for test driving, export, etc., probably deserve being mentioned here. Free-zombie (talk) 09:54, 17 April 2009 (UTC)
A friend asked me: why do the tv shows blurr the car plates shown there? Can I upload photos I've taken with cars and their license plates? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk 05:12, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
Could someone correct the headings in the article so that it doesn't look like it was written by a brain donor. Europe is a continent, not a country. Either change the heading to 'Vehicle registration plates by continent' or list the different countries in Europe.
If the individual countries of Europe do not warrant a separate heading then neither do the countries of Asia or North America etc. A bit of consistency would be nice.
~~Worldtraveller~~ 20 September 2009 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.9.139.98 (talk • contribs) 23:07, 19 September 2009
If license plate holders with tinted, clear, or smoky glass are illegal in the United States, why are they sold in such auto part stores such as AutoZone?
Also, is there a place where one can look laws such as this? 64.136.26.231 (talk) 02:58, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
I noticed there are no handicap plates listed. So...I submit my own. Im too new to upload directly, but hopefully one of you would be good enough to do it for me, if such a request is permissible: http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/1842/xyzzy2better.jpg Thanks in advance. For the record, this is my work, and its public domain.RebelKnightCSA (talk) 02:17, 1 March 2010 (UTC)
The Andorran license plate image does not include the entire plate, and is very blurry. If anyone here has a better image, please upload it, because I do not live in Andorra. Awesomeness talk 21:58, 1 March 2010 (UTC)
info is incorrect.. someone has listed Illinois as one of the states where you do not need a front license plate. you will get a ticket for not having registered plates on the front and rear of your car, unless you have a temporary sticker. got pulled over for it by state police on I-57 on the way to Chicago, and then ticketed in Chicago by a meter-maid for same reason.. This state is terrible.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.225.172.199 (talk) 11:31, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
Apparently, Victoria had them in 1884, before the European ones currently cited in this article as being "first": http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/20102010/72/bc-victoria-birthplace-licence-plate.html. 142.103.207.10 (talk) 23:28, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
Hi Wiki Nazis - why is the Russian Federation in Asia? Your own, Wikipedia's article on Russian Federation states that Russia covers 40% of Europe and is the largest European state with 80% of its population living in the European part of the country. Russia was always considered a European power - until last few years where there was a deliberate push by its American enemy to change the perception - so why woul you put the whole thing in Asia? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.146.176.26 (talk) 12:39, 5 November 2011 (UTC)
When the number of cars were fewer it was possible to give the states a different series of number, say:
When the number of cars exceeded what was possible with these combinations, a certain a amount of chaos ensued.
It is not know if the same number can be used in more than one state/territory. Tabletop (talk) 12:38, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
It can hardly be true that registration plates are older than automobiles. According to the Wiki article 'History of the automobile' the year 1886 is regarded as the beginning of the modern automobile, and this is earlier than the first registration plates.109.158.133.196 (talk) 12:46, 12 August 2013 (UTC)
As a matter of fact, we have articles on vehicle registration plates in (almost) all countries. There articles are collected in templates which are included at the bottom of this article. However, on top of this, we have a number of short sections describing a random selection of specific countries. Do we actually need them? Expansion to all 200 countries available does not see realistic or rational, may be we should just remove the sections, keeping a couple of them to present examples and refer to the country-specific articles?--Ymblanter (talk) 10:49, 7 September 2015 (UTC)
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This article states, at #History, that "[r]egistration plates have been around for longer than there have been automobiles. France was the first country to introduce the registration plate with the passage of the Paris Police Ordinance on August 14, 1893" (¶ 1). However, Automobile redirects to Car, which states, in the lead, "[t]he year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the modern car. In that year, German inventor Karl Benz built the Benz Patent-Motorwagen" (¶ 1). For the moment, I'm marking the claim in this article as dubious, but I'm hoping that someone with better knowledge of this can sort it out. --Badger151 (talk) 18:33, 20 August 2016 (UTC)
The article as it stands appears to be attempting to deal in detail with every aspect of the physical display of vehicle registration / licensing marks in every jurisdiction in the world all in one single Wikipedia entry.
Not only is this an absurdly over-ambitious aim, in my view – and one highly unlikely to result in a lucidly written article that is easily navigable by the reader in search of information on the subject – but the error is seriously compounded by the inclusion of such over-particular information in the general introduction to the article as the following:
I don't know (since it isn't stated) to what jurisdiction those observations apply, but they can surely be relevant to only – what? a single-figure percentage of all the registration plates issued in the world?
Wikipedia already has plenty of articles of the type Vehicle registration plates of Australia, Vehicle registration plates of Brazil, Vehicle registration plates of China, etc. and the article here should confine itself to universal, or near-universal, generalities (amounting to no more than a paragraph or two) on the subject of registration / licence plates, followed by a comprehensive list of links to the Vehicle registration plates of X-type articles already mentioned.
This would have the additional benefit of eliminating a great deal of repetition. Such statements as Jordan requires its residents to register their motor vehicles and display vehicle registration plates, for instance, are already in the Vehicle registration plates of Jordan article, so why repeat them here?
I would very much welcome a discussion on these points. -- Picapica (talk) 23:50, 22 November 2016 (UTC)
The article wrongly uses "licence plate" and "number plate" and "registration plate" interchangeably in some sections. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 42.2.34.156 (talk) 08:31, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
This article should probably be for the general concept and history, and the list should be split into a separate list article at List of Vehicle registration plates by country/territory. Dmartin969 (talk) 03:59, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:
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Add tallies / lists of what countries, despite not using the English alphabet usually, still stick to using it on vehicle registration plates, e.g., Taiwan. Jidanni (talk) 14:50, 9 May 2021 (UTC)
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