Recently put a private plate on my car, it was my late fathers and put on in memory of him. Im quite intrigued as to what type of plate it is.

It reads 7177 UG. Iv researching on google but i cant find any other plate that have 4 numbers and 2 letters. People have mentioned maybe its an irish plate but im not sure

when i got my certificate back off the DVLA they have spaced it 7177UG..no gaps which i find odd but does this mean i can get a new plate made up with no gaps? The plate iv got on atm came off my dads Merc and the numbers and the letters are separated.

Any idea's?

It's not an irish plate. It's an old plate from pre-1932 I believe before we went to three letters and numbers which was pre-1962.

The UG in the number signifies the area where the registration number was first issued, this appears to be Leeds. The plate must conform to the requirements applicable to the age of the vehicle on which it is displayed, which for your car will be a reflective white front plate and a reflective yellow rear plate, it must also contain a minimum 33mm space between the group of numbers and the group of letters.

Had a quick look on google and pre 1932 plates have 3 numbers and 3 letters.

Leeds might back sense, my father was from barnsley so not million miles away

Edited 16 March, 201214 yr by Ema_jane

lots of early plates had 4 numbers and 2 letters. i.e. DS XXXX signifies plates that were registered in Peeblesshire, LS were Edinburgh.

There are some very rare plates that are only one letter plus 4 numbers and even a few that are numbers only.

Basic structure idea and timeline.

The Act stated that all motor vehicles used on the roads after 1 January 1904 had to be registered with the appropriate local council or county borough. Each authority was allocated a set of letters to use for their area, for example London was given A, Lancashire B etc. When single letters ran out, two were used – AA for Hampshire, AB for Worcestershire and so on. Letters thought to cause offence, such as BF, DF and the royal cypher, ER, were omitted. Each set of letters was followed by a series of up to four numbers. Separate registers were kept for ordinary cars, lorries/buses and motorcycles. One discrepancy that arose from this was that a car and a motorcycle could be allocated the same number.

Many local authorities began issuing number plates towards the end of 1903. The coveted figure ‘1’ in each series was usually secured by a member of the local council. London was no exception. In December 1903, A 1 was issued and subsequently acquired by council member, Earl Russell, for his Napier car.

As towns expanded and industries grew, so did the need for more vehicles and therefore more number plates. London was the first authority to use up its original code, so that by May 1905, The Car magazine reported that 10,000 motor vehicles had been registered in London. The letters LC (London County) came next, but the first few, LC 1 to LC 29, were retained by the Council for its works department. The first number issued to the general public in this series, was LC 30, to a Mr. R. Moffatt Ford. Middlesex was the next to run out in 1912, when it was given the two letters MX.

In 1920, The Roads Act came in to force. A vehicle could now retain a registration number for its lifetime, instead of having to re-register if the vehicle was sold outside its original authority.

By 1932, the registration system expanded again to cope with a further increase in vehicles on the roads. Three letters then three numbers were used this time, for instance ABC 123. The second two letters (in this example, BC) showed which authority had issued the plates. The format was reversed after World War II, when owning a car, for the average family, was still unusual. ‘Motoring for the masses’ was not to arrive until the early 1960’s.