Northern Irish Number Plates and Location ID Tags

Northern Irish registrations are issued by the DVLNI (Driver Vehicle Licensing Northern Ireland) and are 'Dateless Plates' as they do not contain a 'year identifier'. Combinations of letters are allocated to specific areas in Northern Ireland, and are issued on a first come first served bases in a similar way to dateless number plates from 1932 to 1963.

In Northern Ireland the current number plate system takes the form ‘ABC 1000’.

‘B’ and ‘C’ are the tag letters that represent the county or city of registration and ‘A’ denotes the position in the series. The numbering begins at 1000 and ends at 9999. After 9999, the next letter in alphabetical order will be used at position ‘A’ and the numbering series will run from 1000 to 9999 once again.  The full list of current county codes appears below.

The county letters without the series position identifier were used previously on their own, in the same order that they are now being used. Once all these registrations had been issued, the extra letter was added to increase capacity. Numbers below 1000 are not issued to the public in the normal way but instead held back by the DVA and supplied at a premium as personalised number plates.

This system was also used in the Republic of Ireland until 1986 as part of the original British, all Ireland system. It was similar to an older system used on the main land but with one more number (mainland= AAA999/ Ireland= AAA9999). It also used the letters I and Z which were not used on the main land. In this system, two-letter county codes existed for all counties or administrative regions in Ireland, but are now used only in Northern Ireland.

The DVA in Northern Ireland are considering adopting the system used in the rest of the UK, using ‘I’ as the first letter.

The DVLNI (Driver Vehicle Licensing Northern Ireland) is the body responsible for the management of Irish number plates in Northern Ireland. But Irish registrations are not restricted to vehicles in Northern Ireland. They can be used on the Britain main land as cherished number plates as a cheap way of hiding the age of a vehicle and like dateless registration numbers, Irish number plates can be put on vehicles of any age. 

Below is a table of examples of Irish number plate ID tags:

Below is an in depth history of the ‘Tags Series’ in different counties

Antrim

IA 1 series was first issued in 1903 and ran to IA 9999 followed by;

DZ 1 to DZ 9999 (1932-1947)

KZ 1 to KZ 9999 (1947-1954)

RZ 1 to RZ 9999 (1954)

The sequence was then reversed;

1 IA to 9999 IA

1 DZ to 9999 DZ

1 KZ to 9999 KZ

1 RZ to 9999 RZ   (this sequence ended in January 1966)

A suffix letter was then added, and the sequence ran;

AIA 1 to YIA 9999 (January 1966 to May 1985)

ADZ 1 to YDZ 9999 (1985-1998)

The current series; AKZ 1001 to YKZ 9999 began in 1998.

The sequence will continue with; ARZ 1001 to YRZ 9999.

When this is exhausted the series will reverse, i.e. 1001 AIA to 9999 YIA.

Armagh

IB 1 was first issued in 1903 and ran to IB 9999; followed by;

LZ 1 to LZ 9999 (1947-1957)

XZ 1 to XZ 9999 (1947-19??)

The sequence was then reversed: 1 IB to 9999 IB; 1 LZ to 9999 LZ; 1 XZ to 9999 XZ – this sequence ending in March 1972.

A suffix letter was then added, and the sequence ran AIB 1 to YIB 9999 (March 1972 to 1996), the current series ALZ 1001 to YLZ 9999 beginning in 1996 (up to WLZ as of winter 2008).

The sequence will continue with AXZ 1001 to YXZ 9999; when this is exhausted the series will reverse, i.e. 1001 AIB to 9999 YIB, 1001 ALZ to 9999 YLZ, and finally 1001 AXZ to 9999 YXZ.

Belfast

OI 1 to OI 9999 (1903-1922)

XI 1 to XI 9999 (1922-1928)

AZ1 to AZ 9999 (1928-1932)

CZ 1 to CZ 9999 (1932-1935)

EZ 1 to EZ 9999 (1935-1938)

FZ 1 to FZ 9999 (1938-1942)

GZ 1 to GZ 9999 (1942-1947)

MZ 1 to MZ 9999 (1947-1950)

OZ1 to OZ 9999 (1950-1953)

PZ 1 to PZ 9999 (1953-1954)

TZ 1 to TZ 9999 (1954-1955)

UZ 1 to UZ 9999 (1955-1957)

WZ 1 to WZ 9999 (1957-1959)

In 1959 the sequence was reversed

1 OI to 9999 OI (1958-59)

1 XI to 9999 XI (1959-60)

1 AZ to 9999 AZ (1960-61)

1 CZ to 9999 CZ (1961-62)

1 EZ to 9999 EZ (1962-63)

1 FZ to 9999 FZ (1963-64)

1 GZ to 9999 GZ (1964-65)

1 MZ to 9999 MZ (1965-66)

1 OZ to 9999 OZ (1966)

1 PZ to 9999 PZ (1967)

1 TZ to 9999 TZ (1967-68)

1 UZ to 9999 UZ (1968)

1 WZ to 9999 WZ (1968-69)

In April 1969 a three-letter sequence began with AOI 1 and ran through to YOI 9999.

The sequence continued in May 1982 with AXI 1 and ran to YXI 9999 (1993), then AAZ 1001 through YAZ 9999 (1993-1999), ACZ 1001 to YCZ 9999 (1999-2004), with the current sequence being AEZ 1001 to YEZ 9999 (commencing in mid-2004). The current issue (as of winter 2008) is VEZ.

Derry City

UI 1 was first issued in 1904 and the sequence ran to UI 9999. In the 1960s the sequence was reversed, running 1 UI to 9999 UI. This was followed in April 1973 by AUI 1 and the sequence will run AUI 1 to YUI 9999, when it will be reversed, 1001 AUI to 9999 YUI.

Down CC:

IJ BZ JZ SZ

Fermanagh CC:

IL IG

The County Fermanagh registrations KIL, CIG, NIG and PIG are currently deemed inappropriate and will not be issued.

Londonderry CC:

IW NZ YZ

Tyrone CC:

JI HZ VZ