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Vehicles made before 1 January 1973 may display traditional ’black and white’ number plates (for example, white, silver or grey characters on a black plate).

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Triton Thrasher said:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/359317/INF104_160914.pdf

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Vehicles made before 1 January 1973 may display traditional ’black and white’ number plates (for example, white, silver or grey characters on a black plate).

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Tom Brearley — 19/11/2015
Could you clarify the legal basis for the extension of black and white plates to all historic vehicles? As both a lawyer and the owner of a 1973 vintage car, I am probably more interested in this point than 'normal' people.

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DVLA digital comms team — 23/11/2015
Hi Tom

Since April 2015 vehicles manufactured before 1 January 1975 can display the older style plates. You must:
• have applied to DVLA, and
• be registered within the ‘historic vehicles’ tax class.

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gripper said:

The other thing mentioned in the regs is that the No. plate maker and his postcode is to be displayed.

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Triton Thrasher said:

Anyway, is it implicit in this query and answer that they don't care whether the letters are silver or white?

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My thanks to several members who contacted me to express doubts over the item in the last Newsletter concerning nonreflective number plates. In fact that information is correct and I am grateful to DVLA for supplying this detailed explanation.

The previous Regulations on the display of registration marks had only ever permitted vehicles manufactured before 1973 to use black and white number plates. However, the changes to the law in 2001 which introduced the new (and current) number plate format directly linked the pre-1973 vehicles with those which were in the historic tax class (which had the same dates). This meant that when the changes to the historic tax class dates were announced in recent Budgets, this had the unintended consequence of amending the display Regulations to allow additional vehicles to display black and white plates.

For those wanting chapter and verse the detailed provisions in Schedule 2 Part 2 of The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001 state that ‘VEHICLES REGISTERED ON OR AFTER 1ST JANUARY 1973 AND BEFORE 1ST SEPTEMBER 2001‘

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