Number plate geekery
Apologies in advance for this particularly nerdygeeky post.
I’ve noticed around Edinburgh that many cars have number plates consisting of three letters and four numbers, e.g.: LCZ 2981. More than you would expect appear to have Zs in.
Anyone know why this should be? Was there a separate number plate system in Scotland at some point? Olav’s British Number Plates doesn’t seem to have the answer, unless it’s just a variation of “1931-62 re-registration” plates.
I’m also mildly curious about the preponderance of 71 (e.g. N71 AFL) number plates in Edinburgh. Not that I have an interest in number plates - I’m just inquisitive.
LCZ is actually a N.Ireland number plate.
The preponderance of the number 71 is just coincidence.
Comment by malcolm — October 8, 2005 @ 10:55 pm
I can confirm…..yes, these are Irish number plates.
These are popular as they don’t have an age indicator (unlike prefix, siffix, or current style number plates), so they’re great for disguising the age of your car. And they are cheap to buy.
Comment by mango — July 24, 2006 @ 4:47 pm
They are Northern Irish number plates. You can tell the year of them by the first letter of the number - ie start ACZ ****, BCZ ****, CCZ****, although possibly more than 1 will be used in a year! you can get a close estimate though, if your into that sort of think
Comment by Aaron — July 26, 2006 @ 10:14 am
Yep, they’re Irish plates. Often used over here as “dateless” plates, as they have no indication as to the age of the vehicle, and certainly stand out from the crowd.
Comment by Adam — October 25, 2006 @ 9:22 am
The ‘ageless’ plates are popular in Edinburgh because the city is booming economically, people have money, they buy expensive cars, then treat themselves to ageless or other personalised number plates.
No mystery.
Comment by derek — September 8, 2007 @ 12:42 pm
Yes, the other commentors are correct, the LCZ 2981 is a registration issued in Northern Ireland. The ‘CZ’ relates to a Belfast issue. Irish plates are easy to spot on GB roads - they ALWAYS contain the letter ‘Z’ or ‘I’ such as GIL 1234, BIL 5544, JIL 6543 etc, or BAZ 34, CAZ 404, DAZ 808..
Comment by Bob — June 11, 2008 @ 2:30 pm
Hello!
We’re putting together a feature at Time Out magazine on different types of spotters and I was wondering if anyone (London-based) would be interested in talking about their consecutive number plate spotting hobby? We would be interested to know why you’re passionate about it, what got you into it and what it involves.
If you’re interested or can think of anyone else, then please get in touch on newsfreelancer@timeout.com or rebeccataylor@timeout.com
Many thanks
Sonia Zhuravlyova
Time Out London
07905091186
Comment by Sonia — June 16, 2008 @ 5:05 pm