Evening all.
A good chum of mine recently experienced a curious incident, which set my mind thinking, which in turn has led to me discovering - I think - an oddity about GB registration plates (number plates).
As most of you will know, since September 2001 GB number plates have been in the format:
XX nn YYY where
XX is an area code consisting of two letters
nn is an age identifier of 2 numbers
YYY is random letters
In the XX section there are some letters (I, Q and Z) not used, and some further combinations that are reserved or banned, whilst in the YYY section aside from avoiding use of the letters I and Q, any combination is possible so long as it is not offensive.
My chum owns a car with a ‘cherished’ number plate, ie one that he bought from DVLA at new and was able to specify the lettering and numbers. The plate spells the name of a particular place he is fond of, which is relatively unknown, and also irrelevant to what follows. What does matter is that the final letter of the XX part is the same as the final letter of the YYY part.
Recently, he was returning to his car in a car park to find a chap taking a photo of the number plate. Somewhat bemused, he asked if the chap was taking the photo because it spelt the name of the aforementioned ‘special’ place, and therefore knew it. The photographer, equally bemused, had no idea that’s the plate spelt the name of a particular place. He said he was taking the photo because the final letter of XX is the same as the final letter of YYY, and that was especially rare.
Now leaving aside the principle of someone going around spotting and taking photos of number plates (although I am given to understand some people do similar things with train numbers
) this struck me as rather odd. There are 23 different letters used in the XX set, and 24 in the YYY set, therefore the odds of the final X letter matching the final Y letter should be 1:24. Not that rare at all. I would certainly have been asking a few more questions of said spotter, but my chum being rather more laissez-faire said ‘right you are’ and that was that.
This morning I decided to check my theory on my walk to the station. I checked the plate of every vehicle that I saw, and kept a tally of those that had the ‘match’ and those that didn’t.
After 250 vehicles I stopped counting, and not a single vehicle had matching final letters. Odd. Nevertheless I did the same on the way home, and again gave up after 250 vehicles with no matches. All told 500 vehicles with no matches. Someone with a better statistics capability than me can work out the chances of that happening for a supposed 1:24 probability, but I think it’s pretty remote.
So four(ish) questions:
1) does anyone on the forum have, or know of a non-cherished plate that has matching final letters of the two letter groups?
2) Does this mean that DVLA does not routinely issue number plates in that format?
3) and if not, why not? Is it because they are all kept behind for cherished sales, perhaps because married couples like to buy plates with both sets of initials on them?
4) or have I ‘discovered’ something that is actually already well known? I’m not a spotter, you see.
A good chum of mine recently experienced a curious incident, which set my mind thinking, which in turn has led to me discovering - I think - an oddity about GB registration plates (number plates).
As most of you will know, since September 2001 GB number plates have been in the format:
XX nn YYY where
XX is an area code consisting of two letters
nn is an age identifier of 2 numbers
YYY is random letters
In the XX section there are some letters (I, Q and Z) not used, and some further combinations that are reserved or banned, whilst in the YYY section aside from avoiding use of the letters I and Q, any combination is possible so long as it is not offensive.
My chum owns a car with a ‘cherished’ number plate, ie one that he bought from DVLA at new and was able to specify the lettering and numbers. The plate spells the name of a particular place he is fond of, which is relatively unknown, and also irrelevant to what follows. What does matter is that the final letter of the XX part is the same as the final letter of the YYY part.
Recently, he was returning to his car in a car park to find a chap taking a photo of the number plate. Somewhat bemused, he asked if the chap was taking the photo because it spelt the name of the aforementioned ‘special’ place, and therefore knew it. The photographer, equally bemused, had no idea that’s the plate spelt the name of a particular place. He said he was taking the photo because the final letter of XX is the same as the final letter of YYY, and that was especially rare.
Now leaving aside the principle of someone going around spotting and taking photos of number plates (although I am given to understand some people do similar things with train numbers
) this struck me as rather odd. There are 23 different letters used in the XX set, and 24 in the YYY set, therefore the odds of the final X letter matching the final Y letter should be 1:24. Not that rare at all. I would certainly have been asking a few more questions of said spotter, but my chum being rather more laissez-faire said ‘right you are’ and that was that.This morning I decided to check my theory on my walk to the station. I checked the plate of every vehicle that I saw, and kept a tally of those that had the ‘match’ and those that didn’t.
After 250 vehicles I stopped counting, and not a single vehicle had matching final letters. Odd. Nevertheless I did the same on the way home, and again gave up after 250 vehicles with no matches. All told 500 vehicles with no matches. Someone with a better statistics capability than me can work out the chances of that happening for a supposed 1:24 probability, but I think it’s pretty remote.
So four(ish) questions:
1) does anyone on the forum have, or know of a non-cherished plate that has matching final letters of the two letter groups?
2) Does this mean that DVLA does not routinely issue number plates in that format?
3) and if not, why not? Is it because they are all kept behind for cherished sales, perhaps because married couples like to buy plates with both sets of initials on them?
4) or have I ‘discovered’ something that is actually already well known? I’m not a spotter, you see.
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