Shortest UK car number plate you've seen

[Camberman]

COM1C used to be owned b Jimmy Tarbuck.

Not seen that one but clearly remember seeing "PEN 15" many years ago. Would it be allowed now?

 

[MP33]

I saw a Rolls-Royce being driven in the City of London with the registration BOW1E and himself was sitting in the back. I used to see regularly some evenings another Rolls-Royce with a number plate starting CUE being driven by Steve Davis. I believe at the time he had business interests in the area.

 

[johnnychips]

I may be wrong, but I thought Paul Daniels had MAG 1 C on a Roller or a Bentley at the height of his fame.

 

[mpthomson]

I may be wrong, but I thought Paul Daniels had MAG 1 C on a Roller or a Bentley at the height of his fame.

He did

 

[peteb]

A1 was I think the first number plate. It's now registered to a black mini!

 

[MP33]

A1 was not the first number plate issued. Is was the first one in London, other areas started issuing a little earlier.

In London, the few wealthy owners of motor cars objected to being labelled the same way as horse drawn hackney carriages.

 

[MotCO]

Yesterday I saw LAT1N - maybe a classical scholar owns it?

 

[peteb]

It's quite fun to use the gov UK website typing in such number plates as we've been discussing and seeing what sort of car they're registered to!

 

[Bald Rick]

Just seen 4 ID (41 D) on a Ferrari F8 in south London.

Presumably a passport dealer

 

[Killingworth]

U1 - Leeds mayor's limo (assuming it still is)

Seems Leeds are considering selling U1 'to save money'. Just been on BBC Look North

 

[Mark L]

The old Essex combinations such as BOO LOO and POO were removed long ago. Also the mark VD for Luton was withdrawn in 1974.

Eastern National had some Bristol MWs with “MOO” and “OO” plates delivered in 1962/3 - see http://www.bristolsu.co.uk/mw/fleetlist/fleetlisteasternnational.htm

Leeds mayor car is U1.

I also think Rotherham Mayor car is ET1!

Daughter's friend dad has a single letter two number reg on his Range Rover.

This site may be of interest for this thread.

Home - UK Single-Single Number Plate Registry

UK Single-Single Number Plate's

singlesingle.co.uk

The Bournemouth mayoral car used to be (not sure if they still own the plate) EL1 whilst Reading’s was MRD1. The latter is now used on one of Reading Buses’ fleet - it’s one of only eight local authority owned bus operators left it the UK.

 

[vinnym70]

Fairly sure (not certain) F 1 and 1 F used to be on Essex County Council cars.
I remember stories of them being sold for tidy sums but it's not something I have a great interest in.

 

[Bald Rick]

Fairly sure (not certain) F 1 and 1 F used to be on Essex County Council cars.
I remember stories of them being sold for tidy sums but it's not something I have a great interest in.

I once saw F1 RED in West Bromwich of all places. On a red Ferrari (348) obviously.

It’s now on a 10 year old Beamer 1 series. Diesel. White FFS.

 

[ABB125]

I saw SPA 1N today (or it might actually have been IN) in Oxford, on a black Audi being driven by an elderly-looking man. Curiously, neither of those registrations come up on the DVLA website: SPA IN is "invalid", and SPA 1N "details could not be found"...

 

[GusB]

I once saw F1 RED in West Bromwich of all places. On a red Ferrari (348) obviously.

It’s now on a 10 year old Beamer 1 series. Diesel. White FFS.

Maybe they couldn't afford to run the Ferrari after being "F1RED"!

I saw SPA 1N today (or it might actually have been IN) in Oxford, on a black Audi being driven by an elderly-looking man. Curiously, neither of those registrations come up on the DVLA website: SPA IN is "invalid", and SPA 1N "details could not be found"...

It should be "SPA 1N" in order to fit with one of the standard formats. "SPA IN" wouldn't work at all. Searching for the former doesn't work for me, either. I wonder if perhaps it has been recently transferred to a different vehicle and the site hasn't yet been updated.

 

[Bald Rick]

I saw SPA 1N today (or it might actually have been IN) in Oxford, on a black Audi being driven by an elderly-looking man. Curiously, neither of those registrations come up on the DVLA website: SPA IN is "invalid", and SPA 1N "details could not be found"...

SPA IN isn’t a UK plate in any circumstances- as there’s always numbers!

It can only have been SPA 1N.

I suspect this is witheld on the DVLA website as it is very likely to be the ‘formal’ car of the Spainish Embassy in the UK. Most of the embassy cars have cherished plates, typically XXX 1 or 1 XXX, where XXX is a three letter contraction of the country. I have seen the Swedish Embassy car SWE 1 on a big black Volvo, but that doesn‘t show up on DVLAs search either. However giving Spain that plate would be the obvious thing to do.

If you want to see these embassy cars, a quick walk round Westminster, Knightsbridge or Kensington will reveal a few. Almost always black, and usually Mercs & Beamers (occaisonally Audis) unless the country concerned manufactures decent big saloons.

 

[Rhinojerry]

Leeds mayor car is U1.

I also think Rotherham Mayor car is ET1!

Daughter's friend dad has a single letter two number reg on his Range Rover.

This site may be of interest for this thread.

Home - UK Single-Single Number Plate Registry

UK Single-Single Number Plate's

singlesingle.co.uk

Saw U2 numberplate on Tuesday.The vehicle was a Mini,new model.

 

[Narrowgauge725]

WY1 was with West Yorkshire council before changes in local government and it was passed on the West Yorkshire Fire Service and was on a Prime Mover (skip wagon but not for skips) last time I saw it

 

[mpthomson]

And not forgetting the AA, who own at least AA1 and AA3. The number plates are given to the vehicles operated by the mobile mechanics/ responders of the year for that year. AA1 is normally a van and AA3 is one of the transporter trucks.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I suspect this is withheld on the DVLA website as it is very likely to be the ‘formal’ car of the Spanish Embassy in the UK. Most of the embassy cars have cherished plates, typically XXX 1 or 1 XXX, where XXX is a three letter contraction of the country. I have seen the Swedish Embassy car SWE 1 on a big black Volvo, but that doesn‘t show up on DVLAs search either. However giving Spain that plate would be the obvious thing to do.

Do these countries not use the usual Diplomatic ( xxx D xxx ) and Staff ( xxx X xxx ) series then? Or do they still use those for most of their cars?

 

[Bald Rick]

Do these countries not use the usual Diplomatic ( xxx D xxx ) and Staff ( xxx X xxx ) series then? Or do they still use those for most of their cars?

Yes, thats for the usual diplomatic cars for diplomatic staff. But these cherised plates are on the ‘official’ car that would be used by an ambassador, for example if attending a reception to receive some fancy looking but rubbish chocloates that Jonathan Ross can’t pronounce.

 

[Mark L]

Yes, thats for the usual diplomatic cars for diplomatic staff. But these cherised plates are on the ‘official’ car that would be used by an ambassador, for example if attending a reception to receive some fancy looking but rubbish chocloates that Jonathan Ross can’t pronounce.

An accredited diplomatic car won’t appear of the DVLA car tax checker as they don’t require taxing. Such vehicles used to display a permit of sorts where the tax disc would have been (presumably to warn traffic wardens that it was a waste of time ticketing them as the mission would almost certainly plead diplomatic immunity). Since the demise of the paper tax disc I’m not sure if this is still the case.

 

[RossMc]

X1 was issued in Northumberland and sold for over £500k about 10 years ago.

Somebody has S1 and it could be worth £1m today.

S1 is registered to a 2006 Vauxhall Corsa

X1 is on a 2019 Merc CLA

It's still going.
I think William Hill's tried buying this for £1M off Bolton council.
Going back to council number plates, the F1 plate was bought from a local council for around £400,000 about 5 years ago, think they are trying to flog it for £15m now.

WH1 is on a 2020 Lexus ES

SPA IN isn’t a UK plate in any circumstances- as there’s always numbers!

It can only have been SPA 1N.

I suspect this is witheld on the DVLA website as it is very likely to be the ‘formal’ car of the Spainish Embassy in the UK. Most of the embassy cars have cherished plates, typically XXX 1 or 1 XXX, where XXX is a three letter contraction of the country. I have seen the Swedish Embassy car SWE 1 on a big black Volvo, but that doesn‘t show up on DVLAs search either. However giving Spain that plate would be the obvious thing to do.

If you want to see these embassy cars, a quick walk round Westminster, Knightsbridge or Kensington will reveal a few. Almost always black, and usually Mercs & Beamers (occaisonally Audis) unless the country concerned manufactures decent big saloons.

SPA 1N is on a 2020 Audi A6

U1 - Leeds mayor's limo (assuming it still is)

2019 Volvo S90

 

[12LDA28C]

I once saw GO 12345 (probably in reality GOI 2345) on a Ferrari many years ago.

 

[wanderingriver]

spotted “B1” recently

 

[mpthomson]

spotted “B1” recently

As I said before, that used to belong to Barton Townley, who was a family friend of my parents previously. He owned a number of car dealerships (particulary Datsun) around Barrow in Furness and it was a common sight around South Cumbria for years.

 

[randyrippley]

COM1C was owned later by Jim Bowen


Shortest I have seen was L1 on I think the Liverpool mayoral car.
Lancaster had L50 but I think that was sold when the mayoral Skoda was scrapped

 

[MotCO]

Today I was following a Bentley (Continental?) Northbound on the M11. It's registration (I kid you not) was FU 2!

 

[RossMc]

Today I was following a Bentley (Continental?) Northbound on the M11. It's registration (I kid you not) was FU 2!

FU 2 is assigned to a 1965 Rolls Royce

 

[MotCO]

FU 2 is assigned to a 1965 Rolls Royce

Ok, close enough - I fhought it was a Bentley, but I must have been mistaken.