A vehicle registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the vehicle within the issuing region's database. In some countries, the identifier is unique within the entire country, while in others it is unique within a state or province. Whether the identifier is associated with a vehicle or a person also varies by issuing agency. Depending on the country, the vehicle registration plate may be called a licence plate (in British English), a license plate (in American English), a number plate, or a tag.
As it is a legal requirements of any country in the whole world therefore most goverments require a registration plate to be attached to both the front and rear of a vehicle, although certain jurisdictions or vehicle types, such as motorcycles, require only one plate, which is usually attached to the rear of the vehicle. National databases relate this number to other information describing the vehicle, such as the make, model, color, year of manufacture, engine size, type of fuel used and mileage recorded during the vehicles annual (or bi-annual) road worthiness test, Vehicle identification (Chassis) Number and the name and address of the vehicle's registered owner or keeper.
In some jurisdictions plates will be permanently assigned to that particular vehicle for its lifetime. Some countries permit the re-registration of the vehicle with "personal" ("vanity" or "Cherished Mark") plates. When the vehicle is destroyed or exported to a different country it will require re-registering in the country of import. China requires the re-registration of any vehicle that crosses its borders from another country, such as for overland tourist visits, regardless of the amount of time it is due to remain there; this has to be arranged with prior approval.
Licence plates have been around almost as long as automobiles, appearing in the earliest period of the transition from the horse, 1890 to 1910. France was the first to introduce a license plate, in 1893, followed by Germany in 1896. [1] The Netherlands were the first to introduce a national licence plate, called a "driving permit", in 1898. The first licences were plates with a number, starting at 1. By 8 August, 1899 the counter was at 168. When the Netherlands chose a different way to number the plates on 15 January, 1906 the last issued plate was 2065.
Earlier plates varied in size and shape from one jurisdiction to the next, such that if one moved, new holes would need to be drilled into the bumper to support the new plate. Standardization of plates came in 1957, when automobile manufacturers came to agreement with governments and international standards organizations. While peculiar local variants still exist, there are three basic standards worldwide.
520 mm by 110 or 120 mm (20.5 by 4.5 inches) - in the bulk of European countries and many of their former overseas territories.
372 mm by 135 mm (14.5 by 5.3 inches) - in Australia and some other Pacific Rim countries, about halfway between the dimensions of the other two standards, longer than Western Hemisphere plates but taller than European ones.
12 by 6 inches (300 mm by 150 mm) - in the majority of the Americas.
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