Vehicle Registration Plates of Germany - Emission, Safety Test and Registration Sticker

Emission, Safety Test and Registration Sticker

Emission test (front plate) and vehicle safety test (rear plate) stickers are also attached to the plate. The expiration date can be figured out as follows: The year is in the centre of the sticker, and the stickers are attached with the month of expiration pointing upwards. The black marking on the side (near the 12) thus makes it easy for the police to see the expiration month from a distance. Like a clock, the marking shows the same position of a number on the face of a clock. For example the black marking is on the left side, so it is the ninth month (or 9 o'clock) and hence the expiry date is 30 September. The colours are repeated every 6 years. Emission test stickers are no longer used for tests done since beginning of 2010: The safety test sticker covers both.

The lower sticker is the official seal of registration. It always carries the seal of the respective German Bundesland, with the place or district of issue being added in print. Some seals carry the German Bundesadler instead of a Bundesland's seal, e.g. numberplates used on Bundespolizei vehicles.

All these stickers are specially treated to be easily transferred onto the licence plates, but hard to be removed without damaging the plate itself, making them relatively counterfeit-proof.

Cars found in a public place where the owner did not pay insurance for more than three months (as reported to the police by the insurance company) may get entstempelt, that means, unstamped: The police will remove the state's official seal using a scratching tool (mostly a screwdriver), leaving the plate without a valid seal, and it will be illegal to even leave that car parked on public ground, unless insurance is paid and plates are fitted with a new official seal.

Once a plate is invalid, the seal of registration is defaced by law. After that, the plates are often sold to collectors on online shopping sites, such as eBay.

Motorcycles carry only the rear plate.

  • emission test sticker (before 2010)

  • safety test sticker

  • registration seal (Coburg, Bavaria)

Colours of the emission test (before 2010) and vehicle safety test stickers:

Colour Year
orange
 1979 1983 1989 1995 2001 2007 2013
blue
 1978 1984 1990 1996 2002 2008 2014
yellow
 1977 1985 1991 1997 2003 2009 2015
brown
 1974 1980 1986 1992 1998 2004 2010 2016
pink
 1975 1981 1987 1993 1999 2005 2011 2017
green
 1976 1982 1988 1994 2000 2006 2012 2018

Read more about this topic:  Vehicle Registration Plates Of Germany

Famous quotes containing the words safety and/or test:

    “To emancipate [the slaves] entirely throughout the Union cannot, I conceive, be thought of, consistently with the safety of the country.”
    —Frances Trollope (1780–1863)

    “Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is, that it will explain all phenomena.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)