Vehicle Registration Plates of Bulgaria - Format

Format

Letters

Only 12 letters are used. In Bulgarian order, these are – А, В, Е, К, М, Н, О, Р, С, Т, У, Х. All of these are used as part of the province codes (i.e. on the left). Only nine letters are used in the series (i.e. on the right), of which "A" is the only vowel. The three that are not used in the series, (all vowels) are –

• "E" – reserved exclusively for trailers and caravans – e.g. СА 1234 ЕЕ
• "О" and "У"

Numbers

Number plates with a single letter in the series, i.e. "X(X) NNNN Y", appear mainly on mopeds and motorcycles, but can rarely be seen on some older vehicles that have failed to undergo the obligatory re-registration. The format "X(X) AAAAAA" may be used in vanity plates, where "A" represents either letters or numbers chosen by the owner (a name for example). The price of such a custom plate is €3,500 (BGN7,000), so these are rare.

Other

Not counting the "E" series, which is reserved for trailers, nor the vanity plates with no series letters, there is a total of 810,000 possible combinations for each province. This total ran out in Sofia ("C") in late 2004, and was replaced with "CA" in early 2005.

Note that the number "0" is written normally, while the letter "O" is egg-shaped.