Numbering Schemes
The current Dutch licence plate system uses black letters on a light-reflecting yellow background. The previous series used white reflecting letters on a dark-blue background. Their numbering schemes however are the same.
Dutch car number plates can be formatted as follows
| Year | Format | Side Code | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951–1965 | XX-99-99 | Side Code 1 | ||
| 1965–1973 | 99-99-XX | Side Code 2 | ||
| 1973–1978 | 99-XX-99 | Side Code 3 | In 1976 and 1977 the color blue was slightly lighter and the font was different | |
| 1978–1991 | XX-99-XX | Side Code 4 | Several letters have been reserved for specific types of vehicles | |
| 1991–1999 | XX-XX-99 | Side Code 5 | ||
| 1999–2008 | NL | 99-XX-XX | Side Code 6 | First in GAIK series (except for 99-DX-XX-series), new font, black border and blue patch with NL were added. |
| 2006–present | NL | 99-XXX-9 | Side Code 7 | |
| NL | 9-XXX-99 | Side Code 8 | ||
| NL | XX-999-X | Side Code 9 | ||
| NL | X-999-XX | Side Code 10 | ||
Letters nowadays do not include A, E, I, O, U to avoid profane or obscene language. The letters C and Q are not used, to avoid confusion with the zero. Letters and numbers are given out in strict alphabetical/numeric order. Hence, a Dutch licence plate says all about the date of registration of a car, but nothing about where the car comes from or to whom it belongs.
Read more about this topic: Vehicle Registration Plates Of The Netherlands
Famous quotes containing the words numbering and/or schemes:
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Is numbering sands and drinking oceans dry.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Science is a dynamic undertaking directed to lowering the degree of the empiricism involved in solving problems; or, if you prefer, science is a process of fabricating a web of interconnected concepts and conceptual schemes arising from experiments and observations and fruitful of further experiments and observations.”
—James Conant (1893–1978)