The changing roles of number plates

In the early days of the motor car, despite there being relatively little traffic on the roads, the roads were pretty hazardous. The surfaces were bad and often very muddy. When the number of vehicles on the road grew, accidents were becoming much more common and it because important to have a system to identify vehicles and of course their drivers. Even back then there were rules of the road, and it was important to know who was breaking them.

So, in 1903 the Motor Car Act made it compulsory for everyone to register their vehicle and display a registration mark. This system has been in place in one form or another ever since.

I bet they never thought, back in 1903, that their new registration marks would one day become as important to some owners as the car itself. These days number plates are so much more than just an identification tool. They’re a status symbol, the ultimate car accessory, and a way to express our personality, with the most sought after plates selling for hundreds of thousands of pounds. Some license plates these days are more valuable than the car they’re on!

Photo credit: George Fuermann / Foter.com/ CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication