Cover plates: the number plates that hide your car's age
By Steven Jackson OBE, Founder, New Reg Limited
Dateless, Northern Irish and Irish number plates carry no age identifier, so they can make an older car look ageless. Here is how cover plates work.
Most UK number plates tell you exactly how old a car is. A current-style plate carries a two-digit age identifier, so anyone can read the year at a glance. Some buyers would rather they could not, and that is where cover plates come in.
What a cover plate is. A cover plate carries no age identifier, so it hides the age of the vehicle it is displayed on. Three formats do this: dateless plates from before 1963, Northern Irish plates, and Irish plates. All three can legally be displayed on a newer car, and none of them gives away the year.
Why buyers want them. A cover plate can make a car look ageless and can be a tidy, understated choice. Northern Irish marks are especially popular because they are widely available, they always contain the letter I or Z, and many read as initials. Our data shows Northern Irish plates command the highest average price of the mainstream formats, which reflects steady demand.
The catch. You can put an older-style plate on a newer car, but you cannot make a car appear newer than it is; that is not allowed. Dateless plates, the oldest format, are the most valuable of all, with single-character combinations among the most sought-after registrations ever issued.
Figures here are drawn from official DVLA new-reg data and newreg.co.uk. If you want to browse dateless, Northern Irish or Irish plates, you can search them at newreg.co.uk. This is general information, not advice.
Verified against an official source
Based on official DVLA registration formats and New Reg market data.
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