License plate

History:
Two years after the first car appeared on Dutch roads, the first license plates (which were still called driving permits at the time) were mounted on a number of cars in 1898. This made the Netherlands the first country in the world to introduce a national license plate.

The first series of license plates ran from 1 through 14, skipping the “crazy number” 11. Documents show that this very first series of numbers had reached 168 on 8 August 1899. Seven years later, on 15 January 1906, the last driving permit (number 2065) was finally issued. From then on, both the car and the driver had to have a driving licence as well as a number certificate. This number certificate, essentially the new license plate, was set up according to a provincial system. Each province received its own letter. This system remained in use until after the Second World War.

The first license numbers were also linked to a province, because in the beginning motorists mostly stayed within the province. But traffic increasingly crossed provincial borders and it was decided to organise the administration nationally, in a central place. This marked the origin of the RDW (then the Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer). It was not until 1951 that the license plate system as we know it today was introduced, with the combination of three times two letters or two digits.

Dutch license numbers are constructed in pairs from a combination of 2 letters and 4 digits or 4 letters and 2 digits. Before 1951, extensive research was carried out into which combination of letters and digits would work best. A great many visual options were tested against the criterion of legibility. The license plate as we know it now, divided into three groups of two characters, turned out to be the clearest and quickest to recognise. That is very important, because in some cases the owner of a vehicle must be easy to identify quickly.
Until 1951, issuing and registering vehicle documents was the responsibility of the Provincial Executive (Gedeputeerde Staten) of the provinces. The number certificates were personal and were issued “for life” (of the holder). Each province had one or two fixed letters, followed by a maximum of five digits. Below you can see which provinces had which letters:

A = Groningen
GZ = Noord Holland
B = Friesland
H = Zuid Holland
D = Drenthe
HZ = Zuid Holland
E = Overijssel
K = Zeeland
M = Gelderland
N = Noord Brabant
L = Utrecht
P = Limburg
G = Noord Holland
R = Departments

With the new series, they started placing the two letters before the four digits. The first license plate issued was ND-00-01.
In 1965 the two letters moved to behind the digits. The first license plate then was 00-01-AD. In 1973 the first license plate with the letters between the digits was issued. That was 00-AD-01. In these three series, the letter combinations SA and SS were not used, because they reminded too much of the Second World War. When these three series were used up, license plates with four letters and two digits were introduced. The first plate (DB-01-BB) was issued in October 1978.

After this series was exhausted, it was time for yet another combination: the letters before the digits. DB-BB-01 was the first number and was issued in September 1991.

From June 1999 the digits appeared before the letters. The first number was 01-DB-BB.
In the current series of four letters and two digits, no vowels are used. This was done to prevent unwanted word formation. The letters C and Q are also not used, because they look too much like a zero.