Comment by DocTomoe | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DocTomoe | Hacker News Reader

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Sometimes, parts of the license numbers carry Information.

For instance, German license plate KA-WT 342 is from the City of Karlsruhe ("KA"), and is privately registered (letters after the dash).

KA-T 34H is a Karlsruhe privately-owned historic car (H at the end).

KA-4734 is a car owned by the Regierungsbezirk Karlsruhe (most likely a police car)

0 57-274 is a car owned by the embassy of Indonesia in Germany (0 for diplomatic, 57 for Indonesia)

BN-173-345H is a historic car owned by an UNHCR (173) employee with diplomatic immunity working from Bonn (BN). Cars owned by the UNHCR itself would be 0 173-788H...

This kind of quick-glance information gets lost when you introduce vanity plates.

We do have "Wunschkennzeichen", though, allowing you to choose the random letters and numbers from the pool of those combinations not yet used.

Exactly. In Ireland the plate is made of [registration year]-[county]-[count of cars registered that year].

16-D-17891 : the 17891st car registered in Dublin, in the year 2016. They have recently introduced a third number in the year position to indicate 6 month sections (ie. 161 or 162).

Does that also mean that Germans have to apply for new license plates when moving from one district to another, or does the license plate only refer to the district of original purchase?

From other places where this holds, it only refers to the district of the original purchase. And people don't move that much either, so 90% of the plates or such are accurate as to their owner's district too.

If you move, you used to get new license plates. There was talk about changing this, but I am not aware that it has.

In Poland you have to get a new license plate every time the car changes its owner, unless they happen to live in the same city. But the first 2-3 letters change depending on where you live, and it's quite granular, so even if you sell your car to a city not far away it might need a new license plate.

In Germany it depends on the city/region if you can keep your plate when changing cars.

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