A number plate is the one which has the registration number of a motor vehicle and is made of plastic or metal . It helps to identify the details of the vehicle and its ownership. In UK, the number plate is called as registration plate, in the United States of America it is termed as license-plate. In most of the countries, the number plates are to be attached to both the front and the rear of the automobiles.
Whether to retain the old plates or to have new ones, while buying a second hand car, varies from place to place. In some places, the number plates are destroyed, when the owner of the car sells it and does not go for another one. The plates are either fixed to a frame and then attached to the car or fixed to the vehicle directly.
It can be said that the number plate’s origin dates back to a period even before the advent of automobiles. In the year 1884, a horse drawn carriage had the first number plate to serve as the identity. It was Netherlands, which introduced driving permit around the nation in the year 1898. In most of the nations, initially, the car number plates were issued by the manufacturers only, and starting from 1903, the plates were issued by the Government, and Massachusetts and West Virginia were the ones to issue the number plates first.
The number plates were made of various materials including porcelain, ceramic, cardboard, leather etc. Since the size of the number plates varied in olden times, the bumper of the car used to be drilled when the car number plates had to be changed as the ownership changes or the car owner shifts to a different jurisdiction. This became unnecessary when standardization of plates came in to being in the year 1957.
