Vehicle registration plates of Italy

Present Italian car number plates have black characters on a rectangular white background, with small blue side-fields on the right and left (see European vehicle registration plates). The current numbering scheme, in use from 1994, is unrelated to the geographical provenance of the car. Italian plates are printed by the state (i.e. nation, country).

The very first Italian plates.They had to have the owner's name and the local comunal number that had to be visible

These early Italian number plates gave the unabbreviated name of the place of origin, followed by a number, as GENOVA 83 and PADOVA 2. These were first plates to be made of metal and had to be done by the car's owner.Today,only two plates of that time remained,GENOVA 83 and PADOVA 2,conserved in museums.

Schematic representation:

Plate was black-on-white. The registration number was a numeric code (in red), different for each province, and a progressive number on a sigle line, unique for that province (in black). E.g. 63 – 2993, where 63 is the code for Turin. Motorcycle plates had squared plates

Front plate was considered completely optional

Schematic representation:

Plate was black with white digits. Rear plate was square 27.5 × 20 cm (since 1951), front plate was 26.2 × 5.7 cm. Note that single line rear registration plates (similar to the ones used by other European countries) were not available until 1976. The registration number was the provincial designator, which is a two-letter code (exception: Rome's code is Roma), and a progressive code, unique for that province, up to 6 characters long.Between the provincial code and the first two digits there's the Italian Republic emblem (a garland surrounding a five-pointed star with the letters "RI" in the middle of the star)

From 1927 to 1932, the progressive code was before the provincial designator on a single line. Then, the progressive code was before the provincial designator in front plates and after it in rear plates.

The progressive code for the first 999999 cars of the provinces was just a progressive number, not filled with initial zeroes; in the rear plate the last four digits are in the second row and the first ones (when present) in the first row. For cars from 1000000, it was A00000-A99999, B00000-B99999 etc. Possible letters were, in this order, A B D E F G H K L M N P R S T U V Z X Y W. After that, it was 00000A-99999A, 00000D-99999D etc. Possible letters were, in this order, A D E F G H L M N P R S T V W X Y Z; then, the letter was moved to the second position, and then to third (same range as in second position).

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