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Unlike the American vanity plate system the British system of personalised number plates is based on existing format registration numbers. Vanity plates must also follow th rules of what has been allowed over the years and the current system. The first number system which we now call the ageless system started in 1903 and started with just one letter and one number., as the population of vehicles grew this expanded up to three letters and numbers ( or three letters and four numbers ). In 1963, in conjunction with the new M.O.T test the suffix system started, the first which identified the age of the vehicle. Similar to the ageless but every number ended with a letter depicting the year. The combinations provided were exhausted by 1983 and the prefix system took over. This was a mirror image of the suffix system with the first letter indicating the age of the vehicle. The demise of the prefix system was accelerated by the move to twice yearly changes to registration numbers and the system was exhausted by 2001. The current system started September 2001 and is a seven digit system with digits 3 and 4 giving the age, 51 was the first depicting Sept 2001, 02 was next which came in March first 2002.