Vehicle registration plates of Latvia

Vehicle registration plates of Latvia consist two letters (trailers plates have one letter), a hyphen and one to four numbers "(depending on the age of registration)" e.g AB-1234, or AB-123, or AB-12 or AB-1.

Colour and dimensions

Current plates have black characters on white reflective material for both front and rear plates. Since Latvia got its independence in 1991 and till 2004 a small Latvian national flag with the initials LV would have been used on the left-side of the plate. Ever since Latvia joined the European Union, the EU blue label has been included on the license plate with the initials LV.Front number plates are 520 mm x 111 mm in size. Rear plates may be:
*520 mm x 111 mm (Standard)
*285 mm x 203 mm (Square, used mostly on SUVs)
*320 mm x 111 mm (Small, used mostly on American cars that have small place for plate). This type of plate can only include 4 symbols without hyphen e.g AB12, however hyphen is included on front plate.

Typeface

All Latvian plates use unknown custom typeface based on old German DIN 1451 script. Most noticeable changes include alternate forms of the 6 and 9 [cite web | title= Number Plate Font Specimens: DIN 1451 (Europe) | url= http://www.leewardpro.com/articles/licplatefonts/font-din1451.html | accessdate=2008-05-22] and rounded corners.

Car designations

Latvian license plates do not have any particular designation coding. However, Latvian army cars and trucks have LA letters on plates meaning Latvijas Armija. There is also unchecked information that AA plates series 56XX, 66XX, 80XX as well as RD series and MK ( [http://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministru_Kabinets Ministru Kabinets] ) belong to local government institutions.

Personalized plates

Some years ago Latvian government allowed registering personalized plates. In 2006 CSDD decided to increase price from 542,80 LVL to 2500 LVL, because old price became too affordable. [cite news | title= CSDD поднимает цены на именные номера | url= http://rus.delfi.lv/archive/article.php?id=16292799 | publisher= DELFI | date= 2006-12-08 | accessdate=2008-05-21] Personalized plates can consist from two to eight symbols: letters, numbers or spaces. Same symbol can be repeated maximum 3 times without breaks (for example there is existing number "XXXIXXX"). Plate can't include only numbers, so minimum requirement is one letter and one number (for example plate number "4O" (forty) consist of 4 and letter O).

Special plates

*On taxis, the plate would be coloured black letters on a yellow background, and would consist of two letters, a hyphen and one to four numbers. The two letters would be TX, meaning Taxi. After all numbers within TX range were used, TE letters were used.
*On trucks and lorries, the license plates consist of one letter, a hyphen and four numbers, and are coloured black letters on a white background.
*On motorcycles, the license plates have the same colours as the ordinary plates, but the shape and font size is different, also letters would be TA, "or" TB, "or" TC etc.
*On diplomatic corps, the coding also consists of two letters, a hyphen and four numbers. The plates would be coloured black letters on a red background. The first two letters would be CD, meaning Corps Diplomatique (one letter C also is used). And the first two numbers would represent which country it is in (e.g. 18 = Norway, 33 = Russia 49 = European Union).

ee also

Vehicle registration plates of the European Union

References

External links

* [http://www.olavsplates.com/latvia.html Olav's plates Latvia]
* [http://www.photolife.lv/auto/?do=collection&type=01 Photolife.lv] - biggest gallery with Latvian personalized plates.
* [http://foto.oho.lv/Q_mode/95314 oHo.lv Q_mode's gallery] - gallery with Latvian personalized plates.