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There have been three main forms of Spanish vehicle registration plates, with the system being changed recently again. Until the early 1970s, the plates just included the province code and a sequential number. Older vehicles with five or six digits and a province code can still be seen on the roads. This system was discarded on October 1971 when Madrid and Barcelona both nearly reached the number 999999. The next system in place was of the form XX-NNNN-YY (black digits on white plate), where XX is a one- or two-letter code denoting the province the car was registered in, NNNN is a four digit number to make the plate unique (zeros on the left are shown), and YY is a one- or two-letter code which is incremented by one place after the four digit number reaches 9999 — for example A-9999-Z is followed by A-0000-AB (should be AA, but some letter combinations were not in use). The province codes used are normally the first one or two letters of the province name or the name of the provincial capital, after 1926 regulation. Often the province is named after its capital. The provincial system was susceptible to problems with regional rivalries, that caused trouble for motorists travelling out of their provinces or trying to sell second-hand their vehicles. Also the changes of place names following the co-officialization of the major languages of Spain introduced a mismatch between the name and the code (for example, when Gerona was renamed Girona after Catalan became co-official, the GE code became mismatched so the GI code was introduced, replacing the former). At the point before the new, actual system kicked in, both Madrid and Barcelona were approaching ZZ, the end of that sequence.   The new system (September 2000) is the same nationwide, and consists of four digits followed by three consonant letters for example 0681 VBH. The letter code is sequential, but letter A, E, I, O, Q, U and Ñ (letter N with tilde. frequently used in Spanish language) are not used - from BBB to DZZ, FBB to HZZ, JBB to NZZ, PBB to PZZ, RBB to TZZ, and VBB to ZZZ - and the numbers go from 0000 to 9999 within the same three-letter combination. In this system there is no way of knowing where the car was registered. The letter code gives a rough idea about when a vehicle was registered but is less reliable for determining its age, as imported second-hand vehicles are treated in the same way as new models. The number plates themselves are white with black lettering, front and back. The left-side European blue bar with the letter E for España within the twelve stars is optional on the old system, but compulsory on the new system. The plates are usually rectangular and wide. There are less common plates with an almost square shape for motorcycles and some cars with a narrow plate inset (such as the back of the SEAT 600).
[edit] Old provincial codes 
[edit] State codesThese keep the old system of letter code plus numbers.    
[edit] Diplomatic platesDiplomatic plates are either red, yellow or blue and start with the letters "CD" (red), "CC" (green), "TA" (yellow) or "IO" (blue). The first set of numbers stands for the embassy or organisation and the second for the specific car from an organisation. [edit] Special U.S. Military PlatesThe U.S. Military was required to have special Plates up to 1972 when servicemen could use regular civilian plates such as the ones pictured to the upper right. [edit] Color platesThere are other plates with different background colors for trailers and the so-called "touristic plates", provisory plates that allow foreigners to use a vehicle bought in Spain before registering it in their country. [edit] City platesMopeds and microcars with cylinders under 50 cc were not required to have a national plate and town and city administration tax them and issued their own yellow plates. |
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