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Irish number plates are one of the most popular ranges of private number plates purchased in today's market. They provide a great alternative to DVLA number plates and can be a cheap option if you are looking to buy a personal registration. The DVLNI (Northern Ireland's equivalent to the DVLA) is based at Coleraine and is the agency responsible for the administration of Irish number plates. The format of Irish number plates is 3 letters followed by up to 4 numbers. As with other car number plates, the lower or neater the numbers, the more value the registration number.

The DVLNI divides Northern Ireland into several administrative areas and each area is assigned two letters (e.g. AZ). These two letters are preceded by a letter, starting at A and moving on once every 9999 registrations in the series have been exhausted. For example the registrations AAZ 1-9999 were released then the series moved to BAZ 1-9999 then CAZ 1-9999, DAZ and so on.

In contrast to most DVLA registrations, Irish car number plates can display the letters I and Z. This leads to many interesting and popular combinations such as BIG, WIL, BIL, CAZ and OIL. Some examples of Irish number plates include BIG 46, GIL 3782 and HAZ 434. Irish number plates are classed as dateless registrations and can therefore be assigned to any vehicle, regardless of age. People commonly buy Irish number plates to use a cheap cover plates to hide the age of their vehicle.

One of the most famous Irish car number plates is VIP 1 which was released to commemorate the forthcoming visit of the Pope. Shortly after the tour it was brought into the UK via a number plate auction. It is the only registration from the VIP series to be released making it extremely rare. In July 2006 Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea FC, purchased the registration for a cool *285000, smashing the record for the most expensive number plate ever sold at that time. This record has since been broken several times.

To transfer an Irish number plate into England, Wales or Scotland it must be transferred vehicle to vehicle. A V317 form must be completed and signed by the registered keepers of both the donor and receiving vehicle and applications for the transfer should be sent to the DVLA with the relevant documents. These documents include the V5 logbooks and MOT certificates if applicable. The fee for a number plate transfer is currently *80. Irish number plates cannot go directly onto a V778 retention certificate. Once on a DVLA registered vehicle however they can be transferred onto retention if desired and are subject to the *105 DVLA retention fee.

If you are in possession of a DVLA V750 certificate and wish the registration to be assigned to your vehicle in Northern Ireland it must first be assigned to a DVLA registered vehicle and then transferred car to car into Northern Ireland. For many people this can cause a problem as they do not have a DVLA vehicle to assign the registration to however certain number plate dealers like http://www.capeplates.co.uk/ now specialize in Northern Ireland to UK number plates transfers or visa versa. These companies can supply a donor car to use in the first stage of the transfer and handle all the paperwork involved in transferring your registration onto your vehicle. As these transfers involve two stages, two transfer fees must be paid.