Vehicle registration plates of New South Wales

The Australian state of New South Wales requires its residents to register their motor vehicles and display vehicle registration plates. Current regular issue plates are to the standard Australian dimensions of in length by in height, and use standard Australian serial dies.
Issuing authorities.
Standalone departments/agencies:
Since 1 December 2019 the RMS merged into Transport for NSW to form a standalone agency:
Previous general series.
Cars and Heavy Vehicles
From 1910 to 1937, serials on registration plates for cars were all-numeric, running from 1 to 274-000, while serials on plates for lorries consisted of the letter L followed by up to five numbers. All plates from 1910 to 1924 consisted of black characters on a white background, with the state abbreviation added in 1912. In 1924, the colour scheme for car plates was reversed, so that they consisted of white characters on a black background. Rear plates are supplied by the government and motorists have to request front plates to be made.
From February 1936, a new all numeric standard Australian style embossed plates were introduced to replace various styles that lasted until May 1937. the embossed style continues to the current series. Both sets are issued forward, removing the need for motorists to have front plates made themselves.
on 16 April 1937, a new serial format was adopted for both cars and lorries, consisting of two letters followed by three numbers, with leading zeros as necessary. This ran from AA-000 to ZZ-999, with the letters I and Q omitted to avoid confusion with the numbers 1 and 0 and the letter O. Plates for both vehicle types consisted of white characters on a black background.
When the two-letter serials were exhausted on 3 May 1951, a three-letter format was introduced, starting at AAA-000. At the same time, the plates' colour scheme changed to black characters on a yolk yellow background. The yolk yellow was replaced with a brighter lemon yellow in 1961, by which point the three-letter serial format had reached the mid 'C' series.
In October 1980, from KWO-050 onwards plates with reflective sheeting began to be issued. At the same time, the slogan "NSW – The Premier State" was added at the bottom of the plate; this was used until November 1988. Two further slogans followed, again appearing at the bottom of the plate: "NSW – The First State" from June 1989 to September 1994, and "NSW – Towards 2000" from September 1994 to September 1996. Since September 1996, car plates have carried the full state name at the bottom.
In the three-letter serial format, the letters I and Q were omitted originally, but were allowed from 1970. Several blocks of series were skipped, or were reserved for other vehicle types (see the Skipped Combinations section below). By July 2004, the format had reached the ZLF series, and was thus close to exhaustion. Hence, the current format was introduced, consisting of two letters, two numbers, and two more letters, starting at AA-00-AA.
Plates continue to consist of black characters on a lemon yellow background, with reflective sheeting.
Trailers
From 1910 to 1951, trailers (and caravans) used the same registration plates and serial formats as cars. In 1951, a separate serial format was introduced for trailers consisting of two letters followed by four numbers. The first letter progressed T, R, A, B and finally C, while the numeric combinations for each series ran from 1000 to 9999; the first serial was thus TA-1000, while the last was CS-9999. Plates continued to consist of white characters on a black background, while the colour scheme for car plates changed (above).
In August 1981, trailer plates adopted the same colour scheme as car plates, of black characters on a lemon yellow background. At the same time, a new serial format was introduced consisting of one letter followed by five numbers, starting at A-00000. This format omitted the letters I, O and T, and was exhausted in December 2014.
In August 2014, a new trailer plate was introduced consisting of black characters on a white background, and a plain "NSW" legend. This plate uses the same two-letter, two-number, two-letter serial format as car plates, but has T as the first letter, with the first serial being TR-00-AA. This serial format began to be used on the current mid yellow trailer plate as well from December 2014, beginning with TA-00-AA; at the same time, the legend on this plate was changed from the full state name to "NSW – TRAILER", the whole TI series was skipped.
Motorcycles
From 1910 to 1939, registration plates for motorcycles consisted of black characters on a white background, and used all-numeric serials of up to five numbers. On 10 July 1939, the colour scheme was reversed to white characters on a black base, and a serial format of two letters followed by two numbers was introduced, running from AA-00 to ZZ-99, with the letters I and Q skipped for the reasons described above. On 14 November 1950, the serial format was expanded to two letters followed by three numbers, starting at AA-000. As with car plates, the colour scheme changed at this point to black characters on a yolk yellow base, with the yolk yellow in turn being replaced with lemon yellow in 1961.
Since October 1980, motorcycles have been provided with one plate rather than two, and plates have been manufactured with reflective sheeting. The two-letter, three-number serial format was exhausted in August 1989, at which point the current format was introduced, consisting of three letters and two numbers, starting at ZZZ-99 and progressing backwards. In November 2009, a plate consisting of black characters on a white background was introduced, using the same serial format but starting at ABA-00 and progressing forwards. As of May 2021, there will be only H and I prefixes left to go as F,G and J prefixes are about to commence. Anticipate there will be a new series after the AAA-NN series will be exhausted prior to 2025 as an estimate only.
Allocated series.
Other allocations
General notes
When a black on yellow plate is judged to be in need of replacement, the Roads and Maritime Services are required to manufacture a replacement at no cost to the owner, hence it is quite common to see plates from older series in the current format. Registration plates, both personalised and standard, are able to be transferred between vehicles. A number of Sydney bus operators still recycle old plates including Forest Coach Lines and Punchbowl Bus Company. This practice has since ceased as the Road and Maritime Services has insisted all old plates need to be remade into the current base.
Skipped combinations.
Historic
Current
MyPlates range.
"MyPlates" range is a product of the Plate Marketing Pty Ltd on behalf of the NSW Roads and Maritime Services. It offers personalisation of registration plates including plate colour and content. Since 2009, all non-reflective bases have been converted to reflective. As of 1 October 2010, Plate Marketing Pty Ltd (formerly part of the LicenSys group) has been appointed to manage and operate the myPlates business under a 15-year partnering arrangement.
Formats available by type of vehicle:
History of plate launches
Offered in colours are: 
Colour on black: AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA-nnn 
Black on colour: AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn 
Coloured on white: AAA·nnn AAA·nnA AA·nnn AA·nnnn nn·AAA nn·AAAA nnn·AAA cccccc 
Coloured range: AAA·nnn AAA·nnA AA·nnn AA·nnnn nn·AAA nn·AAAA nnn·AAA cccccc AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn 
Premium Range: AAA·nnn AA·nnnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn AAA·nnn
Exclusions & choices: Motorists can choose any combined letters and numbers including solely letters (maximum 6 characters). Plate customisation has also been added into the coloured, premium range and recently motorcycles (7 March). Certain restrictions about combinations have been put in place to prevent people from designing plates which appear too much like numeral-only plates which are auctioned off separately (e.g. 9I2 would not be allowed as it is too similar to 912). There are also restrictions preventing people from picking combinations that are too similar to special plates issued by the Authority (for instance, HC-nnn and HC-nnnn combinations are reserved only for accredited hire-car operators).
Special purpose vehicles.
Vehicles with particular purposes in New South Wales have been introduced with numberplates specific to their type.
Discontinued plates.
MyPlates products and special short term plates:
Specialised series blocks in either previous styles or discontinued combinations:
Registration labels.
From 1932, registration labels were introduced which corresponded to the vehicle's registration plate, and were displayed on the windscreen or side-windows of vehicles.
The label was a wet application type soaked in cold water which was then applied to the glass, then squeegeed with a clean sponge to remove remaining gum on the label. It was time consuming. In 1992, it changed to self-adhesive printed on registration certificates and continues for heavy vehicles after the abolition of labels for light vehicles.
1932 to 1953 – Non standard annual colours were used
1953 to 2018 – Annual cyclic colours of red, purple, brown, green, orange and light blue.(Heavy vehicles only from 1 January 2013)
Design changes