PLAYING THE NUMBERS GAME

AS somebody interested in vehicle registrations as a hobby, I appreciated David Lynn giving details of the models’ registrations in his article about Princesses in May’s magazine. I must, however, correct one thing David said, though I cannot really blame him for the mistake. He said UVX 24F was a 1968 Essex issue. It is not. Essex’s F-suffix marks ran from WEV-F to BWC-F, so this clearly does not fit this sequence. This is a genuine number on the DVLA database which can be confirmed on websites such as the DVLA vehicle enquiry one. It would not have been issued by Essex in 1968. There are quite a lot of such strange marks on the database and the explanation for most of them is either clerical errors or fraud for the more attractive ones. The most famous one is MAG 1C, which belonged to the late Paul Daniels.

Regarding KCP 262G, I can help with the significance of that. David pointed out that it was a Halifax number. Woodall-Nicholson, one of the major hearse manufacturers, was based in Halifax, so this model is presumably intended to represent a Woodall-Nicholson conversion. I cannot help regarding the comment about the significance of KWO 1 on Princess Elizabeth’s car, except to point out the mark would have been issued in June 1952, not 1953.

John Harrison, author of “The Number Plate Book”

ED As if to illustrate Don Townshend's letter on these pages, this is where I so enjoy hearing from experts in their field – it's so wonderful to receive and be able to pass on all this knowledge. I actually have connections to the late Mr Daniels through one of my bestest buddies – his father was Paul's manager – so I've asked him if he has any insight into that most famous of number plates and will report back accordingly.