# Cyprus license plate: Historic black

> The Cyprus historic black license plate: format LLL 999, for example SKK 859, 2013 to today, car, van, truck, bus, and motorcycle.

Page: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/cyprus/historic-black-2013 · Markdown version of the HTML page, which is canonical. Site map: https://vehiclesdb.com/llms.txt · Terms of use: https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/terms

Part of [Cyprus license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/cyprus) (5 registration series).

![Cyprus license plate, Historic black (2013 to today)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/cy/cy-historic-black-2013/cyprus-license-plate-historic-black.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `LLL 999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | 2013 → today |
| Class | historic |
| Issued for | car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle |
| Colours | background #000000; characters #FFFFFF; band #003399 on the left |
| Checking a registration | The format above is broad: a registration that fits it has the right shape, which does not show that this series issued it. |
| Series id | `cy-historic-black-2013` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/cyprus/historic-black-2013) |

Not a series but a colour permission: any vehicle first registered on or before 31 December 1974 may carry its existing number on a black plate with white or silver characters.

Nothing hides in the characters — they are the vehicle's ordinary mark. The black ground is the message: it may be worn by old vehicles and anything registered in the Republic by 31 December 1974, a fixed cutoff rather than the rolling "30 years" so often claimed.

Sources:

- [Κ.Δ.Π. 291/2010 Δεύτερο Παράρτημα Μέρος ΙΙ παρ. 5.3 (gazette page 1734): «Η βάση πινακίδων παλαιών οχημάτων ή οχημάτων που ενεγράφησαν στη Δημοκρατία μέχρι την 31 Δεκεμβρίου 1974 είναι δυνατόν να είναι χρώματος μαύρου»; Μέρος ΙΙ παρ. 5.6(β) the white-or-silver characters; and the Καν. 4(β)(ii) proviso (page 1719) restating the same permission](https://www.cylaw.org/KDP/data/2010_1_291.pdf)

## About this plate

Secondary sources say "vehicles older than 30 years". The instrument says «παλαιών οχημάτων ή οχημάτων που ενεγράφησαν στη Δημοκρατία μέχρι την 31 Δεκεμβρίου 1974», old vehicles, OR vehicles registered in the Republic ON OR BEFORE 31 DECEMBER 1974. A fixed calendar cutoff does not move: the eligible population shrinks every year and can never grow, which is the opposite of a rolling 30-year rule. NOTE THE DISJUNCTION, and it is the honest residue: the phrase is "παλαιών οχημάτων Ή ...", so there are two limbs, and «παλαιό όχημα» (old vehicle) is NOT DEFINED anywhere in the instruments read. The permission is expressed as «είναι δυνατόν», MAY be, so the black plate is optional, and an eligible vehicle on a white plate is not irregular. Period start is 3-6-2013 because that is when this Schedule commenced; black plates on old Cypriot cars long predate it in practice, under arrangements not sourced here.

## About the format

This is not a series with its own grammar at all: it is a COLOUR PERMISSION attaching to a vehicle's EXISTING registration mark. A match here says "this string has a shape Cyprus has issued and the vehicle MAY be eligible for a black plate", it is emphatically not a claim that the plate is black.

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/cy/cy-historic-black-2013.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/cyprus?series=cy-historic-black-2013
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/cy` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "cy-historic-black-2013"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

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Open data, CC BY 4.0: reuse it with a visible credit to VehiclesDB and a link (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/attribution). Plate images show sample serials and are not open data (https://vehiclesdb.com/legal/image-license). Dataset commit db0ec0a: https://github.com/vehiclesdb/vehiclesdb