VehiclesDB

Germany license plate: Historic H

Issued today 1997 to today. Historic plates for car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, and trailer, set by the Fahrzeug-Zulassungsverordnung (FZV). One of 13 Germany license plates.

Germany license plate, Historic H (1997 to today), sample HI-RR 950H
Make this plate with your text Download the blank template (SVG) Every Germany license plate

Format, years and the law

Format
LL-LL 999H, for example HI-RR 950H (L is any letter, 9 any digit)

The trailing H, historisch, certifies a classic at least 30 years old and close to original condition, buying flat-rate tax and freedom of the low-emission zones. In front of it, the usual district and serial, capped at seven characters; the H rides on top.

H
historisch (historic vehicle)

The format above follows the issuing rules: a registration that fits it is one this series could have issued.

Years issued
1997 to today. Still issued.
Vehicle class
Historic: vintage/oldtimer regimes (German H, ES historico). Issued for car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, and trailer.
Colours
Characters #000000 Background #FFFFFF
Size
520 × 110 mm · every country's size
About this plate
H-KENNZEICHEN, created 1997: the 25. ÄndVstVR of 22.7.1997 inserted § 21c and § 23 Abs. 1c StVZO plus Anlage Vc, in force 29.7.1997, and the seven-position cap this series still carries is 1997-original ("Mehr als sieben Stellen ... ohne Kennbuchstabe 'H'", Anlage Vc verbatim). Note § 10 Abs. 1 FZV's discretion, which a claims model should record: the authority "kann im Einzelfall" count off-road periods towards the minimum age in § 2 Satz 1 Nr. 22 FZV. An H plate may also be a Saisonkennzeichen (Anlage 4 Abschnitt 4 Nr. 4 last sentence) or a Wechselkennzeichen.

Legal basis and sources

  1. § 10 Abs. 1: on application, a vehicle with a § 23 StVZO Gutachten is ASSIGNED an Oldtimerkennzeichen; it consists of Unterscheidungszeichen + Erkennungsnummer per § 9 Abs. 1 plus 'den Kennbuchstaben "H" als amtlichen... https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/fzv_2023/__10.html
  2. Anlage 4 Abschnitt 4: the H suffix's typographic rule and the seven/five/four-position caps https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/fzv_2023/anlage_4.html
  3. media.offenegesetze.de https://media.offenegesetze.de/bgbl1/1997/bgbl1_1997_52.pdf

This plate in your app

The series id is de-historic-h. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of Germany's series:

curl -s https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/de \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VEHICLESDB_API_KEY" \
  | jq '.series[] | select(.id == "de-historic-h")'
Check plate formats in your app

More license plates

Nearest to Germany