# Ireland number plate: Index mark pre-1987

> The Ireland index mark pre-1987 number plate: format LLL 9999, for example QZM 7436, 1921 to 1987, car, van, truck, bus, and motorcycle.

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Part of [Ireland license plates](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/ireland) (7 registration series).

![Ireland license plate, Index mark pre-1987 (1921 to 1987)](https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/ie/ie-index-mark-pre1987/ireland-license-plate-index-mark-pre-1987.svg)

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | `LLL 9999` (L is any letter, 9 any digit) |
| Years | 1921–1987 |
| Class | standard |
| Issued for | car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle |
| Colours | background #000000; characters #FFFFFF |
| Rear plate differs from the front | yes |
| 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 | `ie-index-mark-pre1987` (https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/ireland/index-mark-pre1987) |

Sources:

- [Roads Act 1920 s. 6(1): the county council 'shall assign a separate number to every vehicle registered with them, and a mark indicating the registered number of the vehicle and the council with which the vehicle is registered shall be fixed on the vehicle'; the proviso carries Motor Car Act 1903 s. 2 numbers over as at 01-01-1921.](https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1920/act/72/enacted/en/print)
- [S.I. No. 311 of 1982, Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations, 1982: art. 1(2) in operation 01-02-1983; art. 25(3) the mark's composition; Third Schedule paras. 1-9 the plate spec quoted above.](https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1982/si/311/made/en/print)
- [S.I. No. 14 of 1958, Road Vehicles (Index Marks) Regulations, 1958: the consolidated mark list, in operation 01-02-1958; its explanatory note records that it replaced 'a number of orders (now revoked)'.](https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1958/si/14/made/en/print)
- [S.I. No. 445 of 1986 art. 3: the marks in Part I 'shall not be assigned to vehicles first registered on or after the 1st day of January, 1987' — the instrument that ends the era, and its explanatory note adds 'Index marks used before that date continue to remain in force'.](https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1986/si/445/made/en/print)

## About this plate

THE START DATE IS A DELIBERATE UNDER-CLAIM AND IS FLAGGED AS ONE. 1921 is the date the Roads Act 1920 regime takes the scheme over, fixed by that Act's own proviso ("the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-one"); marks of exactly this shape were being assigned earlier under s. 2 of the Motor Car Act 1903, which the 1920 Act names and preserves. END DATE, by contrast, is exact to the day: 1 January 1987, by S.I. 445/1986 art. 3. Plates already issued were never recalled, the same explanatory note says so, so pre-1987 marks remained on Irish roads for decades afterwards and remain lawful today.

## Region code notes

The two mark sets are disjoint and a pre-1987 mark run through the modern table gives a confidently wrong county. The historic table ships the 1958 base list plus the three-letter expansion RULE rather than an exhaustive merge of fifteen instruments; a mark that resolves through neither must be returned as unresolved, not as invalid.

## How numbers are issued

Sequential within an index mark, and when a mark ran out the Minister allotted the authority another by regulation, which is why Dublin holds eighty-odd marks and Carlow started with one. The three-letter marks are a single leading letter prefixed to an existing two-letter stem (AIC..ZIC on Carlow's IC), so the letters carry no year information but DO carry a rough vintage, since an authority's marks were exhausted in the order they were allotted.

## About the format

Two independent reasons. SECOND, the index mark is one, two or three letters drawn from an enumerated list that grew through fifteen instruments, and the number has no prescribed width at all.

## Separators

A GAP, never a glyph. S.I. 311/1982 Third Schedule para. 7(b) requires only "that the index mark appears as a separate unit from the registration number", and para. 8 sets the minimum gap at 38 mm on one-line layouts.

## Before and after

| Relation | Series | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Replaced by | [Standard 1987](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/ireland/standard-1987) | 1987 to 1990 |

## Other standard plates here

- [Standard 2013](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/ireland/standard-2013) (documented since 2013)
- [Standard 1991](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/ireland/standard-1991) (documented since 1991)
- [Standard 1987](https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plates/ireland/standard-1987) (1987 to 1990)

## Use it

- Plate image (SVG): https://vehiclesdb.com/plates/ie/ie-index-mark-pre1987.svg
- Make it with your own text: https://vehiclesdb.com/license-plate-generator/ireland?series=ie-index-mark-pre1987
- API: `GET https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/ie` returns this series as the entry with `"id": "ie-index-mark-pre1987"` (https://vehiclesdb.com/api)

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