VehiclesDB

New Zealand number plate: Standard 1964

Retired 1964 to 1986. Standard plates for car, van, truck, and bus, issued by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (the Registrar of Motor Vehicles under Part 17 of the Land Transport Act 1998). One of 18 New Zealand number plates.

New Zealand license plate, Standard 1964 (1964 to 1986), sample MI8902
Make this plate with your text Download the blank template (SVG) Every New Zealand number plate

Format, years and the law

Format
LL9999, for example MI8902 (L is any letter, 9 any digit)
  • characters 1-2: two letters
  • characters 3-6: the numeral block, 1 to 9999

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

Years issued
1964 to 1986. No longer issued.
Vehicle class
Standard: the default series issued to private road vehicles. Issued for car, van, truck, and bus.
Colours
Characters #C0C0C0 Background #000000
Typeface
not prescribed · license plate fonts
About this plate
NEW ZEALAND'S FIRST PERMANENT PLATE, AND THE ONLY SERIES IN THIS FILE THAT IS SIMULTANEOUSLY CLOSED AND CURRENT.
How long it is valid
rule: Reg 33(4)(a) has no end date and reg 62 makes replacement OPTIONAL, not compulsory: "If a registered person wishes to replace the motor vehicle's existing registration plates (being plates specified in regulation 33(4)(a)) with reflectorised registration plates, the person may apply to the Registrar for the issue of reflectorised plates." NZTA adds the one-way rule for damage: "If your vehicle had the older style black plates with silver characters, they will be duplicated with a white retro-reflective background and black characters." So the population can shrink but never grow.

Legal basis and sources

  1. milestone 1964, verbatim: 'Permanent aluminium plates, intended to last a vehicle's useful life, are introduced. These were issued by the New Zealand Post Office. Starting at AA100 to ZZ9989, the plates feature silver... https://www.nzta.govt.nz/roads-and-rail/research-and-data/fascinating-facts/number-plates
  2. reg 33(4)(a) the aluminium-on-black form, still current; reg 62 the optional swap https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2011/0079/latest/whole.html
  3. 'If your vehicle had the older style black plates with silver characters, they will be duplicated with a white retro-reflective background and black characters.' https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/licensing-rego/number-plates

Before and after

New Zealand license plate, Standard 1986 (1986 to 2001) Replaced by Standard 1986 1986 to 2001

This plate in your app

The series id is nz-standard-1964. The API returns its format, validation, colours and designs with the rest of New Zealand's series:

curl -s https://vehiclesdb.com/api/v1/plates/nz \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $VEHICLESDB_API_KEY" \
  | jq '.series[] | select(.id == "nz-standard-1964")'
Check plate formats in your app

More number plates

Nearest to New Zealand