Since 1903, the whole of Ireland was issued the two-letter county and city code of “I” and “Z”. The DVLNI (Driver and Vehicle Licensing, Northern Ireland), Coleraine, which holds the equivalent authority in Northern Ireland as the DVLA, Swansea holds for the rest of the UK, have continued this tradition. This is why the personalised plate industry have continued to call Northern Irish number plates “Irish number plates”, though it has lead to some confusion between these NI number plates and plates from Eire. It is important to make a distinction between the two, as NI plates can be transferred over to DVLA registered cars while ROI plates cannot.

Irish number plates have become very sought after in recent times amongst both dealers and private buyers. This is mostly due to two things, first being their usefulness. Irish number plates are considered dateless, which means they can be put on any car of any age (personalised number plates cannot be used to make a car look younger, but this isn’t a problem for Irish personalised number plates). The characters “I” and “Z” are also incredibly useful when deciding on a car number plate. The second reason is that they are ideal for those on a budget; an NI registration with three letters and four numbers would cost as little as 115 pounds, a steal all things considered.

If your name is Bill or Jill, the letter “I” is obviously going to be of invaluable use to you when creating your perfect number plate, allowing you to create a “BIL” or “JIL” plate respectively. If your name is Gary though, the Belfast city code of “AZ” will permit you to form a “GAZ” plate, a popular nickname for Gary. In the present number plate market, with the DVLA, Swansea unable to make these letters available for the rest of the UK, the DVLNI, Coleraine gains all the interest from buyers searching for this kind of personalised number plate.

One of the market’s current trends sees private buyers investing in Irish number plates based on their potential future price. Using “1 IL” as a guide for this potential, it is currently valued at 50-60 grand after being sold at auction in 1997 for 7,500 pounds, it is no surprise then that “BIG” and similar registrations have become very popular. Dealers have also got in the trend, buying Irish number plates into stock or selling Irish number plates cheaply to private buyers to gain future re-sale business. The plausibility that these Irish number plates will increase in market price speaks for itself.

Number plate dealers who have been buying and selling Irish number plates for decades should be your first stop when starting your search for a Northern Irish number plate.

There are many ways you too can buy an Irish private number plate. National Numbers were one of the first to develop the market for Irish number plates in the United Kingdom and have a vast selection of cheap Irish plates available.