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UNITED ARAB
EMIRATES


        الإمارات العربية المتحدة



HISTORICAL NOTES  

(z)     1920s    the first vehicle was imported into Sharjah in 1928 and Dubai in 1930 and registrations are thought to have commenced shortly thereafter.   Initially each of the Trucial States had plates with a simple serial number in Arabic:  numbers 1 to 150 were allocated to government cars and 151 upwards for general use.   Later plates had the emirate name at the top.   Known colours were black on white for private vehicles and white on black for taxis.   Motorcycles had similar, but smaller, black on white plates.   Abu Dhabi is known to have had differently coloured plates and vehicle classes during the 1950s (see Abu Dhabi).
        by 1962     plates were all Arabic cast aluminium.   Private plates were black on white with the name of the emirate over خصوصي (“private”) and the number.   Taxi plates were similar but white on black and with أجرة (“taxi”) at lower left.   Government vehicles had the emirate name over a number in white on red. Municipal vehicles had the town name and بلدية (“municipality”) above the number in a variety of colours.   Motorcycle plates were smaller with the emirate name at top right and the number at bottom left in black on white.
        Vehicles of the British Political Agency had a full coloured British flag with a number in black on white in both scripts for vehicles based in Sharjah (1953-54) and Dubai (1954-71);  for vehicles based in Abu Dhabi (1961-71) the number was in the format AD 1.
        1952-1971    the plates of the Trucial States Council were black on white with red ends with مجلس الامارات (“council emirates”) above المتصالحه (literally “coming together after fighting”) above the Arabic number.
        1951-1976    the Trucial Oman Levies (1956 renamed Trucial Oman Scouts and 1971 renamed Union Defence Force) used British Army vehicles until the creation of the U.A.E. Army.

















(y)     1971   the Trucial States became the United Arab Emirates.
         1970?   the emirate name or abbreviation was above a number in western script on the left and Arabic on the right.   Plates had a vertical dividing line but Abu Dhabi used a horizontal line also on later plates.   Plate colours were black on white for private vehicles, white on black for taxis and white on green for commercial vehicles.   The following names/abbreviations were used with the accompanying Arabic name usually in full:  ABU DHABI, AJMAN, DUBAI, FUJERAH, R.A.K., SHJ and U.A.Q.   Motorcycles had similar, but smaller, black on white plates.   By the late 1970s, some emirates had all Arabic motorcycle plates with just the emirate name above the number.   Diplomatic plates were black on orange with الإمارات العربية المتحدة above U.A.E , a horizontal line and a serial number.








(x)     1976    new series of plates adopted except in Dubai.   Normal series plates were in typical quartered Arabic style with, at lower left, the letters U.A.E. above abbreviations for the emirate.   At lower right was a number of up to six digits.   The Arabic equivalents appeared in the two upper quarters with the country name in full.   Plate size was 318×159 mm;  some were reflective, some were not.   The original plates had square corners, thin letters U.A.E. with periods and a hole in the bottom left corner;  from about 1980, plates had rounded corners, thicker, shorter letters with no periods and no hole in the corner.   Some of these later plates were 318×159 mm and some were 305×152 mm.   Motorcycles had similar but smaller plates.   Plates were black on white for private vehicles and black on green for taxis and vehicles for hire and reward.
        Initially single line plates were normal Arabic quartered design but with the size changed.   These plates were not truly “single line” and many were hand-painted in a wide variety of styles.   By about 1980 standard single line plates were adopted which had the Arabic number over its western equivalent between the country and emirate name in western characters to the left and in Arabic to the right.
        Export plates were white on dark blue and had EXPORT تصدير in the top right quarter.   By the early 1980s, most emirates briefly had silver-blue export plates. Dealer plates were white on red and had تحت التجربة (“on test”) at top right with the Arabic number at bottom right.









(w)     May 76    U.A.E. army was created from six of the seven previously separate emirate armies (excluding that of Umm Al Qaiwain) and the Union Defence Force. Plates were white on red (originally pressed but later stencilled) with الجيش (“army”) above a number in Arabic only.   Some army headquarters vehicles had otherwise normal plates but with the name of the base in red on white at bottom left.   It is thought that army plates existed with a different legend and low numbers for high-ranking officers.   The U.A.E. air force was created from the Abu Dhabi and Dubai air forces.   The first air force plates for vehicles based at Sharjah were dark green on white with the Arabic number in the centre of a pair of wings above وزارة الدفاع والطيرات (“Ministry of Defence Air Force”).   Otherwise plates were similar to the army but white on light blue with القوات الجويه (“air force”) above the number.   Some, probably high-ranking, officers had القوات الجويه and the number between which was the air force roundel in green, white and black with a red flash.   Navy plates were similar to the army plates but white on dark blue with بحرية (“navy”) above the number.
        Some early private plates were in otherwise normal Abu Dhabi format except that they also had a small black or red H or M, which is believed to be for the original hospitality and ministerial vehicles.   A few of these plates did not have the code or words for Abu Dhabi on them and some were painted in a variety of styles.
        Diplomatic plates were black on white with orange panels in the two lower corners.   In the centre of the plate الإمارات العربية المتحدة was above U.A.E., هيئة سياسية and C.D.  On the lower left panel was an Embassy code number and the serial number, with the Arabic equivalent in the right hand panel.   Consular Corps and United Nations plates are thought to have been similar but with هيئة قنصلية above C.C. with black on yellow corners or منظمات دولية above U.N.O. with white on blue corners.
        Government hospitality plates were the same format as currently but coloured white on green at the bottom.
        Experimental and sample plates exist from various emirates going back to the 1970s which have different colours and/or extra digits.




















(v)     1986?   each emirate commenced different series.   All emirates regularly made small changes to their export plates.   Each time the series restarted there may have been a change to any of the following: reflective blue or not, reflective white or not, the shade of blue, the position of letters and the dies used for words.
        Most emirates allowed a select few important and wealthy people, who are usually connected to the ruling family and hence the government, to have specially hand-made plates often with no western characters.   This led to the distinction between royal household, government and private plates being somewhat blurred.
        -1996   diplomatic plates were similar to the 1976 series but with the major portion of the plate in colour and the lower corners in white.   Diplomatic Corps plates were red, Consular Corps yellow and United Nations blue.   It is thought the embassy code numbers remained unchanged.











(u)    1996?   municipal plates ceased issue except in Ras al Khaimah.
        1996   current diplomatic (C.C., C.D., U.N.O.) series commenced.
        2002   unified police plates commenced issued.
        Jan 04   current armed forces plates introduced.



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