[Mgs] UK registration numbers

[David F. Darby]

Thanks Paul et al.

There used to be some sites where one could look up when and where number 
plates were initially issued, but they seem to have dried up.

I found a nice plate at a swap meet the other day:  DAR 9B. As it 
approximates my surname it was a must-have. It's stamped aluminum, painted 
black, and looks great on the front of the black Magnette (Z-type). The 
feller I bought it from claims it was imported stateside whilst attached to 
an MGA.

I'm sure it will attract the attention of the Missouri Highway Constabulary, 
but I'll keep the official MO tag under the front seat to try to ward off a 
citation. Actually, I've been running without the required front plate for 
the past ten years without drawing the attention of the local gendarmes.

I might vent here that I think the citizens of this sovereign state should 
be excused from running the current issue of tags as they are not only 
egregiously bad from an aesthetic point of view, but downright ugly as 
home-made sin to boot! They are an embarrassingly wussy, namby-pamby pastel 
bluish hue intergrading into white, with a whimsical font and a cutesy green 
zig-zag graphic along the top. It nearly broke my heart when I had to remove 
the industrial-grade stamped steel plates that had endured for so many 
decades. It's enough to make a fellow want to move off to Kansas.

David