When was the last time you stopped and properly looked at a vehicle's number plate?
They're everywhere - but you might not know the significance behind them, and the real meaning has blown one Brit's mind.
Courtney Wright took to TikTok to share her observation about car number plates - and the post has skyrocketed to close to a million views.
Courtney explained in the post that she never realized that number plates had more than just dates hidden in their codes.
In fact, they also contain area codes that show where the car was registered.
Advert
As she said: "The first two letters actually mean something. So you’ve got where the car was registered, the year it was registered and then just a random sequence."
She goes on to say this blew her mind, but she's not the only one - under the video people are debating how common this knowledge actually is.
One commenter said: "I had no idea either," while another agreed: "I can’t believe I’ve just found this out."
Advert
However, there is a major counter-thrust of people baffled to see anyone only just discovering this, which they consider standard information.
One said somewhat snarkily: "This is common knowledge," while another even more deadpan reply counters: "Everyone knows this."
Still, it's clear that at least some people didn't know it - and the best part is that it's true, since the DVLA does indeed mandate these one or two-letter codes to help identify where cars are registered.
The list of codes is really long, too, and varies in terms of how big an area each one covers - you can check out a full list here, if you're curious to learn more about them.
Advert
There are some easy rules to learn, too, like the fact that anything with an S at the beginning is a Scottish car, although there are plenty of variations to denote smaller areas within Scotland.
If you didn't buy your car new, of course, you might not fully know where it came from before it was in your hands - checking its license plate code can be a great way to get an idea of your vehicle's earlier life.
Needless to say, this whole episode has sent plenty of people scurrying to check their license plate codes to see if they can figure out a little bit more about their prized motor. Between this area code and the year it was registered, you could learn more than you might expect.