Age-related plates beginning OSU

[Mick Hanna]

With time on my hands with this 'self-isolation' stuff going on, I was wondering when the OSU prefix age-related plates were first issued.  The only documents relating to my car date from 1989 when it was returned to the road and sold on. I know its original number because the plate sits behind the OSU plate but I was wondering if this was when it was first assigned its new number.

Invoices from 1983 to 1985 when the car was restored have been passed on with the car (no details - just costs) and the final December 1985 invoice lists a charge for the MOT test, and I was thinking it might still have had its original number then.

Whatever happened to the copies of the MOT certificates the testing stations issued (on pads I seem to remember) before digitalisation? Were they required to keep hold of them, or were they recorded somewhere else?

[Mike Costigan]

Yes Mick, the OSU sequence was issued in the late 1980s.

[Mick Hanna]

Thanks Mike. That just leaves the second question about MOTs open for one of our other forum members. It might be, or might not be, another avenue for us to explore when researching the history of our cars.