Nice Pic of a Swallow

[Mike Costigan]

I did consider UW, but that only ran from September to December 1929. Of course, we are assuming the dating of the Swallow is correct at 1931 - Swallows are not my strong point, but I think this car could be 1929 ...

[Dutch-Ulster rep]

I'm not from the UK, so I wonder - when did all this transferring of number plates from car to car start? I ask because on one hand people here always lament the transferring of original number plates, but on the other hand, whenever an old(er) picture appears, everyone seems to be convinced it shows the original number plate. They than seem to think they can glean all sorts of information from the number plate, whereas it could just as well be transferred from an other car. In other words, maybe it is indeed a VW number plate dated from before 1929 that he had lying around from an earlier car? It all depends on when this habit of swapping of number plates started, doesn't it. If it started early in the history of number plates, one can never be certain an old(er) picture does indeed shows the 'original' number plate - unless, i guess, there is some other piece of evidence that accompanies it, such as the registration or the logbook?

[Chris KC]

There are people here who know far more about it than I, but in the UK I believe all this transferring of plates is a phenomenon of the 1980's and 90's, which came about through changes in DVLA rules, and a contemporary thirst for profit.

That isn't to say number plates were never swapped back in the day; but it was relatively unusual and tended to operate on a less official footing...

[Howard Wright]

There are people here who know far more about it than I, but in the UK I believe all this transferring of plates is a phenomenon of the 1980's and 90's, which came about through changes in DVLA rules, and a contemporary thirst for profit.

That isn't to say number plates were never swapped back in the day; but it was relatively unusual and tended to operate on a less official footing...

Hi Chris

I think this is generally true but Austin seemed to be able to move registrations around the works cars with impunity. 

Cheers

Howard

[bystander]

https://www.carblog.co.uk/the-uks-most-i...collector/

[Nick Lettington]

Back on the subject of swallows,  I picked up this recently... notably the tail curves down not up, so despite initial excitement I suspect it might not be useful to a mk1 swallow owner... any thoughts? 

   

[Chris KC]

There are people here who know far more about it than I, but in the UK I believe all this transferring of plates is a phenomenon of the 1980's and 90's, which came about through changes in DVLA rules, and a contemporary thirst for profit.

That isn't to say number plates were never swapped back in the day; but it was relatively unusual and tended to operate on a less official footing...

Hi Chris

I think this is generally true but Austin seemed to be able to move registrations around the works cars with impunity. 

Cheers

Howard

I don't know if "trade plates" were a thing back then? Or perhaps he simply knew that he could get away with it!

I did know at least one owner in the past who drove two different A7's with remarkably similar registration numbers. 

For the most part though I'd assert that reg numbers in contemporary pics are on balance of probability original.

[Henry Harris]

That looks like IW to me. 
Londonderry County Council issued the IW series from 1903 until 1962.

[Mike Costigan]

That is correct, Henry, but by the beginning 1929 the numbers were up to the mid-3000s, so a number in the low-2000s probably dates from the early to mid 1920s before Swallow saloons existed. Whilst number retentions and transfers did exist at this time they would have been exclusively of low denomination numbers, or perhaps nice round numbers - I can't see anyone putting any value on 2235!

[Mike Costigan]

Nick, your mascot could be from a Swift, although I thought they were usually mounted on a ball. Alternatively it could be a proprietary mascot - Desmo, Dunhills, Elkington, Joseph Fray, Motor Accessories, Pride & Clarke, Wilmot Breedon... the list is almost endless.