French Departement Codes between 1901 and 2009

The purpose of this page is to help identification and dating of old french plates, on photographs for instance.

Since 1901, 4 different systems have been used for the french automobile registrations :

  •  C : From 1 april 1950 to 13 october 2009, the 2 last digits indicate the location (département), but before that date, letters were used to identify a group of departement called Arrondissement (1901 to 1928) and then départements (between 1928 and 1950). D : Since 2009, the departement number is not linked to the vehicle documents.
  •  A : Dating pre-1950 registrations is quite simple : if the registration shows a unique or a double letter it's a 1901-1928 registration using an "Arrondissement" letter (equivalent of a region) and it's quite difficult to date the plate as explained on the 1901-1928 page.

  •  B : if the 2 letters are different (and followed with 0 or 1 digit), that plate was issued between 1/10/1928 and 31/03/1950 and these 2 letters correspond to a unique département. See the B column on the spreadsheet and find date on the 1928-1950 page.

1850 leather plate with owner name and address
1850 very rare "nominative" leather plate
1901-1928 1928-1950 1950-2009 SIV since 2004 for mopeds and 2009 for other vehicles
A : 1901-1928 B : 1928-1950 C :1950-2009 D : since 2004 (mopeds) and 2009
Département :

(see 1920 and 2000 départements maps)		 A : From 10/09/1901
to 30/09/1928 
(more information) 		B : From 1/10/1928
to 31/03/1950
(more information)		 C : From 1/04/1950
to 13/10/2009
Example of registrations :
See letters before 1950,last digits before 2009.		 4885-X3, 258 EE :
Seine		 692-LP2 : Nièvre
 865 LP 03 :
Allier
Ain C AB 1 then 01
Aisne D then Y,Z AF 2 then 02
Allier F AN 3 then 03
Basses-Alpes -> Alpes de Haute Provence (1970) M,V AR 4 then 04
Hautes-Alpes H then M,V AS 5 then 05
Alpes Maritimes M,V BA 6 then 06
Ardèche A AT 7 then 07
Ardennes N,O AV 8 then 08
Ariège T then A AZ 9 then 09
Aube N,O then Y,Z BN 10
Aude T then M,V BT 11
Aveyron T BX 12
Bouches du Rhône M,V CA CB 13
Calvados Y,Z CT 14
Cantal F CZ 15
Charente B then B6 P7 DB 16
Charente Inférieure -> Charente Maritime (1941) B then B6 P4 DG 17
Cher P,K then F DN 18
Corrèze P,K then B9 DR 19
Corse M,V DT 20
Corse-du-Sud (since 1976)     2A
Haute-Corse (since 1976)     2B
Côte-d'Or C, H DU 21
Côtes du nord -> Côtes-d'Armor (1990) L EA 22
Creuse P,K then B9 ED 23
Dordogne B then B5 K4 EG 24
Doubs C, H EK 25
Drome H then M,V FA 26
Eure Y,Z ES 27
Eure-et-Loir Y,Z FE 28
Finistère L FJ 29
Gard A FN 30
Haute-Garonne T FS 31
Gers T FY 32
Gironde B P1 P2 P3 P9 K5 K8 GA GC 33
Hérault A GP 34
Ille et Vilaine L GV 35
Indre P,K then B8 K2 HA 36
Indre et Loire P,K then B8 P5 HD 37
Isère H, C HK 38
Jura C, H HR 39
Landes B then B4 HU 40
Loir-et-Cher P,K then Y,Z HX 41
Loire S JA 42
Haute-Loire F JG 43
Loire inférieure -> Loire-Atlantique (1957) L JH 44
Loiret P,K then Y,Z JP 45
Lot T JT 46
Lot et Garonne B then B5 JV 47
Lozère A JZ 48
Maine et Loire P,K KA 49
Manche Y,Z KF 50
Marne N,O KJ 51
Haute-Marne N,O KQ 52
Mayenne L KS 53
Meurthe et Moselle N,O KU 54
Meuse N,O LA 55
Morbihan L LE 56
Moselle (since 1919) J3 LH 57
Nièvre F LP 58
Nord D MB MD ME 59
Oise R LS 60
Orne Y,Z MX 61
Pas-Calais R NA NB 62
Puy-de-Dôme F NH 63
Basses Pyrénées -> Pyrénées-Atlantiques (1969) B then B4 K1 NM 64
Hautes-Pyrénées B NS 65
Pyrénées-Orientales T then A NT 66
Bas-Rhin (since 1919) J1,J4 NV 67
Haut-Rhin (since 1919) J2 PB 68
Rhône S PF PG 69
Haute-Saône N,O QA 70
Saône et Loire C QD 71
Sarthe L QJ 72
Savoie H QN 73
Haute-Savoie H QR 74
Seine -> Paris (1965) - map
 E G I U ou X RB to RS (not RC RH RR) 75
Seine Inférieure -> Seine-Maritime (1955) Y,Z XA XB 76
Seine et Marne Y,Z QU 77
Seine et Oise -> Yvelines (1965) - map Y,Z YA to YD 78
Deux-Sèvres P,K then L XL 79
Somme R XP 80
Tarn T XV 81
Tarn et Garonne T YS 82
Var M,V YU 83
Vaucluse M,V ZA 84
Vendée L ZE 85
Vienne P,K then B7 P6 ZH 86
Haute-Vienne P,K then B7 K3 ZL 87
Vosges N,O ZQ 88
Yonne C then Y,Z ZU 89
Belfort -> Territoire de Belfort N,O BZ 90
Essonne (since 1965)     91
Hauts-de-Seine (since 1967)     92
Seine-St.Denis (since 1967)     93
Val-de-Marne (since 1965)     94
Val d'Oise (since 1965)     95
Overseas departements :
Guadeloupe (since 1950)     971
Martinique (since 1950)     972
Guyane (since 1950)     973
Réunion (since 1950)     974
Saint Pierre et Miquelon (since 1952)     SPM, (975 for specific series as Government, dealers etc...)
Mayotte (since 1976)     MTE then 976
Former French territories :
Saarland (from 1947 to 1956) - photos   OE
French India (from 1930 to 1954) - photos   IF
Morocco (from 1927? to 1956) - photos MA MA
Tunisia (from 1927? to 1956) - photos TU TU
Algeria (from 1901 to 1964) Article - Photos

 

AL


 AL


 91 92 93 and 94 (from 1951 to 1957), 
9A to 9M (from 1957 to 1963)
9T (from 1957 to 58?) replaces by 8A & 8B (from 58? to 63)
9N, 9P codes added (from 58 to 59) and 9R (from 58 to 63)

Article written by Jean-Emmanuel Chevry.