French registrations between 1901 and 1928

For more details; visit the Jean-François Zuraw's excellent website for more details on this period, or this history page. Here are the links to date plates from 1901 to 1928 : http://immat1901.free.fr/ardt/ . Each « arrondissement minéralogique » is covered with many dated numbers. The arrondissement of Le Mans (from 1901 to 1921) and the Finistère department are directly accessible here :
http://immat29.free.fr/numerotation/numeros_dates/1901-1921/ and http://immat29.free.fr/numerotation/numeros_dates/1921-1928/
"Pre-History registration plates" : Between 1893 and 1901, plates were on the lefthand side, with name and address of the owner and a registration number :
This is a rare example of a pre-1850 cart nominative plate :
France has been the first country in the world to have a national system for registration plates. Between September 11^th, 1901 and October 1^st, 1928, plates have to be rectangular and white on black. One or more letters was designating each region called "arrondissement minéralogique" (several "départements") in specific towns called "chef-lieu d'arrondissement mineralogique" :

A : Alès (Alais before 1926)	F : Clermont-Ferrand	P-K : Poitiers (1901-1919)
B : Bordeaux (1901-1919)	H : Chambéry (1901-1919)	R : Arras
B-P-K : Bordeaux (1919-1928)	J : Strasbourg (1922-1928)	S : Saint-Étienne
C : Chalon-sur-Saône (1901-1919)	L : Le Mans (1901-1919)	T : Toulouse
C-H : Lyon (1919-1928)	L : Nantes (1919-1928)	Y-Z : Rouen (Versailles)
D : Douai	M-V : Marseille
E-G-I-U-X : Paris	N-O : Nancy	See 1901-1919 and 1919-1928 maps

During this period, many parameters have changed : arrondissements included different departements with time, 3 département were created after World War 1 and rules changed too :

when Alsace-Lorraine came back to France, departments of Moselle, Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin were created on November 1^st, 1919 then the letter J was attributed to the arrondissement of Strasbourg on April 1922.
three arrondissements disappeared on November 15^th, 1919 : Chalon-sur-Saône (letter C), Chambéry (letter H) and Poitiers (letters P et K), the two first merging to create the arrondissement of Lyon (including the Rhône department from the arrondissement of Saint-Étienne) and the third one merging with the arrondissement of Bordeaux.
many departments were switched from an arrondissement to another and not only those in the three former arrondissements C, H and P-K. For instance, Aude was in the arrondissement of Toulouse (letter T) then in the arrondissement of Alès (letter A).
when some departments were included in a new arrondissement, their characteristic letter changed but later, the arrondissement was allowed to continue using the old register. For instance, letters P and K that were characteristical for the arrondissement of Poitiers have not been used after merging with the arrondissement of Bordeaux and re-used when Bordeaux reached the number 9999-B.
one arrondissement has changed its chef-lieu without changing its characteristical letter : Le Mans was changed to Nantes and continue using the letter L.
Alais became Alès in 1926 and later, several departments changed their name.
Before the 1920's, it was not necessary to have registers by department but from 1921-1923 all arrondissements have started local series to face the increasing of registrations (with keeping the characteristical letter).
And finally, the combinations using letters have been successively the same in nearly all arrondissements. See more details with below examples from Paris, Toulouse, Nancy and Poitiers/Bordeaux.

For Paris, here are the successive formats :

From Sept 1901 to April 1903, plates have the system 1 to 999-E with successively the letters E, G, I, U and X
From April 1903 to Sept 1904, plates have the system 1 to 999-EE with successively the double letters EE, GG, II, UU and XX
From Sept 1904 to July 1910, plates have the system 1 to 999-E2, 1 to 999-E3, ..., up to 1 to 999-E9 (last digit is never 1) with successively the letters E, G, I, U and X
From July 1910 to June 1918, plates have the system 1000 à 9999-E with successively the letters E, G, I, U and X
From June 1918 to Feb 1928, plates have the system 1-E1 to 9999-E9 with successively the letters E, G, I, U and X (the letter I has began with the number 1000-I2)
From Feb 1928 to Sept 1928, plates have the system 1-E10 to 999-E10, 1-E11 to 999-E11, ..., up to 928-E55. In this format, the only used letter was E.

Photographs from books such as Almanach Citroën :

When 2 letters were affected to a "chef-lieu", the sequence was similar to this one for Nancy (N and O letters) :

1 to 999-N, 1 to 999-NN,
1 to 999-O, 1 to 999-OO,
1 to 999-N1, 1 to 999-N2, ..., 1 to 999-N9, (numbers 1 to 999-N1 normally not expected)
1 to 999-O1, 1 to 999-O2, ..., 1 to 999-O9, (numbers 1 to 999-O1 normally not expected)
1000 to 9999-N, etc.

Michel Raulet and Alain Léon made a huge work on arrondissements of Poitiers (P and K) and Bordeaux (B, P and K), that you can see in detail in this Excel sample file. Successively, have been issued :

In Poitiers for several departements (Vienne, Creuse, Indre-et-Loire, etc.) :
1-P (16/09/1901) to 999-P (28/05/1903)
1 to 999 PP (20/06/1904)
1 to 999-K (23/08/1905)
1 to 999-KK (08/10/1906)
1-P2 to 999-P9 (07/04/1912)
1-K2 to 999-K9 (27/01/1916)
1000 to 5449-P (15/11/1919) when Poitiers arrondissement disappeared
In Bordeaux for several departements (Gironde, Lot-et-Garonne, Vienne, Creuse, etc.) :
1-B (16/09/1901) to 9999-B (12/01/1920) then using Poitiers registers
5450 to 9999-P (25/06/1920)
1000 to 9999-K (25/02/1921)
1 to 9999-B1 (25/01/1922)
1700 to 9999-B2 (09/08/1922)
1000 to 8694-B3 (28/02/1923) - series attributed by department
In Bordeaux, but specializing series for departments from March 1^st, 1923 :
For Charente : 6000 to 9999-B6 then 1000 to 7492-P7
For Charente-Inférieure : 1000 to 5999-B6, 1000 to 9999-P4 then 1000 to 1689-K9
For Corrèze : 6000 to 9999-B9 then 1000 to 2724-K6
For Creuse : 1000 to 5864-B9
For Dordogne : 1000 to 5999-B5 then 1000 to 5124-K4
For Gironde : 1000 to 9999-P1, 1000 to 9999-P3, 1000 to 9999-K5 then 1000 to 5550-K8
For Indre : 6000 to 9999-B8 then 1000 to 5290-K2
For Indre-et-Loire : 1000 to 5999-B8, 1000 to 9999-P5 then 1000 to 1678-K7
For Landes : 7000 to 9999-B4 then 1000 to 5239-P8
For Lot-et-Garonne : 6000 to 9999-B5 then 1000 to 6115-P9
For Basses-Pyrénées : 1000 to 6999-K4 then 1000 to 6951-K1
For Vienne : 1000 to 5999-B7 then 1000 to 6408-P6
For Haute-Vienne : 6000 to 9999-B7 then 1000 to 5256-K3

Two wheels vehicles : from 1899 to 1942, bikes and motorcycles had this kind of tab, mentionning the year :

Also read the end of articles on garage, provisional, transit, administration, military or diplomats vehicles.

"Arrondissements" in 1901, by Yann Sciardis : (on this map, read H for Chambéry and not Grenoble)

and from 1922 to 1928 (mention Alsace and Lorraine departments switching to J code) :

French départements were created in 1790 (map in french)

Page written by Jean-Emmanuel Chevry, Jean-François Zuraw, Bruno Vernhes and Michel Raulet. Maps by Yann Sciardis.