Emission, Safety Test and Registration Sticker
Emission test (front plate) and vehicle safety test (rear plate) stickers are also attached to the plate. The expiration date can be figured out as follows: The year is in the centre of the sticker, and the stickers are attached with the month of expiration pointing upwards. The black marking on the side (near the 12) thus makes it easy for the police to see the expiration month from a distance. Like a clock, the marking shows the same position of a number on the face of a clock. For example the black marking is on the left side, so it is the ninth month (or 9 o'clock) and hence the expiry date is 30 September. The colours are repeated every 6 years. Emission test stickers are no longer used for tests done since beginning of 2010: The safety test sticker covers both.
The lower sticker is the official seal of registration. It always carries the seal of the respective German Bundesland, with the place or district of issue being added in print. Some seals carry the German Bundesadler instead of a Bundesland's seal, e.g. numberplates used on Bundespolizei vehicles.
All these stickers are specially treated to be easily transferred onto the licence plates, but hard to be removed without damaging the plate itself, making them relatively counterfeit-proof.
Cars found in a public place where the owner did not pay insurance for more than three months (as reported to the police by the insurance company) may get entstempelt, that means, unstamped: The police will remove the state's official seal using a scratching tool (mostly a screwdriver), leaving the plate without a valid seal, and it will be illegal to even leave that car parked on public ground, unless insurance is paid and plates are fitted with a new official seal.
Once a plate is invalid, the seal of registration is defaced by law. After that, the plates are often sold to collectors on online shopping sites, such as eBay.
Motorcycles carry only the rear plate.
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emission test sticker (before 2010)
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safety test sticker
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registration seal (Coburg, Bavaria)
Colours of the emission test (before 2010) and vehicle safety test stickers:
| Colour | Year | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| orange |
1979 | 1983 | 1989 | 1995 | 2001 | 2007 | 2013 | |
| blue |
1978 | 1984 | 1990 | 1996 | 2002 | 2008 | 2014 | |
| yellow |
1977 | 1985 | 1991 | 1997 | 2003 | 2009 | 2015 | |
| brown |
1974 | 1980 | 1986 | 1992 | 1998 | 2004 | 2010 | 2016 |
| pink |
1975 | 1981 | 1987 | 1993 | 1999 | 2005 | 2011 | 2017 |
| green |
1976 | 1982 | 1988 | 1994 | 2000 | 2006 | 2012 | 2018 |
Read more about this topic: Vehicle Registration Plates Of Germany
Famous quotes containing the words safety and/or test:
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—Joseph Heller (b. 1923)
“It is the test of a novel writer’s art that he conceal his snake-in-the-grass; but the reader may be sure that it is always there.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)