Vehicle registration plates of the Channel Islands

Standard plates

Jersey registration plates consist of the letter 'J' followed by one to six digits; plates may now incorporate the coat of arms of Jersey in a white strip on the left, along with the country identifier GBJ (Great Britain and Northern Ireland – Jersey). This design is similar to the EU standard plate, but does not incorporate the European flag, as Jersey is outside the European Union.

Special plates

Hire cars registered in Jersey display a silver letter 'H' on a red background on the left of the registration plate.

The prefix 'E' is used to designate temporary imports.

Where a vehicle is brought temporarily into Jersey... from a country in which the vehicle is not under the law of that country required to be registered, the Inspector may... assign to it an identification mark which shall be displayed on the vehicle as provided in that paragraph.
The Mark shall consist of the letter 'E' followed by a number.

— Jersey Legal Information^[1]

Cherished plates, having the format 'JSY' followed by one to three digits, are officially auctioned. Such is the desirability of low digit registration marks that these are often included in the auctions. (The new registered keeper purchases the right to display the registration mark rather than outright ownership of it.)

A Jersey "trader" plate has white letters on a red background and is made of a flexible magnetic material. These plates are for use by a bona fide motor trader on any unregistered vehicle being used in connection with the business of that motor trader.

Guernsey

A Guernsey plate displaying the GBG country code

Guernsey plates have been compulsory since 1908.

Alderney

In Alderney, a self-governing Crown Dependency in the Channel Islands, registrations are issued with the prefix 'AY' followed by a space and then 1, two, three or four digits.

Either international identifier GBA (Alderney) or GBG (Guernsey) may be displayed on the vehicle, and this is seen either in the oval format required internationally by the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic, or on the side of the licence plate, in a similar style to that used in the EEA under EU Regulation 2411/98. The latest numbers issued (in late Summer 2017) are in the low 3000's (e.g. AY 3017).

Alderney is identified as a jurisdiction in its own right in the 1926 Convention on Motor Traffic.

Before the Second World War registration were issued at the Island Hall by the Island's Government, the States of Alderney; following the 1948 Agreement driver and vehicle licensing was delegated by the States of Alderney to the Guernsey Government as one of the "transferred services"; thus motor vehicle registrations are now issued at the General Office of the States of Alderney at the Island Hall.

Registration certificates (known informally as 'log books', as in the UK) are issued from Guernsey on the States of Guernsey's Environment Department logo, but with the issuing authority stated as the States of Alderney. Because of this the international designator for Guernsey may displayed on the car be instead of GBA, if preferred by the car's owner (this is relatively rare, however).

There are no legal requirements as to how an Alderney plate is to be made up – the Alderney Road Traffic Ordinance is silent on this. Alderney plates are commonly seen as either white or silver on a black background (pre-1973 UK style), or black on the white or yellow (both pre-2001 and post-2001 UK typeface styles). One or two vehicles carry the former French-style white/yellow plates. Occasionally number plates are hand-drawn, or the number is painted on the car.

Sark and Herm

Sark and Herm ban motor vehicles other than tractors from their roads. There is no law requiring registration plates, but tractors on Sark still have to be licensed yearly, evidenced by a sticker displayed somewhere on the vehicle.