Vehicle registration plates of Macau

In Macau, vehicle registration numbers are issued by the "Direcção dos Serviços para os Assuntos de Tráfego (DSAT)" - the Transport Bureau since 2008. The bureau does not provide the number plates itself, but are made by shops which provide this kind of service to car owners.

The Macau vehicle number plates follow the common system adopted for all the Portuguese overseas territories in the 1950s, which, in turn, was based in the system introduced in metropolitan Portugal in 1937.

Each vehicle must display two number plates: one at the front and one at the rear of the vehicle. Both the front and the rear plates bear the same format - white prints on black background. For commercial vehicles, yellow prints are used instead of white ones. Plates can be either in a standard rectangle or in a square format according to the space available in different types of vehicle for number plates.

Registration numbers are in a format "Mx-dd-dd". The first prefix "M" stands for "Macau" and the "x" is a letter in sequence starting from "A". The "d"s are digits and consist of a number between 1 and 9999 with leading zeroes. Numbers with leading zeros are reserved for government vehicles. For example, M-00-01 is allocated to the vehicle of the Chief Executive of the Macau SAR.

The very first numbers ever allocated have no second prefix. "M-dd-dd" was the format. When the numbers had run out, "MA-dd-dd" followed. When "MA-dd-dd" runs out, it will become "MAA-dd-dd".

As of April 2016, the current allocated prefix is "MW".

There are two separate types of registration numbers for motorcycles (with engine capacity more than 50cc) and mopeds (less than 50cc). Motorcycle plates bear the same format as the numbers for cars.

As for mopeds, the format is "CM-ddddd" where CM stands for Ciclomotor" - "moped" in Portuguese and "d" are digits in sequence without leading zeros. The plates are in black prints on white background.

The DSAT will occasionally auction registration numbers which have special combinations considered to be good luck by the Chinese community. For example, "8" and "9" are regarded as "wealth" and "long life" since they have similar pronunciations in Cantonese, so numbers with a combination of 8 and 9, such as 8888, 9999, 9988, etc., will normally be reserved for auctions. Numbers with the same four digits are also popular in auctions.

Macau car number plates are based on the Portuguese plates and are one of three types used in China. The first plates were issued in the 1930s with current number issued at 35,000.

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