with the characters and a surrounding border embossed, rather than printed. Only plates issued by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and its agents are legal. Plates purchased anywhere else are unacceptable. Later plates with a white background may feature a holographic pattern on the white field, observed from the XD series of serials onwards. This design, visible only from certain angles and under appropriate lighting conditions, displays strips of silver roundels with a stylised silver fern pattern in silhouette. Newly launched black number plates feature a black background with white or silver lettering. Unlike white plates, these do not feature a holographic pattern on the background field, and instead use a small 'NZ' logo at the bottom righthand corner to confirm validity. The alphanumeric characters on current standard car plates measure 78 mm tall by 45 mm wide. The previous series of black on white plates (superseded in 2006) and the earlier silver on black plates shared the same font, with characters that were 84 mm tall by 48 mm wide. Exceptions The registration system avoids several combinations of letters. In the two-letter serial format, use of the letter V was discontinued following the FV series in 1971, as it could be easily confused with the letter U. The letter Q was not used as the first letter (the RA series thus followed the PZ series in 1991), although it was used as the second letter. The MN series was skipped in 1985 as it was reserved for the Cook Islands. Other two-letter series skipped include BO, FA, FO, FU, II, and IO. From late 1996 until the end of the two-letter format in April 2001, each series (with three exceptions) started from 1000 instead of from 1, meaning that serials were strictly six characters in length. The UR series was the first such series; the three exceptions were the WS, WT and WU series. The strict use of six-character serials continued into the three-letter format, with each series starting from 100, up to and including the CDZ series in 2004. The LLnnnn system deliberately reserved plates starting with the combinations "CC", "DC" and "FC" for diplomatic vehicles, DC plates are registered to vehicles owned by foreign embassies and high commissions in Wellington, CC plates are registered to vehicles owned by foreign consulates in Auckland and Christchurch, FC plates are registered to vehicles owned by foreign ambassadors and their family