system and registration plates contained three numbers followed by a letter identifying a region. In 1899, the Mining Administration had been chosen to approve car engines, and it logically had to attribute the new plates. The administration decided to use its regional mapping and attributed a letter to each of its districts. Each district comprised up to ten . They were only used by the Mining Administration and they have nothing to do with present-day French regions. The system did not offer a wide range of combinations, even if regions could begin a second series of three numbers once they had reached 999 with the first one. The identifying letter had to be doubled to show that a car plate belonged to the second series. To anticipate any shortage, three regions obtained a second letter in 1904: O for Nancy, K for Poitiers and V for Marseille. Regions were allowed to begin new series of three numbers in 1905. The new ones were distinguished from the original ones by a number between 2 and 9 added after the letter. 1 was probably avoided because it could have been confused with another character such as the I. As Paris was still running up of combinations, four-digit series were allowed locally in 1910. Temporary registration plates for vehicles for sale were created in 1909. They had the letter W instead of the regional code. 1919 In 1919, regions were reorganised. Some disappeared while other ones were created. After its reversion to France following World War I, Alsace-Lorraine became the Strasbourg region in 1922. Until then, cars in that region had continued to use German plates with the regional code VI. 1928 In 1928, a new system was adopted to replace the first one. It retained its regional characteristic but greatly widened geographic codes. Under the 1928 system, each département obtained its own codes consisting of two letters. The least populated, for instance Cantal and Haute-Loire, received only one code (here CZ and JZ respectively), while most of the départements received several ones. Seine, the most populous one, received several dozen new codes. The new codes did not use the letters I and O (because they could be confused with the numbers 1 and 0) or W (which was reserved for use on provisional plates). Double letters and letter combinations that designated countries, such as GB for Great Britain, were also avoided. Blocks