Since the end of the year 2000 Paraguay has required its residents to register their motor vehicles with the National Register of Vehicles (Registro Nacional de Automotores) and to display vehicle registration plates; this system has replaced the former one whereby plates were issued by municipal authorities, who also kept local registers. In Paraguay basically three registration systems have been used: municipal patents, national patents and Mercosur patents. The former was used for much of the 20th century until the year 2000, the latter has been in use since the end of the year 2000, and the latter has been in use since the middle of the year 2019. These last two systems currently co-exist. 2019 Mercosur standard In October 2014 the design of the new license plate to be used by all Mercosur countries was officially presented. This consists of a plate of , with a white background, the characters and frame in black and a blue band at the top that shows the name of the country, its flag and the Mercosur logo. The typeface used is FE-Schrift. On July 1, 2019, the Mercosur standard license plate was adopted in Paraguay. Municipal License Plates (20th century) Previously, Paraguayan patents were issued by the respective municipalities. The last format (used between 1982 and 2000) was A 123456, where the letter represented the department (with the exception of those patented in Asunción, which consisted only of numbers). The design varied according to the area, although they were generally on a white background with red characters for the municipalities of the interior, and a blue background with white characters for Asunción. In the early days, there was no defined standard for automobile license plates, especially for the interior, as the size and font type (inscriptions) of the license plate varied from municipality to municipality, and from year to year. Some municipalities kept the same plate series (or number) for a vehicle, while other municipalities changed the plate series every year for the same vehicle. The first license plates throughout the country were made up of only numbers (between two and five figures). At the beginning the blue background and the inscriptions in white. The name of the municipality where it was issued, and the year of the patent (last two digits) were inscribed on the license plate. The registrations were both for motor vehicles, as well as carts by blood traction