vehicles 0.4.1 → 0.8.0

data/data/plates/ar.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,762 @@
+# plates/ar.yml — Argentina (PRD-PLATES gate L3).
+#
+# EVERY format, period, dimension, colour and font claim in this file comes
+# from an Argentine or MERCOSUR instrument read in full. The chain, in the
+# order the instruments themselves cite each other:
+#
+#   * Decreto-Ley N° 6582/58 (Régimen Jurídico del Automotor), ratified by Ley
+#     N° 14.467, t.o. Decreto N° 1114/97 — arts. 24 and 25. Art. 24 is the
+#     ENABLING RULE and Disposición 411/2015's own VISTO quotes its effect:
+#     "cada automotor se identificará en todo el país por una codificación de
+#     dominio formada por letras y números, la que debe ser reproducida en
+#     placas de identificación visibles exteriormente, colocadas en las partes
+#     delantera y trasera del automotor". Art. 25, as SUBSTITUTED by Ley
+#     N° 27.187 art. 3, now reads verbatim: "Las características de la placa de
+#     identificación prevista en el artículo anterior se establecerán por la
+#     reglamentación, en los términos de las normas nacionales y los acuerdos
+#     internacionales en la materia." That clause is what lets a MERCOSUR
+#     resolution reach an Argentine plate.
+#   * MERCOSUR/CMC/DEC. N° 53/10 (XL CMC, Foz de Iguazú, 16/XII/10) created the
+#     Patente MERCOSUR; DEC. N° 52/12 (XLIV CMC, Brasilia, 6/XII/12) replaced
+#     its art. 7 with the 1 January 2016 obligation; MERCOSUR/GMC/RES.
+#     N° 33/14 (XCV GMC, Buenos Aires, 08/X/14) approved the DESIGN and its
+#     technical Annex.
+#   * Ley N° 27.187 (sanctioned 23 September 2015, promulgated 14 October 2015)
+#     incorporated all three into Argentine law under art. 40 of the Protocolo
+#     de Ouro Preto, "cuyas fotocopias autenticadas en idioma español se agregan
+#     como Anexo a la presente ley". THE ANNEX IS THE SOURCE OF THE MERCOSUR
+#     SPECIFICATION QUOTED THROUGHOUT THIS FILE — it is a scanned annex to an
+#     Argentine statute, fetched from InfoLeg and read by OCR; where OCR is
+#     unreliable the fact is flagged rather than asserted (see the Pantone note
+#     on ar-mercosur-2016).
+#   * Disposición D.N. N° 411/2015 (DNRPA, Bs. As. 15/09/2015, B.O. 17/09/2015
+#     N° 33216 p. 13) — art. 1, verbatim: "A partir del 1° de enero de 2016 la
+#     identificación dominial de los automotores y motovehículos estará
+#     compuesta por CUATRO (4) letras y TRES (3) números." It also approved the
+#     plate models and the technical Anexo A.
+#   * Disposición D.N. N° 659/2015 (Bs. As. 18/12/2015, B.O. 24/12/2015)
+#     postponed that entry into force to 1 APRIL 2016 — because Casa de Moneda
+#     SE could not deliver ("debido a serios inconvenientes de índole
+#     operativa … la imposibilidad de obtener rápidamente otro proveedor por
+#     haber quedado desierto el proceso licitatorio").
+#   * Disposición D.N. N° 40/2016 (Bs. As. 16/02/2016, B.O. 19/02/2016) — art.
+#     1, THE ARRANGEMENT, verbatim: "A partir del dominio 'AA 000 AA' en el caso
+#     de los automotores y 'A 000 AAA' en el caso de los motovehículos, la
+#     codificación variará de derecha a izquierda. Las posiciones alfabéticas
+#     seguirán el orden A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S,
+#     T, U, V, W, X, Y y Z; y las posiciones numéricas seguirán la progresión
+#     ordinal desde el 0 hasta el 9."
+#   * Digesto de Normas Técnico-Registrales del Registro Nacional de la
+#     Propiedad del Automotor, Título I Capítulo IX (consolidated text as
+#     published by the DNRPA, last updated 25 February 2026) and its
+#     CORRELATIVIDADES, which name the instrument behind every article.
+#
+# FIVE STRUCTURAL FACTS THAT SHAPE THIS FILE
+#
+# 1. THE ARRANGEMENT IS IN A DIFFERENT INSTRUMENT FROM THE COMPOSITION, AND
+#    ONLY THE SECOND ONE IS USUALLY QUOTED. Disposición 411/2015 says only
+#    "CUATRO (4) letras y TRES (3) números" — it never says WHERE the letters
+#    go. The famous AA 123 BB shape is fixed three months later by Disposición
+#    40/2016 art. 1, together with the motorcycle shape A 000 AAA, the
+#    right-to-left progression and the full 26-letter alphabet. A dataset that
+#    cites only 411/2015 for the format is citing the wrong instrument, and one
+#    that assumes cars and motorcycles share a shape is simply wrong: they do
+#    not, and never have (see 2).
+#
+# 2. ARGENTINE MOTORCYCLES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE MIRROR OF ARGENTINE CARS.
+#    Disposición 411/2015's own recital, verbatim: "Que la configuración
+#    actualmente en uso —tres letras y tres números en el caso de los
+#    automotores, y a la inversa en el caso de los Motovehículos— fue puesta en
+#    vigencia a partir del año 1995." So 1995-2016 was AAA 999 for cars and
+#    999 AAA for motorcycles; 2016 onward is AA 999 LL for cars and A 999 AAA
+#    for motorcycles. Four series, not two.
+#
+# 3. NO LETTER IS EXCLUDED. Disposición 40/2016 spells the alphabet out in
+#    full and it contains I, O and Q. Argentina is therefore one of the few
+#    jurisdictions in this dataset where `format.regex` IS the authority's own
+#    grammar and no `regex_strict` twin is needed or honest.
+#
+# 4. THE MERCOSUR COLOUR TABLE IS ARGENTINE LAW. Res. GMC 33/14's Annex fixes
+#    the CHARACTER colour by vehicle use on a white ground — particular negra,
+#    comercial roja, oficial azul, diplomático/consular dorada, especiales
+#    verde, de colección gris plata — and Ley 27.187 made that annex part of the
+#    Argentine legal order. Those are colour-only variants of one format and one
+#    period, so under PRD-PLATES §2.3 they are SUB-ENTRIES on the standard
+#    series, not series of their own.
+#
+# 5. THE SEPARATOR IS A GAP, NOT A GLYPH — AND THE AUTHORITY WRITES IT AS A
+#    SPACE. Res. GMC 33/14's Annex describes "un arreglo de siete caracteres";
+#    no instrument prescribes a separator character. Disposición 40/2016 writes
+#    the shapes as "AA 000 AA" and "A 000 AAA", so this file spells that gap as
+#    the emitted SPACE of PRD-PLATES §2.6 and makes it optional in every regex,
+#    exactly as plates/gb.yml does for the British 33 mm gap.
+jurisdiction: ar
+authority:
+  name: Dirección Nacional de los Registros Nacionales de la Propiedad del Automotor y de Créditos Prendarios (DNRPA), Ministerio de Justicia
+  url: "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/portal_dnrpa/index.php"
+binding: vehicle
+binding_note: >-
+  Argentine plates bind to the VEHICLE and are issued at INSCRIPCIÓN INICIAL by
+  the Registro Seccional. Digesto Título I, Capítulo IX, Sección 1ª, art. 1,
+  verbatim: "Los automotores se identificarán a partir de su inscripción inicial
+  con las 'placas de identificación metálica' que los Registros Seccionales
+  suministrarán al titular. Una placa se colocará en la parte delantera y otra
+  en la parte trasera del automotor, siendo requisito ineludible para su
+  circulación. En los motovehículos, la placa de identificación metálica deberá
+  ser colocada en la parte trasera, sirviendo ésta de única y excluyente
+  identificación exterior del motovehículo." The dominio stays with the vehicle
+  for life except through the Convocatoria re-registration (see
+  ar-convocatoria-reempadronamiento).
+
+instrument:
+  citation: "Disposición D.N. N° 411 del 15 de septiembre de 2015 (DNRPA), dictada bajo los artículos 24 y 25 del Régimen Jurídico del Automotor (Decreto-Ley N° 6582/58, ratificado por Ley N° 14.467, t.o. Decreto N° 1114/97) y el artículo 2° inciso c) del Decreto N° 335/88"
+  signed: "2015-09-15"
+  published: "2015-09-17"          # B.O. N° 33216, p. 13
+  in_force_original: "2016-01-01"  # Disp. 411/2015 art. 1
+  in_force_actual: "2016-04-01"    # Disp. 659/2015 art. 1 (prórroga)
+  supranational:
+    - "MERCOSUR/CMC/DEC. N° 53/10 — XL CMC, Foz de Iguazú, 16/XII/10: 'Crear la Patente MERCOSUR, válida para la circulación, identificación y fiscalización de vehículos'; art. 4: 'La Patente MERCOSUR deberá presentar el Emblema Representativo del MERCOSUR y poseer el mismo color de fuente y fondo en todos los Estados Partes'; art. 5: 'La combinación alfanumérica de la Patente MERCOSUR será concedida por el Estado Parte de registro del vehículo'"
+    - "MERCOSUR/CMC/DEC. N° 52/12 — XLIV CMC, Brasilia, 6/XII/12: substitutes art. 7 of Dec. 53/10 with 'A partir del 1° de enero de 2016, la Patente MERCOSUR será de uso obligatorio en todos los Estados Partes para todos los vehículos que sean registrados por primera vez'"
+    - "MERCOSUR/GMC/RES. N° 33/14 — XCV GMC, Buenos Aires, 08/X/14, art. 2: 'Aprobar el diseño de la Patente MERCOSUR que consta como Anexo … Corresponde a cada Estado Parte la distribución de los caracteres alfanuméricos de la Patente MERCOSUR. La distribución seleccionada no debe ser coincidente con la de ningún otro Estado Parte a fin de impedir la obstrucción y confusión en su lectura' — the clause that makes Argentina's AA 000 AA and Brazil's AAA 0A00 deliberately different"
+  national_incorporation: "Ley N° 27.187 (sanc. 23-09-2015, prom. 14-10-2015) arts. 1 and 3"
+  source: "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/252063/norma.htm  # Disposición 411/2015, full text with VISTO, CONSIDERANDO, arts. 1-7 and Anexos I-III; accessed 2026-08-02"
+  licence: >-
+    InfoLeg (Ministerio de Justicia) publishes the consolidated national
+    normative corpus; DNRPA site content is licensed CC BY 4.0 ("Los contenidos
+    de Argentina.gob.ar están licenciados bajo Creative Commons Atribución 4.0
+    Internacional"). Argentine statutes and administrative acts are edicts of
+    government. Facts extracted; quoted fragments cited.
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Jurisdiction-wide facts, cited once and referenced per series.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+charset_defaults:
+  letters: [A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z]
+  excluded_letters: []
+  excluded_letters_note: >-
+    NONE. Disposición D.N. N° 40/2016 art. 1 enumerates the alphabet in full —
+    "Las posiciones alfabéticas seguirán el orden A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J,
+    K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y y Z" — and I, O and Q are in it.
+    Argentina does not do the lookalike exclusions the Netherlands, Mexico and
+    most US states do, so no series in this file carries a `regex_strict`: the
+    round-trippable `regex` already IS the issuing grammar.
+  progression: >-
+    Disposición 40/2016 art. 1, verbatim: "la codificación variará de derecha a
+    izquierda … Al agotarse los signos de una posición, el inmediato a su
+    izquierda progresará una letra o dígito, al tiempo que la posición agotada
+    volverá a 'A' o '0', según corresponda, hasta volver a agotarse."
+  source: "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/255000-259999/258787/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 40/2016 art. 1 — the arrangement, the alphabet and the progression rule; accessed 2026-08-02"
+
+common:
+  mercosur_spec:
+    plate: { w: 400, h: 130, unit: mm, tolerance_mm: 2, thickness_mm: 1, thickness_tolerance_mm: 0.2 }
+    motorcycle_plate: { w: 200, h: 170, unit: mm, tolerance_mm: 2 }
+    font: { name: "FE-Engschrift", cap_height_mm: 65, motorcycle_cap_height_mm: 53, license: "statutory reference by NAME, not by file — the instruments name the typeface and prescribe its cap height; no font is embedded (PRD-PLATES §6)" }
+    band: { side: top, pantone: "286 C", w: 390, h: 30, unit: mm, motorcycle_w: 196 }
+    emblem_mercosur: { w: 32, h: 22, unit: mm, motorcycle_w: 25, motorcycle_h: 20, pantone: ["286 (azul)", "347 (verde)"], placement: "left edge of the logo begins 15 mm from the left border of the plate" }
+    flag: { w: 28, h: 20, unit: mm, motorcycle_w: 23, motorcycle_h: 16, placement: "upper-right quadrant, 4 mm from the top and 4 mm from the right border, with a 1 mm white frame" }
+    substrate: "aluminium, 1 mm ± 0,2 mm"
+    sheeting: "flexible retroreflective sheeting, enclosed-lens elements in transparent resin, minimum 50 candelas"
+    security: >-
+      Res. GMC 33/14 Anexo §§ 1, 11, 12, 13: country flag, MERCOSUR emblem,
+      watermark ("Se puede utilizar como marca de agua el Emblema del MERCOSUR/
+      MERCOSUL"), hot stamping with a diffractive foil whose design is an endless
+      band reading "MERCOSUR 'Nombre del país' MERCOSUL" in Gill Sans at 5 mm,
+      and a sinusoidal wave "utilizada de manera horizontal o vertical a
+      discrecionalidad de cada Estado Parte".
+    colours_by_use:
+      particular: "Negra"
+      comercial: "Roja"
+      oficial: "Azul (Pantone 286 C)"
+      diplomatico_consular: "Dorada (Pantone 130 C)"
+      especiales: "Verde (Pantone 341 C)"
+      de_coleccion: "Gris Plata (Swop Pantone Grey)"
+      ground: "Blanco"
+      note: >-
+        Res. GMC 33/14 Anexo § 2 "Tipo de Color según el uso del Vehículo", on a
+        white ground ("Color de fondo: Blanco"). OCR CAUTION: the Ley 27.187
+        annex is a SCANNED photocopy and its Pantone digits are the least
+        reliable characters on the page. 286 C (azul) is corroborated three
+        times across the annex and by the Argentine Anexo A independently, and
+        130 C / 341 C read cleanly; the COMERCIAL red reads as "106C", which is
+        a yellow in the Pantone solid-coated system and is therefore recorded
+        here by NAME ONLY, with the number withheld pending a clean copy. No hex
+        is asserted for any of these variants.
+    source_law: "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/253150/ley27187.pdf  # Ley N° 27.187, Anexo — authenticated Spanish text of CMC Dec. 53/10, CMC Dec. 52/12 and GMC Res. 33/14 including the full 14-point ESPECIFICACIONES DE LA PATENTE MERCOSUR; scanned, read by OCR; accessed 2026-08-02"
+    source_national: "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1.pdf  # Digesto Título I, Capítulo IX, Sección 1ª, ANEXO A — the same specification restated as Argentine registral law; accessed 2026-08-02"
+
+series:
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # PATENTE MERCOSUR — the current issue. Disposición 411/2015 + 40/2016.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ar-mercosur-2016
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, semitrailer]
+    period: { start: 2016 }
+    period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 999 LL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{3} ?[A-Z]{2}\z'
+      charset:
+        letters: [A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z]
+        notes: "no letter is excluded — see charset_defaults"
+      progression: >-
+        From AA 000 AA, right to left, letters A→Z and digits 0→9, each position
+        rolling its left neighbour on exhaustion (Disposición 40/2016 art. 1).
+        Because the progression is a pure odometer over a fully-populated
+        alphabet, an Argentine Mercosur dominio is a usable AGE PROXY: the
+        left-most letters advance monotonically with issue date, nationally,
+        with no regional reset.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 400, h: 130, unit: mm }
+      plate_note: "±2 mm on both axes; 1 mm ± 0,2 mm thick; rounded corners (Digesto Anexo A § 2 e))"
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: top, color: "#0033A0", content: "mercosur-emblem+ARGENTINA+flag", hex_basis: observed }
+      band_note: >-
+        Digesto Anexo A § 2 g), verbatim: "La Impresión sobre la lámina
+        retrorreflectiva, presenta una franja azul que se desplegará en forma
+        horizontal en su parte superior, cuyo color es el Pantone Nº 286 C. La
+        misma contiene el emblema oficial del Mercosur - República Argentina -
+        Bandera Argentina." The hex is an OBSERVED rendering of the named
+        Pantone; Pantone coordinates are a licensed dataset (PRD-PLATES §6), so
+        the standard is cited and the hex is marked observed.
+      font: { name: "FE-Engschrift", cap_height_mm: 65 }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, note: "MERCOSUR emblem 32 × 22 mm at Pantone 286/347, left edge 15 mm from the plate's left border; Argentine flag 28 × 20 mm in the upper-right quadrant with a 1 mm white frame" }
+      security: >-
+        Digesto Anexo A § 2 d), verbatim: "La lámina retrorreflectiva deberá
+        contener imágenes direccionales, compuestas por imágenes del Emblema del
+        Mercosur, Escudo Nacional e Islas Malvinas, ubicados alternadamente.
+        Asimismo dicha lámina contiene una onda sinusoidal ubicada en forma
+        horizontal." The Islas Malvinas outline is a SECURITY FEATURE written
+        into Argentine registral law, and it is recorded here as the instrument
+        states it; it carries obvious political sensitivity and PRD-PLATES §3's
+        neutral-placeholder rule for emblems applies to it in the render layer
+        exactly as it does to every other emblem.
+      construction: >-
+        Anexo A § 1: aluminium sheet, white retroreflective film over the whole
+        plate, black hot-stamped continuous-design foil, and the alphanumerics
+        "embozados hacia delante respecto al plano principal de la chapa
+        metálica" — embossed FORWARD, the opposite of the pre-2016 plate, which
+        embossed them backward. That single word is the fastest physical test of
+        which era an Argentine plate belongs to.
+      rear_differs: false
+    region_encoding: none
+    region_encoding_note: >-
+      Argentine dominios encode NO geography and never have. The Registro
+      Seccional that issues a plate draws from a nationally-adjudicated stock
+      (Digesto Título I Cap. IX Sec. 1ª art. 2: "El Sistema Informático
+      adjudicará a los Registros Seccionales (en función de las placas metálicas
+      obrantes en su stock) los números de dominio"), so a serial says WHEN, not
+      WHERE.
+    variants:
+      - class: taxi
+        design: { foreground_name: "Roja", background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed } }
+        note: >-
+          COMERCIAL use — red characters on the same white ground and the same
+          dominio. Colour-only variant of this series, hence a sub-entry per
+          PRD-PLATES §2.3. No hex: see common.mercosur_spec.colours_by_use for
+          the OCR caution on the Pantone number.
+        sources:
+          - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/253150/ley27187.pdf  # Res. GMC 33/14 Anexo § 2, 'Comercial — Roja'"
+      - class: government
+        design: { foreground_name: "Azul (Pantone 286 C)", background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed } }
+        note: "OFICIAL use — blue characters, Pantone 286 C, the same blue as the band. Colour-only variant."
+        sources:
+          - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/253150/ley27187.pdf  # Res. GMC 33/14 Anexo § 2, 'Oficial — Azul (Pantone Fórmula Sólido Brillante 286C)'"
+      - class: diplomatic
+        design: { foreground_name: "Dorada (Pantone 130 C)", background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed } }
+        note: >-
+          DIPLOMÁTICO/CONSULAR use — gold characters. Recorded as a colour
+          variant ONLY: the SERIAL COMPOSITION of Argentine diplomatic plates is
+          set by the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, not by the DNRPA, and
+          no MRECIC instrument was pinned in this pass, so no diplomatic format
+          is asserted here (recorded gap).
+        sources:
+          - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/253150/ley27187.pdf  # Res. GMC 33/14 Anexo § 2, 'Diplomático/Consular — Dorada (Pantone Fórmula Sólido Brillante 130C)'"
+      - class: historic
+        design: { foreground_name: "Gris Plata (Swop Pantone Grey)", background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed } }
+        note: >-
+          DE COLECCIÓN use — silver-grey characters. The eligibility rule is
+          Argentine: Digesto Título II, Capítulo XXI, art. 1 a) requires that the
+          vehicle "por sus características y/o antecedentes históricos
+          constituyan una reserva para la defensa y el mantenimiento del
+          patrimonio cultural de la Nación y tengan como mínimo TREINTA (30)
+          años de antigüedad".
+        sources:
+          - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/253150/ley27187.pdf  # Res. GMC 33/14 Anexo § 2, 'De Colección — Gris Plata (Swop Pantone Grey)'"
+          - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo2.pdf  # Título II Cap. XXI art. 1 a), the 30-year threshold for the Registro de Automotores Clásicos"
+      - class: specialty
+        design: { foreground_name: "Verde (Pantone 341 C)", background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed } }
+        note: "ESPECIALES use — green characters. The MERCOSUR annex does not define which vehicles fall in this class and no Argentine instrument pinning it was secured (recorded gap)."
+        sources:
+          - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/253150/ley27187.pdf  # Res. GMC 33/14 Anexo § 2, 'Especiales — Verde (Pantone Fórmula Sólido Brillante 341C)'"
+    sources:
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/255000-259999/258787/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 40/2016 art. 1 — 'A partir del dominio AA 000 AA en el caso de los automotores … la codificación variará de derecha a izquierda', the 26-letter alphabet, the roll-over rule"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/252063/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 411/2015 arts. 1-6 and Anexo II (ESPECIFICACIONES TECNICAS): seven characters, 400 × 130 mm, FE Engschrift 65 mm, Pantone 286 C band, directional images"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/255000-259999/257320/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 659/2015 — the prórroga of the entry into force to 1 April 2016"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1.pdf  # Digesto Título I Cap. IX Sec. 1ª arts. 1-2 and Anexo A, the consolidated text in force"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/253150/ley27187.pdf  # Ley N° 27.187 Anexo — GMC Res. 33/14 and the MERCOSUR technical specification"
+    notes: >-
+      THE CURRENT ARGENTINE PLATE — the Patente MERCOSUR, two letters, three
+      digits, two letters. period.start 2016 is evidenced twice over and the two
+      dates disagree by three months, which is itself the record: Disposición
+      411/2015 art. 1 set 1 January 2016, Disposición 659/2015 postponed it to
+      1 April 2016 because the mint could not deliver, and Disposición 232/2016
+      then states the outcome in the past tense — "con fecha 1° de abril de 2016
+      entró en vigencia una nueva identificación dominial para los automotores,
+      compuesta por CUATRO (4) letras y TRES (3) números". OLD STOCK ISSUED ON
+      after the switch: Circulares D.N. Nros. 3/16 and 4/16 authorised Registros
+      Seccionales to keep using pre-Mercosur plates "aun después del 1° de abril
+      de 2016" until stocks ran out, which is why this series and
+      ar-1995-car overlap at 2016 rather than meeting cleanly.
+
+  - id: ar-mercosur-motorcycle-2016
+    class: motorcycle
+    categories: [motorcycle, moped]
+    period: { start: 2016 }
+    period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "L 999 LLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z] ?\d{3} ?[A-Z]{3}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "full 26-letter alphabet — see charset_defaults" }
+      progression: "from A 000 AAA, right to left, same odometer rule as the car series"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 200, h: 170, unit: mm }
+      plate_note: "±2 mm on both axes; 1 mm ± 0,2 mm thick — a PORTRAIT-ish plate, taller relative to width than any other Mercosur format"
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: top, color: "#0033A0", content: "mercosur-emblem+ARGENTINA+flag", hex_basis: observed }
+      band_note: "30 × 196 mm on the motorcycle plate (Res. GMC 33/14 Anexo § 8)"
+      font: { name: "FE-Engschrift", cap_height_mm: 53 }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder, note: "MERCOSUR emblem 25 × 20 mm, positioned so that the bisector of the plate's corner angle coincides with the bisector of the emblem's; flag 23 × 16 mm" }
+      rear_differs: false
+      note: "one plate, rear only — Digesto Título I Cap. IX Sec. 1ª art. 1: the motorcycle plate is the 'única y excluyente identificación exterior del motovehículo'"
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/255000-259999/258787/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 40/2016 art. 1 — 'A 000 AAA en el caso de los motovehículos'"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/252063/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 411/2015 art. 5 and Anexo III (modelo de placa del motovehículo); Anexo II § 2 E) and F) for the 200 × 170 mm size and the 53 mm cap height"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/253150/ley27187.pdf  # Res. GMC 33/14 Anexo §§ 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 — motorcycle dimensions, font, emblem, flag and band"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/260000-264999/260175/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 118/2016 — the motorcycle plate's own rollout, see notes"
+    notes: >-
+      The Argentine Mercosur MOTORCYCLE plate — ONE letter, three digits, THREE
+      letters, the mirror of the car shape, and a fact almost every secondary
+      source omits. Its rollout has a documented wrinkle of its own: Disposición
+      D.N. N° 118/2016 (29 March 2016) had to authorise a NAMED SUBSET of
+      motorcycle-only Registros Seccionales to start issuing the new plate
+      immediately, because those offices had exhausted their old-model stock
+      while the general date was still being deferred — so a handful of
+      Argentine motorcycles carry Mercosur plates issued days before the
+      national start.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # ONE SERIES BACK — the 1995 codification. Three letters and three numbers
+  # for cars, and the inverse for motorcycles.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ar-1995-car
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, semitrailer]
+    period: { start: 1995, end: 2016 }
+    period_evidence: corroboration-only
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL 999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{3} ?\d{3}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "no exclusion rule was found in any instrument secured for this pass; Disposición 40/2016's full alphabet post-dates this series and is not evidence for it" }
+      progression: >-
+        Letter group ascending. Two dated waypoints are primary and both are
+        useful for era inference: (a) Circular D.N. N° 23/11 — "A partir del
+        dominio KQG-000 las placas contienen adherido al film retroreflectivo
+        que recubre la placa el holograma tridimensional ubicado en el extremo
+        superior derecho, que contiene imágenes y nanotexto", so a plate at or
+        after KQG-000 is 2011 or later; (b) Disposición D.N. N° 232/2016 records
+        that the last new-registration stock left over in 2016 began with the
+        letter "P".
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 294, h: 129, unit: mm }
+      plate_note: >-
+        Disposición D.N. N° 471/2011 Anexo II § 2 f), verbatim: "Las medidas de
+        las placas son: 29,4 cm. por 12,9 cm. la placa completa con bordes
+        redondeados. En la parte central, pintado de color negro mate y en
+        sobrerrelieve un rectángulo de 28,3 cm. por 7,8 cm. Las letras y los
+        números de placa miden 3,2 cm. de ancho por 6,7 cm. de altura, con una
+        separación entre letras y números central de 9 cm."
+      background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#FFFFFF"
+      background_note: >-
+        The plate is a WHITE retroreflective sheet with a MATT BLACK painted,
+        embossed central rectangle; the characters are the white sheet showing
+        through. So `background` here describes the character field, and the
+        plate's outer border is white retroreflective. The word "ARGENTINA" runs
+        along the top edge (Anexo II § 2 e) refers to "el borde de la placa que
+        posee la leyenda ARGENTINA").
+      characters: { w: 32, h: 67, unit: mm, group_gap_mm: 90 }
+      emboss: "backward — 'Los caracteres alfanuméricos que identifican al dominio del automotor deberán ser embozados hacia atrás respecto al plano principal de la chapa metálica' (Anexo II § 1 c)), the exact inverse of the Mercosur plate"
+      security: >-
+        Directional images of the letters RNPA inside a circle, alternately
+        distributed and visible only at an angle (Anexo II § 2 e), which even
+        prescribes the viewing geometry: illumination at 45°, observer offset
+        with a tangent of about 0,40, 60 W lamp). From 12 July 2011 a
+        three-dimensional hologram at the upper right, hot-stamped onto the
+        retroreflective film, containing images and nanotext (Anexo II § 2 b)).
+      rear_differs: false
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/252063/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 411/2015, CONSIDERANDO: 'Que la configuración actualmente en uso —tres letras y tres números en el caso de los automotores, y a la inversa en el caso de los Motovehículos— fue puesta en vigencia a partir del año 1995' — the format AND the year"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/180000-184999/184562/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 471/2011 (Bs. As. 12/7/2011) Anexo II — the complete technical specification quoted above; art. 3: 'Las Placas de Identificación Metálicas del viejo modelo conservarán su vigencia y serán utilizadas hasta agotar el stock existente'"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/260000-264999/263260/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 232/2016 — 'con fecha 1° de abril de 2016 entró en vigencia una nueva identificación dominial', and the leftover 'P' stock"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1_correlatividades.pdf  # CORRELATIVIDAD, Título I Cap. IX Sec. 1ª — names Disposición D.N. Nº 711/94 (t.o. Orden 'N' Nº 1/94) as the instrument behind arts. 1-3, and Circular D.N. N° 23/11 for the KQG-000 hologram waypoint"
+    notes: >-
+      THE ONE-BACK ARGENTINE PLATE — three letters, three digits, white on matt
+      black, "ARGENTINA" along the top. PERIOD DISCIPLINE, stated plainly: 1995
+      is `corroboration-only` and the corroboration is the AUTHORITY'S OWN
+      RECITAL in Disposición 411/2015, which is stronger than the label sounds
+      but is still not the creating instrument. The Digesto's correlatividad
+      names that instrument — Disposición D.N. Nº 711/94, texto ordenado Orden
+      "N" Nº 1/94 — and it is NOT in InfoLeg and was not retrieved in this pass;
+      until it is, the 1995 start rests on a 2015 recital and nothing else. The
+      end is far better evidenced: 1 April 2016 by Disposición 411/2015 as
+      deferred by 659/2015 and confirmed in the past tense by 232/2016, with
+      old-stock issuance continuing after that date under Circulares D.N. Nros.
+      3/16 and 4/16.
+
+  - id: ar-1995-motorcycle
+    class: motorcycle
+    categories: [motorcycle, moped]
+    period: { start: 1995, end: 2016 }
+    period_evidence: corroboration-only
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "999 LLL"
+      regex: '\A\d{3} ?[A-Z]{3}\z'
+    design:
+      background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#FFFFFF"
+      rear_differs: false
+      note: >-
+        One plate, rear only. The 2011 Anexo A specification is written for the
+        AUTOMOTOR plate; the motovehículo model was a separate annex (Anexo II
+        of the Digesto section, substituted by Disposición D.N. Nº 745/10) whose
+        dimensions were not retrieved in this pass — recorded gap, so no
+        `plate` block is asserted here rather than borrowing the car's.
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/250000-254999/252063/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 411/2015 CONSIDERANDO — 'a la inversa en el caso de los Motovehículos', from 1995"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1_correlatividades.pdf  # CORRELATIVIDAD Título I Cap. IX Sec. 1ª — Disposición D.N. Nº 581/91 arts. 14-16 (motovehículos) and Disposición D.N. Nº 745/10 (sustituye el Anexo II, the motorcycle plate model)"
+    notes: >-
+      THE INVERTED MOTORCYCLE SHAPE — three digits then three letters, the exact
+      mirror of the contemporaneous car plate, in force over the same window.
+      This is the single most under-recorded Argentine plate fact and the reason
+      a naive AAA-999 regex mis-classifies every pre-2016 Argentine motorcycle.
+      Same period caveat as ar-1995-car: the 1995 start is the authority's own
+      later recital, not the creating instrument.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # CONVOCATORIA AL PARQUE AUTOMOTOR — still-current re-registration of
+  # vehicles that never received a 1995-model dominio.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ar-convocatoria-reempadronamiento
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+    period: { start: 1995 }
+    period_evidence: earliest-underlying-series
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL 999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{3} ?\d{3}\z'
+      progression: >-
+        Deliberately kept OUT of the new-registration run so the two cannot
+        collide: Disposición D.N. N° 232/2016 records that convocatoria
+        combinations ran "a partir de la letra 'R'", then from a stock beginning
+        with "X", and that "A continuación de la combinación alfanumérica
+        'XOU-999' … los Registros Seccionales de la Propiedad del Automotor
+        otorgarán placas metálicas correspondientes a los lotes disponibles que
+        comiencen con la letra 'P'".
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 294, h: 129, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#FFFFFF"
+      rear_differs: false
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo2.pdf  # Digesto Título II Cap. XXV (Convocatoria al Parque Automotor) art. 2 a): 'El cambio de la Identificación del dominio del automotor por otra, compuesta por TRES (3) letras y TRES (3) números'; art. 2 b): a set of TWO plates"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/260000-264999/263260/norma.htm  # Disposición D.N. N° 232/2016 arts. 1 and CONSIDERANDO — the R / X / XOU-999 / P lot sequence and the reason for it"
+    notes: >-
+      THE SERIES THAT SURVIVED THE MERCOSUR SWITCH. Argentine vehicles
+      registered before the 1995 codification keep their old dominio until a
+      registral act forces a Convocatoria, and a Convocatoria still issues a
+      THREE-LETTER, THREE-DIGIT dominio — not a Mercosur one — out of reserved
+      letter lots. So a freshly-made AAA 999 plate in Argentina today is not an
+      anachronism and not a fake: it is a re-registration. period.start records
+      the earliest date the underlying three-plus-three codification existed
+      (1995); the Convocatoria regime's own start date is on no instrument
+      secured in this pass and is a recorded gap. The series is OPEN because
+      Disposición 232/2016 provides for its continuation.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # MAQUINARIA AGRÍCOLA, VIAL E INDUSTRIAL (M.A.V.I.).
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ar-mavi-2019
+    class: agricultural
+    categories: [tractor, machine]
+    period: { start: 2019 }
+    period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL 99"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{3} ?\d{2}\z'
+    design:
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      rear_differs: false
+      note: >-
+        Two plates, front and rear — Digesto Título I Cap. IX Sec. 1ª art. 2 e):
+        the M.A.V.I. plates "deberán colocarse una en la parte delantera y otra
+        en la parte trasera de la maquinaria". Model at Anexo VI of that Section;
+        its dimensions are not in the consolidated text and are a recorded gap.
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1.pdf  # Digesto Título I Cap. IX Sec. 1ª art. 2 e): 'Las Placas de Identificación Metálica para Maquinaria Agrícola, Vial e Industrial contendrán el dominio otorgado -compuesto por TRES (3) letras y DOS (2) números-'"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1_correlatividades.pdf  # CORRELATIVIDAD: 'Artículo 2°.- … inciso e).- Incorporado conforme Disposición D.N. N° 480/18 (puesto en vigencia por Disposición D. N. N° 194/2019)'"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/buscarNormas.do?tipoNorma=4&numero=480&anioSancion=2018&dependencia=258  # Disposición D.N. N° 480/2018, B.O. 10-dic-2018, 'MODELO DE PLACA DE IDENTIFICACION METALICA PARA MAQUINARIA AGRICOLA, VIAL E INDUSTRIAL'"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/buscarNormas.do?tipoNorma=4&numero=194&anioSancion=2019&dependencia=258  # Disposición D.N. N° 194/2019, B.O. 13-jun-2019, 'ESTABLECESE EL 1° DE JULIO DE 2019 COMO' fecha de entrada en vigencia"
+    notes: >-
+      M.A.V.I. — agricultural, road-building and industrial machinery, the
+      shortest Argentine dominio at five characters. period.start 2019 is the
+      IN-FORCE date, not the approval date: Disposición D.N. N° 480/2018
+      approved the model in December 2018 and Disposición D.N. N° 194/2019 set
+      1 July 2019 as the day the package took effect. The five-character shape
+      cannot collide with any other Argentine series.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # TRAILERS (O1) — the plate that repeats the towing vehicle's dominio.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ar-trailer-2019
+    class: trailer
+    categories: [trailer]
+    period: { start: 2019 }
+    period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+    # RECALL-ONLY (PRD-PLATES §2.7): this plate carries the TOWING VEHICLE's
+    # existing dominio, so its regex is the union of the Argentine shapes in
+    # circulation. A match is a SHAPE hit — it says the string has a shape
+    # Argentina has issued, never that it is a valid trailer registration.
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 999 LL"
+      regex: '\A(?:[A-Z]{2} ?\d{3} ?[A-Z]{2}|[A-Z]{3} ?\d{3})\z'
+      pattern_note: >-
+        The pattern shown is ONE representative shape (the Mercosur car
+        dominio). This series has no format of its own: Digesto Título I Cap. IX
+        Sec. 1ª art. 3 gives the trailer plate "el dominio del vehículo que lo
+        remolque", so any dominio a towing car may carry can appear on it — the
+        Mercosur AA 000 AA and the pre-2016 AAA 000 alike.
+    design:
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      rear_differs: false
+      note: "model at Anexo V of the Section, incorporated by art. 5 of Disposición D.N. N° 125/2018; its dimensions are not in the consolidated text (recorded gap)"
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1.pdf  # Digesto Título I Cap. IX Sec. 1ª art. 3, verbatim: 'La \"Placa de Identificación Metálica para Trailers\" destinados al traslado de equipaje, pequeñas embarcaciones deportivas o elementos de recreación familiar, comprendidos en la categoría O1, remolcados por vehículos automotores de uso particular, contendrá el dominio del vehículo que lo remolque'"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1_correlatividades.pdf  # CORRELATIVIDAD: 'Artículo 3°.- Sustituido por artículo 7° de la Disposición D.N. N° 125/2018'; 'Anexo V.- Incorporado por artículo 5° de la Disposición D.N. N° 125/18'"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/buscarNormas.do?tipoNorma=4&numero=194&anioSancion=2019&dependencia=258  # Disposición D.N. N° 194/2019 — 1 July 2019 in-force date for the Disposición 125/2018 package"
+    notes: >-
+      LIGHT TRAILER plates (UNECE category O1 — luggage trailers, small boat
+      trailers, family recreation equipment) towed by a private car. Argentina
+      does NOT give these a registration of their own; the plate repeats the
+      tow vehicle's dominio, which is precisely the nl-export situation and gets
+      the same `recall-only` treatment. period.start 2019 is the in-force date of
+      the Disposición 125/2018 package set by Disposición 194/2019.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # PLACAS PROVISORIAS (paper).
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ar-provisoria
+    class: temporary
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 1993 }
+    period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+    # RECALL-ONLY: the paper plate reproduces the vehicle's OWN dominio, so the
+    # regex is the union of Argentine shapes, exactly like ar-trailer-2019.
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 999 LL"
+      regex: '\A(?:[A-Z]{2} ?\d{3} ?[A-Z]{2}|[A-Z]{3} ?\d{3}|\d{3} ?[A-Z]{3}|[A-Z] ?\d{3} ?[A-Z]{3})\z'
+      pattern_note: "representative shape only; the regex is the union of the four Argentine road shapes (Mercosur car and motorcycle, 1995 car and motorcycle) because the provisional plate carries the vehicle's existing dominio"
+    design:
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#CC0000"
+      background_note: >-
+        Digesto Título II Cap. XVI, ANEXO I, "ESPECIFICACIONES DE LA PLACA
+        PROVISORIA (DE PAPEL)", in its entirety: "Papel blanco. Letras, números
+        y texto en tinta roja." That is the whole specification — no dimensions,
+        no font, no security features. The red hex is `observed`; the instrument
+        names the colour and numbers nothing.
+      rear_differs: false
+    validity: { days: 30, note: "'con vencimiento de TREINTA (30) días corridos desde su expedición' (Título II Cap. XVI art. 2 b))" }
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo2.pdf  # Título II Cap. XVI, arts. 1-3 and Anexo I — the 200 km rule, the 30-day validity and the paper specification"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1.pdf  # Título I Cap. IX Sec. 2ª — the eight cases in which a vehicle may circulate on provisional plates, and the referral to Título II Cap. XVI for their characteristics"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1_correlatividades.pdf  # CORRELATIVIDAD Sección 2ª: 'Artículo 1º.- Incorporado según texto aprobado por Disposición D.N. Nº 119/93'"
+    notes: >-
+      PLACAS PROVISORIAS — white paper, red ink, thirty days. The case the
+      Digesto specifies in detail is the one that most needs a machine-readable
+      rule: a registrant more than 200 km in a straight line from the Registro
+      where the vehicle is domiciled may obtain a provisional plate on the spot
+      after the home Registro confirms by e-mail (and must answer "dentro de las
+      DOS (2) horas contadas desde su recepción"). Title I Cap. IX Sec. 2ª lists
+      eight further cases — factories, importers, official dealers,
+      out-of-factory builds, auctioned vehicles, imports pending clearance,
+      cross-jurisdiction purchases and lost-plate replacement — but the SERIAL
+      GRAMMAR of the pre-registration provisional plates (which have no dominio
+      yet) is not published in the consolidated Digesto and is NOT modelled
+      here: recorded gap, and the reason this series is recall-only rather than a
+      claim.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # PLACAS ALTERNATIVAS — added by the verification pass, 2026-08-02.
+  #
+  # Argentina issues a SECOND, VISUALLY DISTINCT plate to vehicles that are
+  # lawfully registered but NOT lawfully in general circulation: units whose
+  # Certificación de Seguridad Vehicular discloses a restriction, or which
+  # lack a Licencia de Configuración de Modelo / Ambiental. The vehicle still
+  # gets a dominio and still gets registral documents — Digesto Título II is
+  # explicit that "En ningún caso se restringirá la entrega de la
+  # documentación registral" — but the metal it carries is the "Placa de
+  # Identificación Metálica Alternativa" of Anexos III (automotores) and IV
+  # (motovehículos), incorporated by arts. 3 and 4 of Disposición D.N.
+  # N° 125/2018.
+  #
+  # THESE ARE THEIR OWN SERIES, NOT A DESIGN VARIANT, and the reason is the
+  # ALLOCATION: alternative dominios are drawn from the OPPOSITE END of the
+  # national space and run the odometer BACKWARDS. Digesto Título II,
+  # Capítulo I, Sección 3ª, artículo 6°, verbatim:
+  #
+  #   "La asignación de dominio en el supuesto contemplado en el artículo 3°
+  #    de esta Sección, seguirá el siguiente orden: a partir del dominio
+  #    'ZZ 000 AA' en el caso de los automotores y 'Z 000 AAA' en el caso de
+  #    los motovehículos, la codificación variará de derecha a izquierda. Las
+  #    posiciones alfabéticas seguirán el orden A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J,
+  #    K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y y Z; y las posiciones
+  #    numéricas seguirán la progresión ordinal desde el 0 hasta el 9. …
+  #    Cuando corresponda modificar la segunda posición en el caso de
+  #    automotores o la primera posición en el caso de motovehículos, la
+  #    sucesión alfabética anteriormente indicada seguirá el sentido inverso."
+  #
+  # Two things fall out of that paragraph and both matter:
+  #   1. INDEPENDENT CORROBORATION OF THE WHOLE ARGENTINE GRAMMAR. This is a
+  #      DIFFERENT instrument, in a DIFFERENT Title of the Digesto, from
+  #      Disposición 40/2016 — and it states the same two shapes (2+3+2 for
+  #      cars, 1+3+3 for motorcycles), the same right-to-left odometer and the
+  #      same full 26-letter alphabet including I, O and Q. The AA 000 AA
+  #      grammar in this file therefore rests on two independent primaries,
+  #      not one.
+  #   2. THE TWO SERIES CANNOT COLLIDE — YET. The ordinary series climbs from
+  #      AA 000 AA and the alternative series descends from ZZ 000 AA, with
+  #      the second letter running in REVERSE. They will meet only when the
+  #      national space is exhausted from both ends, which is decades away;
+  #      until then the leading pair is a reliable discriminator and a parse
+  #      API should rank an alternative interpretation for high Z-block
+  #      serials.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: ar-alternative-2018
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, semitrailer]
+    period: { start: 2019 }
+    period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 999 LL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{3} ?[A-Z]{2}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "full 26-letter alphabet, expressly enumerated in Título II Cap. I Sec. 3ª art. 6° — see charset_defaults" }
+      progression: >-
+        DESCENDING from ZZ 000 AA, right to left, with the SECOND position
+        running in reverse alphabetical order (Z, Y, X, ...) while every other
+        alphabetic position runs forward. This is the mirror image of the
+        ordinary Mercosur series and is the only Argentine series whose
+        odometer runs backwards in any position.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 400, h: 130, unit: mm }
+      plate_note: "the Anexo III model; the Section prescribes no separate dimensions, so the Anexo A specification for the ordinary automotor plate governs"
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: top, color: "#0033A0", content: "mercosur-emblem+ARGENTINA+flag", hex_basis: observed }
+      font: { name: "FE-Engschrift", cap_height_mm: 65 }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      rear_differs: false
+      distinguishing_note: >-
+        WHAT MAKES IT "ALTERNATIVA" IS NOT RECORDED IN THE CONSOLIDATED TEXT.
+        Anexo III is a MODEL IMAGE in the Digesto PDF and the surrounding
+        articles never describe how the alternative plate differs visually from
+        the ordinary one. The difference is therefore a recorded gap, not a
+        guess: no colour, marking or legend claim is made here beyond what the
+        governing Anexo A specification gives.
+    region_encoding: none
+    region_encoding_note: "none — Argentine dominios encode no geography, and the alternative series is allocated from one national pool exactly as the ordinary one is"
+    validity:
+      note: >-
+        The vehicle is registered but restricted: the Registro Seccional
+        inserts the legend "Vehículo con circulación restringida" and, pending
+        the metal plates, issues provisional plates (automotores) or a
+        thirty-day permiso de circulación (motovehículos).
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1.pdf  # Digesto Título I Cap. IX Sec. 1ª art. 2 c), verbatim: 'La \"Placa de Identificación Metálica Alternativa\" del automotor, que contendrá el dominio otorgado a este, compuesto por CUATRO (4) letras y TRES (3) números, cuyo modelo obra como Anexo III de esta Sección y en el que se establece su diseño, contenido y demás características.'"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo2.pdf  # Digesto Título II Cap. I Sec. 3ª arts. 3, 5 and 6 — WHEN the alternative plate is issued (a restriction disclosed by the Certificación de Seguridad Vehicular), the 'Vehículo con circulación restringida' legend, and the ZZ 000 AA descending allocation quoted in full above"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1_correlatividades.pdf  # CORRELATIVIDAD Cap. IX Sec. 1ª: 'Anexo III.- Incorporado por artículo 3° de la Disposición D.N. N° 125/18'; and 'Artículo 2°.- … Incorporado conforme Disposición D.N. N° 480/18 (puesto en vigencia por Disposición D. N. N° 194/2019)'"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/buscarNormas.do?tipoNorma=4&numero=194&anioSancion=2019&dependencia=258  # Disposición D.N. N° 194/2019 — the 1 July 2019 in-force date for the Disposición 125/2018 package, which is this series' period.start"
+    notes: >-
+      The ALTERNATIVE plate for automotores whose circulation is restricted.
+      Same seven-character Mercosur grammar as ar-mercosur-2016 and the same
+      400 x 130 mm plate — the two are separated by ALLOCATION, not by shape:
+      this series descends from ZZ 000 AA while the ordinary one climbs from
+      AA 000 AA. period.start 2019 is the in-force date set by Disposición
+      194/2019 for the Disposición 125/2018 package, not the 2018 approval
+      date, which is the same treatment ar-mavi-2019 and ar-trailer-2019 get.
+
+  - id: ar-alternative-motorcycle-2018
+    class: motorcycle
+    categories: [motorcycle, moped]
+    period: { start: 2019 }
+    period_evidence: enabling-instrument
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "L 999 LLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z] ?\d{3} ?[A-Z]{3}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "full 26-letter alphabet — see charset_defaults" }
+      progression: >-
+        DESCENDING from Z 000 AAA, right to left, with the FIRST position
+        running in reverse alphabetical order — the motorcycle counterpart of
+        the car rule, and note that the reversed position is the first here and
+        the second there, exactly as the article distinguishes them.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 200, h: 170, unit: mm }
+      plate_note: "the Anexo IV model; the Anexo A motovehículo specification governs its dimensions"
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: top, color: "#0033A0", content: "mercosur-emblem+ARGENTINA+flag", hex_basis: observed }
+      font: { name: "FE-Engschrift", cap_height_mm: 53 }
+      emblem: { present: true, rendered: placeholder }
+      rear_differs: false
+      distinguishing_note: "as for ar-alternative-2018: Anexo IV is a model image and the consolidated text describes no visual difference — recorded gap"
+    region_encoding: none
+    validity:
+      note: >-
+        Pending the metal plate the Registro issues a permiso de circulación
+        valid THIRTY (30) days (Título II Cap. I Sec. 3ª art. 5 b), referring to
+        Título II Cap. XVI Sec. 10ª art. 4°).
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1.pdf  # Digesto Título I Cap. IX Sec. 1ª art. 2 d), verbatim: 'La \"Placa de Identificación Metálica Alternativa\" para motovehículos, que contendrá el dominio otorgado a este, compuesto por CUATRO (4) letras y TRES (3) números, cuyo modelo obra como Anexo IV de esta Sección.'"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo2.pdf  # Digesto Título II Cap. I Sec. 3ª art. 6°: 'Z 000 AAA en el caso de los motovehículos … Cuando corresponda modificar … la primera posición en el caso de motovehículos, la sucesión alfabética anteriormente indicada seguirá el sentido inverso.'"
+      - "https://www.dnrpa.gov.ar/nuevodigesto/digesto/Titulo1_correlatividades.pdf  # CORRELATIVIDAD: 'Anexo IV.- Incorporado por artículo 4° de la Disposición D.N. N° 125/18'"
+      - "https://servicios.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/buscarNormas.do?tipoNorma=4&numero=194&anioSancion=2019&dependencia=258  # Disposición D.N. N° 194/2019 — the in-force date"
+    notes: >-
+      The ALTERNATIVE plate for motovehículos with restricted circulation.
+      Shares the 1+3+3 grammar and the 200 x 170 mm plate with
+      ar-mercosur-motorcycle-2016 and is separated from it only by descending
+      allocation from Z 000 AAA. Note the asymmetry the instrument is careful
+      about: the reversed alphabetic position is the FIRST for motorcycles and
+      the SECOND for cars.