vehicles 0.6.1 → 0.8.0

data/data/plates/au-act.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,472 @@
+# plates/au-act.yml — Australian Capital Territory (PRD-PLATES gate L3, Australia).
+#
+# THIS FILE CARRIES THE 1948 LETTER ALLOCATION — the one genuinely national fact
+# in Australian plates, and the reason plates/au-nsw.yml, plates/au-sa.yml and
+# the rest of this wave point HERE for it. It is quoted below from a GOVERNMENT
+# page (Access Canberra, the ACT Government's service arm), not from folklore,
+# and it explains why ACT plates begin with Y, why Tasmania once ran a W series,
+# and why every mainland State ran three letters and three numerals for most of
+# the second half of the twentieth century.
+#
+# ACT IS ALSO THE JURISDICTION THAT PUBLISHES THE MOST ABOUT ITS OWN PLATES.
+# Two very different primaries were read in full on 2026-08-02:
+#
+# 1. THE INSTRUMENT. Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2000
+#    (SL2000-12), made under the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Act 1999,
+#    Republication No 62, effective 5 January 2026, read as the authorised PDF
+#    from the ACT Legislation Register. It gives the issue rule (s 49), the
+#    bicycle-rack numberplate (s 50 — an ACT peculiarity worth the schema's
+#    attention) and the display rule (s 59). It does NOT give a serial grammar,
+#    exactly as every other Australian instrument in this wave does not: s 49(1)
+#    says the authority "must give a distinguishing registration number to the
+#    vehicle" and stops. Tasmania's reg 88(1) says the same thing in almost the
+#    same words (plates/au-tas.yml).
+#
+# 2. THE AGENCY PAGE. Access Canberra, "ACT numberplate information", read via
+#    the Internet Archive snapshot of 3 October 2018 because the live page has
+#    since been restructured. It is the single most informative government plate
+#    page found anywhere in this wave: it dates the Y series, names its opening
+#    combination, states the three plate LENGTHS and how many characters each
+#    holds, states the tin-plate colour rule, gives the personalised-plate
+#    grammar in terms, and — uniquely in this dataset — says what the DIAMOND
+#    between serial groups counts as.
+#
+# THE SEPARATOR IS A DIAMOND AND WE DO NOT WRITE IT (PRD-PLATES §2.6). ACT
+# plates print a diamond between groups (YGH♦75R). U+2666 is neither in the
+# serial alphabet nor in the emitted separator set, so no pattern or regex here
+# spells it; patterns spell the gap as an emitted SPACE and every regex accepts
+# it optionally. That this is a GAP rather than a CHARACTER is not free, and the
+# ACT is the only Australian government to have said anything about it, verbatim:
+# "A diamond symbol or space counts as a character." That sentence is about how
+# many characters fit on a 190/317/372 mm plate — a plate-real-estate rule, not
+# a serial rule — but it is close enough to the line that it is flagged here for
+# the _meta/separators.yml owner rather than left as an assumption. Nothing in
+# this dataset strips or emits the diamond either way.
+#
+# REGEX POLICY (identical to plates/gb.yml and the rest of this wave):
+# `format.regex` is the LINT-ROUND-TRIPPABLE regex written in PRINTED form. The
+# leading Y of the general series and the leading A of the European personalised
+# style are LITERALS in `pattern` and in `regex`, which is why those series are
+# `strict` with no `regex_strict` twin — the sourced restriction is already
+# inside the round-trippable regex.
+jurisdiction: au-act
+authority:
+  name: Road Transport Authority (ACT), through Access Canberra
+  url: "https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/"
+binding: vehicle
+binding_note: >-
+  ACT is a two-layer system and the agency says so in terms. Access Canberra,
+  verbatim: "Numberplates always remain the property of the Road Transport
+  Authority so when you order a nonstandard plate you are paying for the rights
+  to display the registration number. You can, however, transfer this right to
+  another person." The PLATE binds to the vehicle; the RIGHT to a nonstandard
+  combination binds to a person, is storable ("The minimum storage period is two
+  months and the maximum period is five years"), is transferable, and passes to
+  a beneficiary on death at no cost. A vehicle-keyed consumer must not treat an
+  ACT nonstandard combination as a vehicle-lifetime identifier.
+instrument:
+  citation: "Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2000 (ACT), SL2000-12, made under the Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Act 1999 (ACT)"
+  republication_read: "Republication No 62, effective 5 January 2026, republication date 5 January 2026, last amendment made by A2025-29 — the authorised PDF from the ACT Legislation Register, fetched and text-extracted 2026-08-02"
+  issue_rule: >-
+    s 49, verbatim: "(1) If the road transport authority registers a registrable
+    vehicle, the authority must give a distinguishing registration number to the
+    vehicle. (2) The road transport authority must issue— (a) for a motor
+    vehicle registered by the authority (other than a motorbike or
+    motortrike)—2 vehicle numberplates with the vehicle's registration number;
+    and (b) for a motorbike, motortrike or trailer registered by the
+    authority—at least 1 vehicle numberplate with the registration number of the
+    motorbike, motortrike or trailer; and (c) for any other registrable vehicle
+    registered by the authority—the number of vehicle numberplates the authority
+    considers appropriate with the vehicle's registration number."
+  grammar_absence: >-
+    THE ABSENCE IS THE FINDING. "A distinguishing registration number" is the
+    whole of the ACT's statutory constraint on what a registration number may
+    be: no alphabet, no length, no layout, no colour. Chapter 3 Part 3.5 runs
+    from s 49 to s 59 and never describes a plate's appearance beyond
+    legibility. Every FORMAT claim below therefore rests on the agency page or
+    on flagged secondary sources, and says which.
+  bicycle_rack_plate: >-
+    s 50, an ACT peculiarity this dataset should notice: the registered operator
+    of a registered motor vehicle "may apply to the road transport authority for
+    the issue of a bicycle rack numberplate for the vehicle IN ADDITION to the
+    vehicle numberplates issued for the vehicle". Access Canberra adds the rule
+    that matters for parsing: "A bike rack numberplate must display the same
+    number as the motor vehicle's registration numberplate and can only be used
+    for that vehicle. The type of material used must be the same as the vehicle
+    numberplates." So an ACT vehicle can lawfully display THREE plates bearing
+    one number. No separate series is authored for it — same number, same
+    grammar, different mount.
+  source: "https://www.legislation.act.gov.au/DownloadFile/sl/2000-12/current/PDF/2000-12.PDF  # Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2000 (ACT), Republication No 62, authorised PDF, fetched and text-extracted 2026-08-02: s 49 issue rule, s 50 bicycle-rack plates, s 59 display"
+  licence: "ACT legislation is published by the ACT Parliamentary Counsel; the register states the material is authorised and accessible at www.legislation.act.gov.au. Edicts of government (PRD-PLATES §4)."
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# THE 1948 ALLOCATION. Quoted here once for the whole Australian wave.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+national_context:
+  atac_allocation_quote: >-
+    Access Canberra, "ACT numberplate information" (Internet Archive snapshot of
+    3 October 2018, accessed 2026-08-02), verbatim: "In 1948 the 'Y' series was
+    allocated for the ACT by the Australian Transport Advisory Council as part
+    of the distribution of alpha-numeric numbers among the Australian States and
+    Territories. At the time it was decided the ACT would continue to use the
+    numeric series of numberplates until in August 1968, the first alpha-numeric
+    'Y' series numberplates were issued. The new numberplates commenced at
+    'YAA-000' in accordance with the agreement for a uniform Australia wide
+    system. The first 'Y' series numberplates featured blue lettering on a
+    reflective white background."
+  what_it_establishes: >-
+    Four things, all of which the rest of this wave depends on. (1) There WAS a
+    national agreement, and it was ADMINISTRATIVE — an Australian Transport
+    Advisory Council agreement between the jurisdictions, not a Commonwealth
+    instrument, which is why no statute in any of the eight files carries a
+    serial grammar. (2) What it distributed was LETTER BLOCKS, not a common
+    format: the ACT got Y, and the three-letter/three-numeral shape the mainland
+    States ran was the shared convention rather than a mandated layout. (3) The
+    ACT's own start is agency-dated to AUGUST 1968 at YAA-000. (4) The ACT was
+    late to it by twenty years, having stayed all-numeric until 1968.
+  atac_text_not_obtained: >-
+    NO TEXT OF THE 1948 AGREEMENT WAS LOCATED, and the hunt is recorded so it is
+    not repeated: the Australian Transport Advisory Council was a ministerial
+    council, its papers are not on any legislation register, and none of the
+    eight jurisdictions publishes it. The quote above is the best government
+    evidence obtained that the agreement exists and what it did. Treat the
+    agreement as SOURCED-BY-AGENCY-DESCRIPTION, never as a read instrument.
+  heavy_vehicles: >-
+    The national heavy-vehicle layer is a MECHANISM, not a series, and this wave
+    records it once per file: heavy vehicles (over 4.5 t) are registered under
+    the Heavy Vehicle National Law as applied in each jurisdiction and carry a
+    "national heavy vehicle number plate" issued BY the local registrar. The
+    Queensland regulation defines the object in terms (sch 8: "national heavy
+    vehicle number plate means a plate designed to be attached to a category 2
+    vehicle to identify the vehicle"; "category 2 vehicle means a vehicle with a
+    GVM, GCM or ATM of more than 4.5t"). Access Canberra publishes a separate
+    "Heavy Vehicle Numberplates and Fees" section. NO SERIES IS AUTHORED: no
+    source obtained states a distinct national serial grammar (recorded gap).
+  sources:
+    - "https://web.archive.org/web/20181003140711/https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/app/answers/detail/a_id/2125/~/act-numberplate-information  # Access Canberra (ACT Government), archived 2018-10-03, fetched 2026-08-02 — the 1948 ATAC allocation quoted verbatim above, the August 1968 first issue at YAA-000, the first Y-series colours, the heavy-vehicle section heading"
+    - "https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/sl-2021-0113  # Transport Operations (Road Use Management-Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2021 (Qld) sch 8, fetched 2026-08-02 — the 'national heavy vehicle number plate' and 'category 2 vehicle' definitions quoted above"
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Plate stock. THE ACT IS WHERE THE AUSTRALIAN PLATE DIMENSIONS ARE ACTUALLY
+# SOURCED FROM A GOVERNMENT — three lengths, with the character capacity of
+# each, in the agency's own words.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+plate_stock:
+  lengths_quote: >-
+    Access Canberra, verbatim: "Numberplates can be made standard height (both
+    front and back) or as a slimline set (slimline front numberplate and
+    standard height back numberplate). The length of the plate depends on how
+    many characters the registration number contains. Short plates (190mm in
+    length) can have up to three characters, medium plates (317mm in length) can
+    have up to six characters and standard plates (372mm in length) can have up
+    to seven characters. A diamond symbol or space counts as a character."
+  standard_length_mm: 372
+  medium_length_mm: 317
+  short_length_mm: 190
+  height_note: >-
+    THE AGENCY GIVES LENGTHS AND NEVER HEIGHTS. No ACT source obtained states a
+    plate height. The 134 mm figure used elsewhere in this wave is sourced from
+    OTHER jurisdictions (Transport for NSW's Classic Vehicle Scheme fact sheet
+    gives "Car plate dimensions 317mm x 134mm"; WA's Department of Transport
+    publishes 372 x 134 mm — see plates/au-nsw.yml and plates/au-wa.yml). No
+    height is claimed for an ACT plate here, and `design.plate` below carries
+    the length only. This is the same posture plates/gb.yml takes when the
+    Regulations prescribe character metrics and never a plate size: an absence
+    that is a finding, not an omission.
+  slogan_capacity_quote: >-
+    Access Canberra, verbatim, on nonstandard plates: "Custom slogans can have a
+    maximum of 14 characters on short plates (190mm in length), 25 characters on
+    medium plates (317mm in length) and 30 characters on standard plates (372mm
+    in length)."
+  materials_quote: >-
+    Access Canberra, verbatim: "Tin numberplates only come with blue characters
+    on a white background unless they are a special series." Plastic
+    (polycarbonate) plates are offered in ten stated colour combinations: black
+    on white, blue on white, and white on each of black, brown, dark green,
+    maroon, blue, pink, purple and red. This is a rare thing in this dataset —
+    an AGENCY-STATED colour palette rather than an observed one.
+  group_separator:
+    printed_glyph: diamond
+    note: >-
+      Printed between serial groups on ACT plates. Not written in any pattern or
+      regex (PRD-PLATES §2.6 permits only "-" and " " as emitted separators);
+      patterns spell the gap as a SPACE. Flagged for the _meta/separators.yml
+      owner with the agency's own "A diamond symbol or space counts as a
+      character" sentence, which is the only government text found in this wave
+      that treats the diamond as occupying a position at all.
+  sources:
+    - "https://web.archive.org/web/20181003140711/https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/app/answers/detail/a_id/2125/~/act-numberplate-information  # Access Canberra, archived 2018-10-03, fetched 2026-08-02 — the three plate lengths and their character capacities, the diamond sentence, the custom-slogan capacities, the tin colour rule and the plastic colour list, all verbatim"
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Display. s 59 of the Regulation, and the agency's own gloss on it.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+display_rules:
+  statutory: >-
+    s 59(1), verbatim: the registered operator "must ensure that a vehicle
+    numberplate issued for the vehicle is securely attached to the vehicle so
+    that (if the vehicle is on level ground)— (a) the numberplate is— (i)
+    upright and substantially parallel to the vehicle's axles; and (ii) not over
+    1.3m above ground level; and (b) the numbers on the numberplate are clearly
+    visible from a distance of 20m at any point within an arc of 45° from the
+    surface of the numberplate above and to either side of the vehicle, as shown
+    in diagram 59.1, figures 1 and 2 (for heavy vehicles) and diagram 59.2,
+    figures 1 and 2 (for light vehicles); and (c) any cover on the
+    numberplate— (i) is clear, clean, untinted and flat over the surface of the
+    numberplate; and (ii) has no reflective or other characteristics that would
+    prevent the successful operation of a traffic offence detection device."
+  height_limit_note: >-
+    The 1.3 m ceiling in s 59(1)(a)(ii) is worth recording because it is the
+    inverse of Florida's: § 316.605(1) F.S. sets a maximum of 60 in (1.52 m) and
+    a MINIMUM of 12 in; the ACT sets a maximum only. Diagrams 59.1 and 59.2 are
+    line drawings inside the instrument and are cited, never reproduced
+    (PRD-PLATES §6).
+  agency_gloss: >-
+    Access Canberra, verbatim: "Unless exempted, all characters on a numberplate
+    must be fully visible when viewed from all positions within the areas
+    described above. They must not be obscured, even partly, by the body of the
+    vehicle, any load that it is carrying, numberplate holders or covers, or any
+    attachment, including tow couplings such as tow bars, hitches or spare
+    wheels." And the consequence: "A vehicle with a numberplate positioned
+    contrary to the requirements specified may not be registered in the ACT."
+  twenty_metre_test_note: >-
+    The 20 m / 45 degree test is the AUSTRALIA-WIDE formulation — Queensland
+    (s 118(2)(b)), Tasmania (reg 89) and Transport for NSW state it in the same
+    terms from their own instruments. It is the closest thing to a national
+    plate rule that actually exists, and it is about VISIBILITY, never about
+    format.
+  sources:
+    - "https://www.legislation.act.gov.au/DownloadFile/sl/2000-12/current/PDF/2000-12.PDF  # Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2000 (ACT) s 59, Republication No 62, fetched 2026-08-02"
+    - "https://web.archive.org/web/20181003140711/https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/app/answers/detail/a_id/2125/~/act-numberplate-information  # Access Canberra's visibility section, archived 2018-10-03 — the obscuring rule and the registration consequence, verbatim"
+
+series:
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # CURRENT GENERAL ISSUE — the Y series, second generation.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: au-act-standard
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+    period: { start: 1998 }        # SECONDARY. The agency page confirms the
+                                   # 'Y' series is current issue but does not
+                                   # date this ARRANGEMENT. See notes.
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "YLL 99L"
+      regex: '\AY[A-Z]{2} ?\d{2}[A-Z]\z'
+      evidence: secondary
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          Y IS THE ACT, AND THAT MUCH IS AGENCY-SOURCED AND 1948-OLD. Access
+          Canberra, verbatim: "The majority of vehicles will receive a standard
+          'Y' series numberplate unless the registered operator already has or
+          chooses to purchase a non-standard numberplate that is available for
+          use, or the vehicle is a public, government, diplomatic or heavy
+          vehicle." The Y is encoded as a LITERAL in `pattern` and `regex`,
+          which is why this series is `strict` with no strict twin. The
+          remaining positions carry no sourced exclusion — whether the ACT skips
+          I, O or Q is UNKNOWN and is a recorded gap; no restriction is claimed.
+      progression: >-
+        Reported: the second-generation Y arrangement (three letters then two
+        numerals then a letter) began when the first-generation YLL 999 series
+        was exhausted, and blocks have been allocated to optional slogans
+        (YGA-00A onward for the Centenary slogan; YKQ and YLP blocks for the
+        2015 "AN AGE FRIENDLY CITY" slogan). Those are VALUES inside this shape,
+        not different shapes, and none is encoded.
+    design:
+      plate: { length_mm: 372, unit: mm }
+      plate_dimension_note: "length only, agency-stated (see plate_stock); no ACT source states a height, so none is recorded"
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      colour_note: >-
+        BLUE ON REFLECTIVE WHITE, and the colour words are AGENCY-SOURCED for
+        once: Access Canberra states of the first Y plates that they "featured
+        blue lettering on a reflective white background", and of current tin
+        stock that "Tin numberplates only come with blue characters on a white
+        background unless they are a special series". The WHITE is recorded as a
+        hex because white is unambiguous; NO HEX IS RECORDED FOR THE BLUE,
+        because the ACT publishes no chromaticity and guessing the shade would
+        invent a fact. Secondary sources report the blue was darkened at an
+        unstated date; that is recorded, not asserted.
+      legend_bottom_options: ["CANBERRA - THE NATION'S CAPITAL", "CANBERRA - THE BUSH CAPITAL"]
+      legend_note: >-
+        The ACT runs OPTIONAL SLOGANS on the standard plate, which is a real
+        modelling wrinkle: the bottom legend is a customer choice, not a
+        property of the series (the same wrinkle Florida has with its
+        county/motto/Sunshine State opt-out). Reported slogan history, secondary:
+        "ACT - Canberra The Nation's Capital" from November 1979, "Canberra Heart
+        of the Nation" as an option from 1998, "Celebration of a Century 2013"
+        from 2007, "CANBERRA - AN AGE FRIENDLY CITY" from 8 July 2015, and
+        "CANBERRA - THE BUSH CAPITAL" chosen by public vote in March 2017 and in
+        production from 3 July 2017.
+      special_series_note: >-
+        AGENCY-SOURCED, and a good example of a colour-only variant that is NOT
+        its own series under PRD-PLATES §2.3: "Rainbow numberplates are standard
+        tin 'Y' series plates with a rainbow stripe along the bottom. You are
+        unable to customise the size or numbers on these plates." Same format,
+        same period, same issuing rule — a sub-entry, not a series.
+      group_separator_glyph: diamond
+      rear_differs: false
+      plates_issued: 2
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://web.archive.org/web/20181003140711/https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/app/answers/detail/a_id/2125/~/act-numberplate-information  # Access Canberra, archived 2018-10-03, fetched 2026-08-02: the 'Y' series is the standard issue and who does not get it; the blue-on-reflective-white colour rule; the rainbow variant's identity as a standard Y plate; replacement plates 'cannot be requested out of sequence'"
+      - "https://www.legislation.act.gov.au/DownloadFile/sl/2000-12/current/PDF/2000-12.PDF  # Road Transport (Vehicle Registration) Regulation 2000 (ACT) s 49: two plates for a motor vehicle, at least one for a motorbike, motortrike or trailer — the plate COUNT is statutory even though the format is not"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_the_Australian_Capital_Territory  # secondary (CC BY-SA; facts extracted in our expression per the PRD-PLATES §4 Wikipedia rule, accessed 2026-08-02): the YLL 99L arrangement, its 1998 start on exhaustion of the previous arrangement, the slogan history and the block allocations. The 1998 date carries NO citation in the article"
+    notes: >-
+      ACT GENERAL ISSUE, SECOND-GENERATION Y SERIES. The SHAPE is safe and the
+      DATE is not, and the two are tagged separately on purpose. What the agency
+      actually confirms: that the Y series is the standard issue, who is excluded
+      from it, what colour it is, and that replacements come in sequence. What no
+      ACT government source obtained states: when the three-letters/two-numerals/
+      one-letter arrangement replaced the three-letters/three-numerals one. So
+      `period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia` and 1998 is the article's claim,
+      flagged, not asserted (PRD-PLATES §9: primary-source-or-marked). THE ID IS
+      DELIBERATELY UNDATED (`au-act-standard`, not `au-act-standard-1998`) for
+      the same reason us-fl-standard is: minting a dated id on an uncited
+      boundary builds a dated id on sand, and the id contract (PRD-QUALITY
+      I-5/I-6) then forbids retracting it. When an agency date lands, the dated
+      id is added and this becomes its former-id alias. RECORDED GAPS: the ACT
+      issues plates to "public, government, diplomatic or heavy" vehicles on
+      series the agency names but never describes — none is authored; and no
+      motorcycle or trailer grammar was found anywhere (s 49(2)(b) proves those
+      vehicles get at least one plate and says nothing about what is on it).
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # ONE SERIES BACK — the first-generation Y series. This is the best-dated
+  # boundary in the file, because the AGENCY dates its start.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: au-act-standard-y-1968
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus]
+    period: { start: 1968, end: 1998 }
+    period_evidence: agency-stated-date-start-secondary-end
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "YLL 999"
+      regex: '\AY[A-Z]{2} ?\d{3}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          Y then two letters then three numerals. The opening combination is
+          agency-stated: "The new numberplates commenced at 'YAA-000'". Access
+          Canberra adds the ACT's own footnote to its own history, which is the
+          kind of detail no secondary source carries: the numeric plates the Y
+          series replaced were NOT all recalled — "public pressure led to a
+          backflip and the authorities allowed motorists to retain their
+          existing numbers as long as they converted them into blue on
+          reflective white, for a fee" (that sentence is the secondary article's;
+          the agency states only the YAA-000 start).
+      progression: "ascending from YAA-000; secondary sources report it reached YZZ-999 in early 1996 and then back-filled unused blocks (YKL onward) before ending at YLZ-999"
+    design:
+      plate: { length_mm: 372, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      colour_note: >-
+        Agency-sourced, verbatim: "The first 'Y' series numberplates featured
+        blue lettering on a reflective white background." Secondary sources add
+        the claim that "ACT plates were the first of any region in Australia to
+        be reflective" — an interesting and entirely uncited claim, recorded as
+        folklore and NOT asserted. No hex for the blue, for the same reason as
+        the current series.
+      group_separator_glyph: diamond
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://web.archive.org/web/20181003140711/https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/app/answers/detail/a_id/2125/~/act-numberplate-information  # Access Canberra, archived 2018-10-03, fetched 2026-08-02, verbatim: '... until in August 1968, the first alpha-numeric \"Y\" series numberplates were issued. The new numberplates commenced at \"YAA-000\" in accordance with the agreement for a uniform Australia wide system. The first \"Y\" series numberplates featured blue lettering on a reflective white background.' — the START, the opening combination and the colours are all agency-stated"
+      - "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_the_Australian_Capital_Territory  # secondary (accessed 2026-08-02): the 1998 END on exhaustion, the YZZ-999/YKL back-fill, the November 1979 slogan change at YMA-000, and the 1988 Bicentennial block YRS-000 to YSP-999. The END is the article's, uncited"
+    notes: >-
+      THE FIRST ALPHA-NUMERIC ACT SERIES, AND THE ONLY PERIOD BOUNDARY IN THIS
+      FILE WITH A GOVERNMENT DATE ON IT. `period_evidence:
+      agency-stated-date-start-secondary-end` is deliberately compound, and the
+      two halves are not equal: the START (August 1968, at YAA-000) is stated by
+      Access Canberra in its own words and is a real claim; the END (1998) is the
+      Wikipedia article's uncited assertion and is a flagged one. Recording a
+      single evidence tier for the pair would have hidden that asymmetry, which
+      is exactly what the period discipline exists to prevent — plates/es.yml
+      and plates/no.yml already carry compound tiers for the same reason.
+      NOTE ALSO A DATE DISAGREEMENT, recorded and not averaged (PRD-PLATES §5.3):
+      the agency says the first Y plates were issued in AUGUST 1968 commencing
+      at YAA-000; the secondary article says "From September 1968 the Yaa-nnn
+      series commenced (in blue on reflective white) at YAB. YAA was set aside
+      for recalls of numericals." Different month, different opening
+      combination. The AGENCY IS THE AUTHORITY (PRD-PLATES §5.3: majority is not
+      authority) and its August/YAA-000 reading is the one recorded; the
+      article's is preserved here so a verifier can adjudicate rather than
+      rediscover. The all-numeric ACT series that ran to 1968 (reported "from 1
+      to 99-935 ... in white on navy blue") is NOT authored: the agency says only
+      that a numeric series existed, and everything else about it is uncited.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # PERSONALISED — the one ACT series whose GRAMMAR is agency-stated.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: au-act-personalized
+    class: personalized
+    categories: [car, van, truck, motorcycle, trailer]
+    period: { start: 2018 }        # IN-FORCE OBSERVATION, not a scheme start:
+                                   # the date of the agency snapshot read. The
+                                   # scheme is obviously older. See notes.
+    period_evidence: agency-page-in-force
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{3}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          AGENCY-STATED IN ONE SENTENCE, which makes this the best-sourced
+          format in the file. Access Canberra, verbatim: "Personalised
+          numberplates consist of two letters followed by three numbers. A
+          European style numberplate made as a personalised numberplate will
+          consist of the letter 'A' followed by two letters then three numbers."
+          Two letters, three numerals — that is the whole grammar, and it is why
+          this series is `strict` rather than the `recall-only` every other
+          vanity series in this wave carries: the ACT's personalised plate is
+          NOT an owner-chosen free string, it is a fixed shape from a
+          departmental pool.
+        refusal_rule: >-
+          Access Canberra, verbatim: "The RTA will refuse applications for a
+          numberplate where it considers that the content would cause offence to
+          a reasonable person." A stated content-refusal criterion is rare in
+          this dataset (Florida's was a recorded gap); it is recorded here even
+          though nothing encodes it.
+    variants:
+      - name: "European style"
+        format:
+          pattern: "ALL 999"
+          regex: '\AA[A-Z]{2} ?\d{3}\z'
+        note: >-
+          Agency-stated in the same sentence: the European style personalised
+          plate is "the letter 'A' followed by two letters then three numbers".
+          A separate SHAPE on a separate plate size ("European style numberplates
+          are longer and thinner than standard numberplates and can also come in
+          a European style slimline set"), sharing the scheme, the period and the
+          issuing rule — hence a variant on this series rather than a series of
+          its own under PRD-PLATES §2.3.
+    design:
+      plate: { length_mm: 372, unit: mm }
+      plate_variants_note: "standard (372 mm), medium (317 mm) and short (190 mm) lengths, plus slimline and European styles, all agency-listed with their fees; the individual designs are out of scope (PRD-PLATES §2.5)"
+      background: { finish: retroreflective }
+      colour_note: "the ten plastic-plate colour combinations Access Canberra lists are recorded in plate_stock.materials_quote; tin personalised plates follow the blue-on-white tin rule"
+      custom_slogan_note: "nonstandard plates may carry a custom slogan of up to 14 / 25 / 30 characters by plate length, and a customer-supplied logo of up to seven colours supplied as .eps, .tif or .dxf — agency-stated"
+    other_named_categories:
+      - "Name — 'a commonly known given name, surname or initials up to a maximum of seven characters'"
+      - "Business — 'available using the name or initials of the business. Proof of operation of the business must be provided'"
+      - "Numeric (one/two, three/four/five digit tiers, priced differently), unique, vehicle make, trailer numeric, Brumbies and Raiders club series (BR1-BR99 premium, BR100-BR200, YOH series) — all agency-listed by NAME and FEE, none by grammar"
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://web.archive.org/web/20181003140711/https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/app/answers/detail/a_id/2125/~/act-numberplate-information  # Access Canberra, archived 2018-10-03, fetched 2026-08-02: the personalised grammar and the European-style grammar verbatim; the offence-refusal rule; the name/business/numeric/club categories and their transfer fees; the storage regime (two months minimum, five years maximum); the custom-slogan character capacities and the logo file formats"
+    notes: >-
+      ACT PERSONALISED PLATES, AND THE PERIOD IS THE WEAK PART OF AN OTHERWISE
+      STRONG ENTRY. `start: 2018` is NOT a claim that the scheme began in 2018 —
+      it is the date of the archived agency snapshot that evidences the scheme in
+      force, hence `period_evidence: agency-page-in-force`, which is the weakest
+      honest reading available. The scheme is certainly much older (the fee table
+      read is "correct as at 1 August 2018" and describes a mature programme with
+      club series and a deceased-estate transfer rule), but no ACT source
+      obtained dates its start and inventing one would be the exact disease the
+      period discipline removes. A verifier should replace this with a real start
+      the moment a dated Access Canberra or ACT Government page lands.
+      WHY THIS SERIES IS `strict` WHEN EVERY OTHER AUSTRALIAN VANITY SERIES IN
+      THIS WAVE IS `recall-only`: the §2.7 test is one question — is the regex
+      wider than what the authority issues? Here it is not, because the authority
+      states the shape ("two letters followed by three numbers") and issues from
+      a pool inside it. The NAME and BUSINESS categories ARE free strings and are
+      deliberately NOT folded into this series' regex; they are listed in
+      other_named_categories without a grammar, which is honest, and authoring
+      them would need the free-string catch-all this series does not want.