vehicles 0.6.1 → 0.8.0

data/data/plates/no.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,1018 @@
+# plates/no.yml — Norway (PRD-PLATES gate L1, wave 2).
+#
+# THE ONE STRUCTURAL FACT THAT SHAPES THIS FILE, AND IT IS THE OPPOSITE OF
+# SPAIN'S: Norway's HISTORIC plate formats are instrument-dated to the day,
+# while its CURRENT one is not written down in any instrument at all.
+#
+# The reason is the veteran-plate regime. Forskrift om bruk av kjøretøy
+# (FOR-1990-01-25-92) § 2-15 lets a vehicle first registered more than 30 years
+# ago be plated to the registration order in force when it was first
+# registered — so the regulation has to SAY what those orders were, and
+# §§ 2-16, 2-17 and 2-18 do, with their date boundaries in their own headings:
+#
+#     § 2-16  "Kjennemerke for registreringsordning før 1. april 1971"
+#             — "En bokstav og tre til seks tall"
+#     § 2-17  "... fra og med 1. april 1971 til og med 31. mars 1982"
+#             — "To bokstaver og 4 eller 5 tall"
+#     § 2-18  "... etter 31. mars 1982 frem til 1. januar 2002"
+#             — "To bokstaver og 4 eller 5 tall"
+#
+# Those three headings are the spine of this file. They are an IN-FORCE
+# regulation stating, in its own words, the boundaries of four successive
+# Norwegian registration orders — 1971-04-01, 1982-03-31/04-01, 2002-01-01 —
+# which is a far stronger period source than the enthusiast web's "1971".
+#
+# Meanwhile the CURRENT composition — two letters and five digits — appears in
+# no instrument. Kjøretøyforskriften (FOR-1994-10-04-918) § 39-1 delegates it:
+# "Statens vegvesen fastsetter platekvalitet, utforming av plate, ... utforming
+# av tegn og plassering av tegn på de enkelte kjennemerker." The nearest thing
+# to an authority statement of the composition is a sentence on Statens
+# vegvesen's own Skiltserier page giving the NUMBER RANGES — "Tallseriene for
+# biler og lastebiler er fra 10000 til 99999, mens for andre kjøretøy er det
+# fra 1000 til 9999" — which is why every current series here carries
+# period_evidence `statutory-date` (from the § 2-18 upper bound) or
+# `instrument-in-force`, and why the letter/digit counts are cited to the
+# authority's web pages rather than to law.
+#
+# THE TWO INSTRUMENT LAYERS, cited per claim throughout:
+#   1. FOR-1990-01-25-92, forskrift om bruk av kjøretøy, in force 1 April 1990,
+#      under vegtrafikkloven (LOV-1965-06-18-4) § 15: "Departementet gir nærmere
+#      bestemmelser om slik offentlig registrering av motorvogner, om
+#      kjennemerker (nummerskilt) og om vognkort." Kapittel 2 carries WHO gets
+#      which plate and — in § 2-11 — every COLOUR rule in this file. Kapittel 2a
+#      (added by forskrift 12 June 2017 nr. 722, in force 15 June 2017) carries
+#      personal plates.
+#   2. FOR-1994-10-04-918, kjøretøyforskriften, kapittel 39 "Kjennemerker,
+#      antall og plassering" — plate SIZES (§ 39-10), which size per vehicle
+#      group (§ 39-11) and the nationality mark (§ 39-12).
+#   Note the FOR number: 1994-10-04-918, not the 1994-03-25-918 that circulates.
+#
+# A MISTAKE MADE AND CAUGHT IN THIS PASS, recorded because it is the exact
+# defect PRD-PLATES §9 warns about. The § 2-11 footnote lists twelve amending
+# forskrifter, and reading FOR-2015-07-13-888 suggested it "introduced" the
+# green varebil plate in § 2-11 tredje ledd bokstav b. It did not. That
+# forskrift RENUMBERED the whole of kapittel 2 (the colour rules had lived in
+# § 2-5 since 1990) and carried the green text over verbatim. Shipping 2015 as
+# the green plate's start would have been an instrument-date-as-series-date
+# falsehood of the Spanish kind. The green rule is in the ORIGINAL 1990 text
+# and the period below says 1990. A lovdata section footnote is a SECTION-NUMBER
+# lineage, not a provision's history — that is the transferable lesson.
+#
+# COLOUR POLICY: no Norwegian instrument gives an RAL, CIE or RGB value for any
+# plate colour. FOR-1990-01-25-92 § 2-11 names colours only ("grønn
+# reflekterende bunn", "gul bunn"). Every non-black/white hex below is
+# therefore `hex_basis: observed` and INDICATIVE, exactly as se.yml and de.yml
+# record for Sweden and Germany.
+#
+# A DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN THE AUTHORITY AND ITSELF, recorded not averaged:
+# § 2-11 tredje ledd says military plates are "sorte tegn på gul bunn"
+# (yellow), while Statens vegvesen's own plain-language colour table calls the
+# ground ORANGE. Both are the authority. The regulation wins in `design`, the
+# web page is recorded in the note.
+jurisdiction: "no"
+authority:
+  name: Statens vegvesen
+  url: "https://www.vegvesen.no/kjoretoy/eie-og-vedlikeholde/skilt/"
+binding: vehicle
+
+instrument:
+  citation: "Forskrift 25. januar 1990 nr. 92 om bruk av kjøretøy, kapittel 2 og 2a"
+  in_force: "1990-04-01"
+  enabling: "Lov 18. juni 1965 nr. 4 om vegtrafikk (vegtrafikkloven) § 15"
+  delegated: "Forskrift 4. oktober 1994 nr. 918 om tekniske krav og godkjenning av kjøretøy, deler og utstyr (kjøretøyforskriften), kapittel 39"
+  source: "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92  # ikrafttredelse 01.04.1990; hjemmel LOV-1965-06-18-4 §§ 4, 13-17, 20, 23, 36, 43, 43b. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+
+common:
+  composition:
+    text: >-
+      NOT IN ANY INSTRUMENT — delegated. Kjøretøyforskriften § 39-1: "Statens
+      vegvesen fastsetter platekvalitet, utforming av plate, ... utforming av
+      tegn og plassering av tegn på de enkelte kjennemerker." The authority's
+      own statement of the resulting number ranges, from the Skiltserier page:
+      "Tallseriene for biler og lastebiler er fra 10000 til 99999, mens for
+      andre kjøretøy er det fra 1000 til 9999." So: two letters + FIVE digits
+      for cars and lorries, two letters + FOUR digits for motorcycles, mopeds,
+      trailers, caravans, tractors and machinery — and the leading digit is
+      never 0 in either range, which is what `regex_strict` encodes.
+    basis: authority-statement
+    source: "https://www.vegvesen.no/kjoretoy/eie-og-vedlikeholde/skilt/skiltserier/  # Statens vegvesen, Skiltserier: the number ranges verbatim. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+  charset:
+    letters_issued: [A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, N, P, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z]
+    letters_excluded: [I, M, O, Q, "Æ", "Ø", "Å"]
+    basis: authority-table-plus-secondary
+    note: >-
+      DERIVED, then corroborated. Across all 396 combinations in Statens
+      vegvesen's own allocation table, the first letter is drawn from
+      A B C D E F H J K L N P R S T U V X Y Z and the second adds W; I, M, O and
+      Q appear in neither position. no.wikipedia supplies the REASON —
+      "Bokstavene I, M, O, Q, Æ, Ø og Å brukes ikke på grunn av likheten med
+      andre bokstaver eller sifre" — and adds that G is reserved for gas
+      vehicles (GA) and prøveskilt, and W limited to four-digit plates and
+      prøveskilt. G and W are therefore kept in the issued alphabet: they are
+      restricted, not excluded. Æ, Ø and Å are outside this dataset's serial
+      alphabet (_meta/separators.yml) in any case.
+    avoided_combinations: [SS, NS]
+    avoided_combinations_note: >-
+      SS is not issued on FIVE-digit numbers (the Schutzstaffel association) but
+      IS issued on four-digit ones — motorcycles, tractors, trailers — and SS
+      appears in Bergen's allocation. NS is not issued at all (Nasjonal
+      Samling). Deliberately NOT compiled into any regex, on the nl.yml and
+      se.yml precedent: a non-issuance rule is not a well-formedness rule.
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.vegvesen.no/kjoretoy/eie-og-vedlikeholde/skilt/skiltserier/  # the allocation table the alphabet is derived from. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): the exclusion rationale, the G/W restrictions, and the SS/NS avoidance. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+  plate_sizes:
+    text: >-
+      Kjøretøyforskriften § 39-10, five sizes: stort smalt 52 x 11 cm; stort
+      høyt 34 x 21 cm; lite smalt 30,3 x 8,5 cm; lite høyt 22 x 15,2 cm;
+      US-skilt 30,3 x 15,3 cm. Trailers to a car take a 47 x 11 cm large narrow
+      plate. § 39-11 allocates them: "Bil skal ha store kjennemerker"; small
+      plates go to motorcycle, beltebil, beltemotorsykkel, traktor and
+      motorredskap; a trailer takes a large plate unless it is no wider than
+      1,25 m. FOR-1990-01-25-92 § 2-13 restates the same sizes. The dimensions
+      are MAXIMA — smaller variants occur.
+    source: "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1994-10-04-918/KAPITTEL_39  # §§ 39-10, 39-11. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+  nationality_mark:
+    side: left
+    content: "norwegian-flag-over-N"
+    text: >-
+      Kjøretøyforskriften § 39-12 "Nasjonalitetsmerke": "Nasjonalitetsmerket
+      skal bestå av den latinske bokstaven N malt i hvitt og supplert av det
+      norske flagget", both on a "blå, retroreflekterende bakgrunn", placed
+      "helt til venstre på kjennemerket" with the flag above the letter. The N
+      is 20 mm high on a large plate and 16 mm on a small one. A separate oval
+      N sticker (at least 175 x 115 mm, black N at least 80 mm) remains the
+      alternative for plates that do not carry the band.
+    introduced_by: "Forskrift 10. november 2006 nr. 1286 (then § 39-11; renumbered to § 39-12 by forskrift 15. september 2010 nr. 1273)"
+    date_disagreement: >-
+      RECORDED, NOT AVERAGED, and it is a real instrument-date trap running the
+      OTHER way. The amending forskrift is dated 10 NOVEMBER 2006 and entered
+      into force straks; but the banded plates went into circulation on
+      1 NOVEMBER 2006, nine days EARLIER, per both no.wikipedia and a
+      contemporary Aftenbladet report. period.start on the affected series is
+      2006 either way, so nothing user-visible turns on it — but the dataset
+      records that the regulation post-dates the rollout rather than pretending
+      the two dates are one.
+    optional: >-
+      The band is VOLUNTARY. An owner may order banded plates for an older
+      vehicle from Statens vegvesen against a fee and surrender of the old
+      plates; unbanded Norwegian plates remain valid and are common.
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1994-10-04-918/KAPITTEL_39  # § 39-12, the wording and the 20/16 mm letter heights. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/LTI/forskrift/2006-11-10-1286  # the amending forskrift that created the integrated blue band. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): '1. november 2006 kom en ny type kjennemerker som har et blått nasjonalitetsmerke på venstre side'. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+  oblat:
+    text: >-
+      Between 1993 and 2012 a kontrollmerke (oblat) sat BETWEEN the letter group
+      and the digit group on plates carrying trafikkforsikringsavgift, showing
+      that tax, insurance and periodic inspection were in order. The 2002
+      redesign widened the inter-group gap specifically to make room for it. The
+      scheme ended in 2012 and the last plates with an oblat field were made in
+      May 2012 — so an oblat FIELD is a hard pre-mid-2012 manufacturing tell,
+      one of the very few dating signals a modern Norwegian plate carries. It
+      never formed part of the registration number.
+    source: "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16). Accessed 2026-08-02"
+  colour_rule:
+    text: >-
+      FOR-1990-01-25-92 § 2-11 tredje ledd is the single source of every colour
+      in this file: registration-liable vehicles carry "sorte tegn på hvit
+      reflekterende bunn" with seven lettered exceptions — a) vehicles used only
+      off public roads, "lysegule tegn på sort bunn"; b) "Varebil klasse 2 skal
+      ha kjennemerke med sorte tegn på grønn reflekterende bunn"; c) Forsvaret,
+      "sorte tegn på gul bunn"; d) diplomatic, "gule tegn på blå reflekterende
+      bunn"; e) licensed rally/trial/enduro, "hvite tegn på sort bunn";
+      f) "Årsprøvekjennemerke skal ha hvite tegn på rød bunn. Dagsprøve-
+      kjennemerke skal ha sorte tegn på rød bunn"; g) temporary import, a 45 mm
+      vertical red border on each side carrying the expiry date.
+    source: "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-11 tredje ledd a-g. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+
+series:
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # THE CURRENT SERIES. Two letters + five digits (four on small vehicles).
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: no-standard-2002
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, moped, trailer, caravan, tractor, machine]
+    period: { start: 2002 }
+    period_evidence: statutory-date
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 99999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{4,5}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[ABCDEFGHJKLNPRSTUVWXYZ]{2} ?[1-9]\d{3,4}\z'
+      charset:
+        letters_excluded: [I, M, O, Q]
+        notes: "see common.charset; regex_strict also encodes the leading-digit rule from common.composition (ranges 10000-99999 and 1000-9999, so never a leading zero)"
+      progression: >-
+        Allocated sequentially at registration and, since 1 April 1971, the
+        number FOLLOWS THE VEHICLE FOR ITS WHOLE LIFE and is not recycled —
+        the opposite of the pre-1971 order, where the number followed the
+        owner. Combinations are broadly issued by trafikkstasjon (see
+        region_encoding) but an owner may request another station's series.
+      separator_note: >-
+        The gap between letter group and digit group is a printed GAP with no
+        glyph — no instrument prescribes a separator, since no instrument
+        prescribes the composition at all. Written as the emitted SPACE per
+        PRD-PLATES §2.6 and optional in the regex.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      plate_variants:
+        - { w: 340, h: 210, unit: mm, note: "stort høyt — two rows, letters above digits; common on the rear of SUVs" }
+        - { w: 303, h: 85, unit: mm, note: "lite smalt — motorcycle, beltebil, beltemotorsykkel, traktor, motorredskap; also cars with no room for the large plate, by application" }
+        - { w: 220, h: 152, unit: mm, note: "lite høyt" }
+        - { w: 303, h: 153, unit: mm, note: "US-skilt — for vehicles built for the American plate aperture" }
+        - { w: 470, h: 110, unit: mm, note: "tilhenger, stort smalt" }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: spec, spec_note: "§ 2-11 tredje ledd: 'sorte tegn på hvit reflekterende bunn'" }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      border: { color: "#000000", note: "the black edge ('sørgerand') arrived with the 2002 redesign" }
+      band: { side: left, color: "#003399", content: "norwegian-flag+N", hex_basis: observed, note: "voluntary, and only from 1 November 2006 — see common.nationality_mark. No Norwegian instrument gives the blue's RAL or RGB." }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+      rear_differs: false
+      display: "front and rear on bil; front or left side on beltemotorsykkel; rear only on other registration-liable vehicles (FOR-1990-01-25-92 § 2-9)"
+      design_history: >-
+        THE FORMAT HAS NOT CHANGED SINCE 1971; the plate has, three times, and
+        none of those changes is a new series. From 1 January 2002 the
+        "digitalskilt" font — uniform character widths for machine reading, a
+        black border, and a wider inter-group gap to fit the kontrolloblat;
+        its legibility was criticised (A and R too alike). From 1 November 2006
+        a revised font plus the optional blue nationality band. From
+        1 January 2009 to 31 December 2011 plates were made in PLASTIC, which
+        broke in winter; aluminium returned from 2012 with the same font.
+    region_encoding: no-districts.yml
+    region_encoding_note: >-
+      READ THE DECODE FILE'S CAVEATS. Statens vegvesen publishes the allocation
+      but hedges it in its own words — "Bokstavkombinasjonen baserer seg OFTE
+      på hvilken trafikkstasjon som har utstedt registreringsnummeret" — six
+      combinations map to two stations each, and geographic distribution
+      stopped altogether for FOUR-DIGIT plates on 9 February 2017. A hit is a
+      low-confidence ISSUING-STATION hint, never a statement about where the
+      vehicle or owner is.
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-11 (colours, and the delegation of design to Statens vegvesen), § 2-9 (how many plates and where), § 2-13 (sizes), § 2-18 (the predecessor order closes 1 January 2002). Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1994-10-04-918/KAPITTEL_39  # §§ 39-1 (the composition is delegated to Statens vegvesen), 39-10, 39-11, 39-12. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://www.vegvesen.no/kjoretoy/eie-og-vedlikeholde/skilt/skiltserier/  # the number ranges 10000-99999 / 1000-9999 and the letter-combination allocation. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://www.vegvesen.no/kjoretoy/eie-og-vedlikeholde/skilt/bestill-skilt/  # the authority's own size list and the 70 kr / 140 kr plate prices. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): the 2002 digitalskilt font and black border, the 2006 font revision, the 2009-2011 plastic episode, and 'to bokstaver etterfulgt av fem siffer' for cars / four for small vehicles. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE CURRENT NORWEGIAN PLATE. period.start 2002 is a STATUTORY UPPER-BOUND
+      date, not an instrument's own date: FOR-1990-01-25-92 § 2-18 closes the
+      preceding registration order "frem til 1. januar 2002", so the current
+      order begins there in the regulation's own words. Independently,
+      FOR-2001-07-12-1098 entered into force on exactly 1 January 2002 and
+      rewrote § 2-5 nr. 3 to the effect that "Tildelt kjennemerke skal følge
+      kjøretøyet" — the same date from the other side. FOLKLORE FLAG: secondary
+      sources routinely present the Norwegian system as unchanged "since 1971".
+      The FORMAT has indeed been two letters + four or five digits since
+      1 April 1971 — and this file models 1971-1982, 1982-2002 and 2002-onward
+      as three series only because the authority's own regulation does. A
+      consumer interested purely in the string shape should treat all three as
+      one grammar; a consumer interested in what plate a veteran vehicle may
+      lawfully carry needs the split.
+
+  - id: no-standard-1982
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, moped, trailer, caravan, tractor, machine]
+    period: { start: 1982, end: 2002 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-dated-both-ends
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 99999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{4,5}\z'
+      pattern_note: >-
+        Deliberately NO regex_strict. The letter exclusions (I, M, O, Q) and the
+        no-leading-zero rule are CURRENT authority statements; no source was
+        found establishing that either held in 1982-2002, and asserting them
+        for a closed historic period would be a guess dressed as a grammar.
+      progression: "as no-standard-2002 — sequential, number bound to the vehicle for life"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: spec }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: none, note: "no nationality band — that arrives 1 November 2006" }
+      border: { color: "#FFFFFF", note: "no black border — the 'sørgerand' arrives with the 2002 redesign" }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+      rear_differs: false
+      design_reference: >-
+        RECORDED GAP, and it is the only substantive difference between this
+        series and its predecessor. § 2-18 does not describe the plate; it
+        refers to an external technical document, "Bestemmelser om kjøretøy,
+        datert 3. mai 1984", exactly as § 2-17 refers to "Bestemmelser om
+        kjøretøy, hovedgruppe 27 gjeldende fra 1. april 1971". Neither document
+        is carried by lovdata and neither was retrieved in this pass, so what
+        actually changed at the 1982 boundary is NOT established here. Note
+        also that the referenced document is dated 1984 while the order it
+        governs opens in 1982 — an inconsistency in the regulation itself,
+        recorded as found.
+    region_encoding: no-districts.yml
+    region_encoding_note: "the allocation file is a CURRENT snapshot; it is not evidence of which station issued a combination in this period"
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-18: 'Kjennemerke for registreringsordning etter 31. mars 1982 frem til 1. januar 2002' — 'To bokstaver og 4 eller 5 tall', and the reference to Bestemmelser om kjøretøy datert 3. mai 1984. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): the source treats 1971-2001 as ONE plate design and records no 1982 event at all — the disagreement noted below. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE SECOND TWO-LETTER ORDER, 1 April 1982 to 31 December 2001. A REAL
+      DISAGREEMENT, recorded rather than averaged (PRD-PLATES §5.3): the
+      authority's regulation splits the two-letter era at 31 March 1982 and
+      names a different technical specification on each side, while every
+      secondary source consulted — including a plate image captioned
+      "Kjennemerke med doble bokstaver 1971 - 2001" — treats the whole period as
+      one design and records nothing happening in 1982. The authority is the
+      authority, so the split is shipped; but the substance of the change could
+      not be established, and this note says so rather than inventing one.
+
+  - id: no-standard-1971
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, moped, trailer, caravan, tractor, machine]
+    period: { start: 1971, end: 1982 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-dated-both-ends
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 99999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{4,5}\z'
+      pattern_note: "no regex_strict, for the reason given on no-standard-1982"
+      progression: >-
+        THE REFORM THAT DEFINES THE ERA: from 1 April 1971 the number is bound
+        to the VEHICLE for its lifetime and is not recycled. Under the county-
+        letter order it had been bound to the OWNER's district, so a sale across
+        county lines re-plated the car. Allocation of letter pairs to police
+        districts began at this point and has drifted since.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: spec }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+      rear_differs: false
+      design_reference: >-
+        § 2-17 refers the appearance to "Bestemmelser om kjøretøy, hovedgruppe
+        27 gjeldende fra 1. april 1971" — not retrieved; see the same recorded
+        gap on no-standard-1982.
+    region_encoding: no-districts.yml
+    region_encoding_note: "the allocation file is a CURRENT snapshot and is weakest as evidence for this, the earliest two-letter period"
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-17: 'Kjennemerke for registreringsordning fra og med 1. april 1971 til og med 31. mars 1982' — 'To bokstaver og 4 eller 5 tall'. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): 'Dagens system ble innført fra 1. april 1971'; the number now follows the vehicle and is not recycled. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE FIRST TWO-LETTER ORDER. period.start 1971 is dated to the day —
+      1 APRIL 1971 — by the heading of § 2-17 of a regulation in force today,
+      which is a materially better source than the bare "1971" that circulates
+      everywhere else, and it settles the boundary without averaging. This is
+      also where Norway's only real era signal is created: a plate whose number
+      is bound to the vehicle cannot belong to the county-letter order.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # THE COUNTY-LETTER ORDER, 1913-1971 — the decode-rich historic series.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: no-county-letter-1913
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 1913, end: 1971 }
+    period_evidence: statutory-date-end-secondary-start
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "L-999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]-\d{3,6}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[ABCDEFGHIKLOPQRSTUVWXYZ]-\d{3,6}\z'
+      charset:
+        letters_issued: [A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z]
+        letters_never_used: [J, M, N]
+        notes: >-
+          regex_strict carries the 22 letters actually allocated (see
+          no-counties-1913.yml). Note this era USES I, which the modern order
+          excludes, and uses Q and P for non-geographic purposes.
+      progression: >-
+        The letter is the county; the digits are a sequence the county governor
+        (later the police) allocated among the police districts within it. The
+        number followed the OWNER, so a vehicle sold into another county was
+        re-plated. Digit width grew with motorisation: up to 3 digits in 1913,
+        5 in several districts after the First World War, 6 by the 1960s.
+      layout_note: >-
+        § 2-16, verbatim: "En bokstav og tre til seks tall. Mellom bokstav og
+        tallkombinasjon skal det i halv høyde være en vannrett strek." The
+        stroke is STATUTORY, which is why the pattern spells a hyphen rather
+        than a gap. On the 1913 rear plate the letter sat ABOVE the digits
+        instead.
+      unmodelled_variant: >-
+        THE OSLO "TELEFONNUMMER" PLATES ARE NOT MATCHED BY THIS REGEX and that
+        is deliberate. From 1958 Oslo exhausted its five-digit range and issued
+        six digits with NO county letter, grouped in pairs (00-00-00); Akershus
+        followed. They are a genuine sub-shape of this order but no source
+        establishing their exact issuing window was retrieved, so no series is
+        authored for them. `no-historic-veteran-1991` does match them, because
+        the veteran regime expressly revived them.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm, note: "REPRESENTATIVE ONLY — see design_history; this era had no single size" }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+      rear_differs: true
+      rear_note: "1913-1929: the front plate was 11,5 cm high with 7,5 cm characters and set the letter beside the digits; the rear plate was at least 30 cm high with 12 cm characters and set the letter ABOVE them. The 1929 reform made front and rear the same size."
+      design_history: >-
+        Four dated stages, all secondary-wikipedia. 1913: owner-made plates,
+        black on white, dimensions prescribed but nothing else — the police
+        applied LEAD SEALS to verify them. 17 January 1929: standardised cast
+        plates, characters fixed at 9 cm high and 4,5 cm wide in a uniform
+        vertical face; front and rear equal; commercial vehicles additionally
+        carried RUTEVOGN, LEIEVOGN or DROSJE beneath the number (kgl.res.
+        13 November 1929). 1 July 1942: new regulations of 3 June 1942, same
+        characters, lead seals abolished. 1 June 1947: the police took sole
+        charge of supply and plates became embossed aluminium. From 1959
+        (forskriftsendring of 20 December 1959) two-row "høye" plates were
+        allowed for five- and six-digit numbers, rear only.
+      colour_variants: >-
+        The era's other grounds, all secondary-wikipedia: red with white
+        characters for prøveskilt from 1926 (white with a red "PRØVE"
+        undertext 1918-1926); black with yellow characters for vehicles not
+        approved for public roads, from 1960; GREEN anodised aluminium with
+        white characters for agricultural machines and tractors, 1960-1971 —
+        a green plate unrelated to the modern varebil green; yellow, from 1945
+        bronze anodised, with black characters for military vehicles from 1932;
+        bronze with red characters for military test plates from 1945; and
+        light blue anodised with black characters for loan plates issued while
+        new plates were being made, 1947-1971.
+    region_encoding: no-counties-1913.yml
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-16: 'Kjennemerke for registreringsordning før 1. april 1971' — 'En bokstav og tre til seks tall', the half-height horizontal stroke, and legibility at 30 metres. PRIMARY, and the source of the 1971 end date. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): the 1 April 1913 start (lov om motorvogner 21 June 1912 + kgl.res. 18 March 1913), the letter-to-county allocation, every design stage above, the colour variants, and the Oslo telefonnummer plates. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      NORWAY'S DECODABLE ERA, and the only one. period.start 1913 is
+      secondary-wikipedia: the enabling lov of 21 June 1912 and the kongelig
+      resolusjon of 18 March 1913 are named there and both took effect on
+      1 April 1913, but neither instrument is carried by lovdata and neither was
+      retrieved — a recorded gap, and the reason this series is not tagged
+      instrument-in-force despite its end date being primary. The letter index,
+      with the four rows that genuinely move (G withdrawn 1931, Z from 1929,
+      Q from 1934, P from 1967), is in no-counties-1913.yml. These plates are
+      NOT merely historic: § 2-15 lets a vehicle first registered more than 30
+      years ago carry the order of its first registration, so county-letter
+      plates are lawfully issued today — see no-historic-veteran-1991.
+
+  - id: no-numeric-1899
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, truck, bus]
+    period: { start: 1899, end: 1913 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "999"
+      regex: '\A\d{1,3}\z'
+      pattern_note: >-
+        RECALL-ONLY BY NECESSITY. There was no national system: each kjøpstad
+        and each amt kept its own register and its own sequence, so "1" was
+        issued many times over in different places and a bare number carries no
+        jurisdiction claim whatsoever. The regex is a shape hit and nothing
+        more.
+      progression: "sequential within each local register; numbers freed by sale or scrapping were re-used"
+    design:
+      background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#FFFFFF"
+      band: { side: none }
+      note: >-
+        In the towns: one rear plate, up to three digits, 20 cm white characters
+        on black. In the amts until 1903-1911: no number at all — merely a plate
+        on the LEFT side showing the owner's name and address, unreadable in
+        motion and adequate only because at most two or three motor vehicles
+        existed. As the amts adopted town-style rules between 1903 and 1911 they
+        used 12 cm digits with the owner's home town above in 6 cm letters,
+        white on black. Owners had plates made themselves.
+    region_encoding: none
+    region_encoding_note: "none possible — the register was local and the plate carried no jurisdiction code at all, only (sometimes) a place name in words"
+    sources:
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): the vedtak of Kristians amt 22 March 1899 confirmed by kgl.res. 2 September 1899; Kristiania's bystyre 29 June 1899 confirmed by kgl.res. 24 July 1899; Trondhjem 5 May 1900 confirmed by kgl.res. 26 May 1900; the formats and colours; Schous Bryggeri's plate '1' of 23 May 1900. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-16 closes everything before 1 April 1971; this era has no separate statutory description. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE PRE-NATIONAL ERA. period.start 1899 is the year the first local
+      registration rules were made — Kristians amt on 22 March 1899, confirmed
+      by kongelig resolusjon on 2 September 1899 — which also puts Norway among
+      the first five countries in the world to register motor vehicles. Every
+      date here is secondary-wikipedia; the Norsk Lovtidend notices it cites
+      were not retrieved. PERIOD HONESTY: 1899 dates the RULES, not a plate —
+      the first Norwegian registration mark was issued on 23 May 1900 and the
+      amts outside the towns displayed no number at all until 1903-1911. The
+      lint's 1893 floor is respected. Modelled as ONE recall-only series
+      because it is a dozen unrelated local sequences, not a system.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # THE VETERAN REGIME — old formats, lawfully issued today.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: no-historic-veteran-1991
+    class: historic
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 1991 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: recall-only
+    format:
+      pattern: "L-99999"
+      regex: '\A(?:[A-Z]-\d{3,6}|\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2}|[A-Z]{2} ?\d{4,5})\z'
+      pattern_note: >-
+        RECALL-ONLY: the regex is the UNION of every earlier Norwegian shape a
+        veteran vehicle may lawfully be re-plated to — county letter + 3-6
+        digits, the Oslo six-digit "telefonnummer" grouping, and the two-letter
+        orders. A match says only "this string has a shape Norway has issued";
+        it is not a claim that the plate is a veteran plate, because the very
+        same strings are ordinary registrations. Consumers must read
+        `matching:` and not infer validity.
+      progression: "the owner chooses; any previously used county letter except P and Q, with three to six digits in any combination"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm, note: "plates may be made either in historic form or in modern manufacture — the owner's choice" }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+    region_encoding: no-counties-1913.yml
+    region_encoding_note: >-
+      DANGEROUS TO DECODE, and the reason this warning exists: a county letter
+      on a veteran plate issued after 1991 is the OWNER'S CHOICE from the
+      historic alphabet, not a record of where anything was registered. The
+      decode table gives the letter's historic meaning; it does not license an
+      inference about this vehicle. Only P and Q are unavailable.
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-15: a vehicle first registered more than 30 years ago (alternatively of a model year more than 31 years old) may be assigned plates of the registration order in force at its first registration; §§ 2-16 to 2-18 supply the three orders. PRIMARY. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): county letters revived from June 1991 for vehicles previously on them or imported of model year 1970 or older; all letters except P and Q; telefonnummer plates selectable; plates follow the vehicle on sale; pre-1913 amt marks revived from 2013. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      NORWAY'S VETERAN PLATE IS A FORMAT, NOT A DESIGN — the exact inverse of
+      the Netherlands, whose oldtimer plate is a distinctive dark blue carrying
+      the original serial, and of Spain, which issues a dedicated H- serial.
+      A Norwegian veteran plate is an ORDINARY-looking plate in a discontinued
+      FORMAT. period.start 1991 is secondary-wikipedia (June 1991, the revival
+      of county letters); the rolling 30-year eligibility rule in § 2-15 is
+      primary and current, and the two are different things: the entitlement
+      exists today by regulation, the 1991 date is when the practice began.
+      Note the eligibility ROLLS — in 2026 it reaches vehicles first registered
+      in 1996, which is why the two-letter orders appear in the union regex.
+      Pre-1913 amt marks became available again from 2013.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # THE GREEN COMMERCIAL PLATE — a real class distinction, and instrument-dated.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: no-green-varebil-1990
+    class: standard
+    categories: [van]
+    period: { start: 1990 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 99999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{5}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[ABCDEFGHJKLNPRSTUVWXYZ]{2} ?[1-9]\d{4}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "as common.charset; five digits, from the car/lorry range 10000-99999" }
+      progression: "drawn from the same national sequence and the same trafikkstasjon allocation as no-standard-2002 — the plate colour, not the number, carries the class"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#008F72", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed, spec_note: "the instrument says only 'grønn reflekterende bunn' — no RAL, no RGB" }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: left, color: "#003399", content: "norwegian-flag+N", hex_basis: observed, note: "voluntary, from 1 November 2006" }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+      rear_differs: false
+    region_encoding: no-districts.yml
+    variants:
+      - class: personalized
+        format: { pattern: "LLLLLLL" }
+        note: "A personal kjennemerke may be issued on the GREEN ground for a varebil klasse 2 — the same 2-7 character rule as no-personal-2017, only the ground colour differs, so a sub-entry rather than a series."
+        sources:
+          - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): the green plate type illustrated with a personalised example. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-11 tredje ledd bokstav b, verbatim: 'Varebil klasse 2 skal ha kjennemerke med sorte tegn på grønn reflekterende bunn.' Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/LTI/forskrift/1990-01-25-92  # the forskrift AS ORIGINALLY MADE, showing the green rule already present at § 2-5 nr. 2 bokstav b; ikrafttredelse 1 April 1990. This is the citation that dates the series. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/LTI/forskrift/2015-07-13-888  # forskrift 13. juli 2015 nr. 888, in force 1 September 2015: the RENUMBERING of kapittel 2 that moved the colour rules from § 2-5 to § 2-11. Cited to show it did NOT introduce the green plate. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): green plates carry two letters + FIVE digits like ordinary cars; up to three seats; goods transport only; lower tax; 'Hvem som helst kan eie en bil med grønne skilt'. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE GREEN VAREBIL KLASSE 2 PLATE — Norway's most visible tax-class signal
+      and, unusually, one a plate string cannot reveal: the number is drawn from
+      the ordinary sequence, so ONLY THE COLOUR distinguishes it. A parse API
+      given a bare string can never tell a green plate from a white one, and
+      must not pretend otherwise. period.start 1990 is the parent forskrift's
+      own entry into force, with the green rule present in the text as
+      originally made — see the header note for the 2015 renumbering trap that
+      nearly put 2015 here instead. CLASS CAVEAT: recorded as `standard`
+      because _meta/classes.yml has no commercial/tax-class category; the
+      statutory category is "varebil klasse 2", a vehicle-tax class defined by
+      having at most three seats and a goods compartment, not a distinct
+      registration regime. Flagged as a vocabulary gap.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # ELECTRIC VEHICLES — a genuine allocation class, weakly dated.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: no-electric-1999
+    class: electric
+    categories: [car, van]
+    period: { start: 1999 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-dated
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 99999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{5}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A(?:EL|EK|EV|EB|EC|ED|EE|EF|EH|EJ|EN|EP|ER|EA|EU) ?[1-9]\d{4}\z'
+      charset:
+        combinations: [EL, EK, EV, EB, EC, ED, EE, EF, EH, EJ, EN, EP, ER, EA, EU]
+        notes: >-
+          The fifteen combinations Statens vegvesen lists under "Elektriskdrevet
+          kjøretøy" on its Skiltserier page — a PRIMARY list, and it is fifteen,
+          not the thirteen that circulate in secondary compilations (EA and EU
+          are additional). regex_strict is where this lives; `regex` cannot
+          carry it, because the lint generates every letter A-Z from an "L".
+      progression: >-
+        Nationwide and NON-GEOGRAPHIC — an electric vehicle takes an E-series
+        combination wherever in the country it is registered, which is exactly
+        why these combinations are excluded from the trafikkstasjon allocation.
+        Series are opened as each fills: EL first, then EK, and so on.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: spec }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: left, color: "#003399", content: "norwegian-flag+N", hex_basis: observed }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+      rear_differs: false
+      note: "VISUALLY IDENTICAL to the ordinary white plate. The class lives entirely in the letter pair."
+    region_encoding: none
+    region_encoding_note: "deliberately none — an E-series combination carries no geography at all, and reading it against no-districts.yml would produce a false location"
+    sources:
+      - "https://www.vegvesen.no/kjoretoy/eie-og-vedlikeholde/skilt/skiltserier/  # Statens vegvesen, 'Felles bokstavkombinasjoner': 'Elektriskdrevet kjøretøy: EL EK EV EB EC ED EE EF EH EJ EN EP ER EA EU'. PRIMARY, accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): the EL series introduced 1 January 1999, and the approximate dates at which each later series opened. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE EV LETTER SERIES. Its purpose is enforcement, not decoration: the
+      E-series combination is what lets toll plazas, bus lanes, ferries and
+      parking enforce zero-emission privileges from the plate alone, which is
+      why it is modelled as a series in its own right rather than a note on
+      no-standard-2002 (PRD-PLATES §2.3 period limb — it starts three years
+      earlier). NOT A LEGAL CLASS, and this is an evidenced negative worth
+      having: neither FOR-1990-01-25-92 kapittel 2 nor kjøretøyforskriften
+      kapittel 39 mentions elbil, elektrisk drift or EL-kjennemerke anywhere.
+      The allocation is made under the § 39-1 delegation and published only on
+      the authority's website. PERIOD WEAKNESS, stated plainly: period.start
+      1999 is `secondary-dated`. No government page states it. The best
+      available source is a 2016 TV2 report quoting Statens vegvesen ("De ble
+      innført i 1999"); the more precise 1 January 1999 appears only on
+      no.wikipedia, resting on that same report. A verifier should treat 1999
+      as the weakest date in this file. Two sibling series are recorded on the
+      same authority page and are NOT modelled separately, having no distinct
+      design or period evidence: GA for gas-driven and HY for hydrogen-driven
+      vehicles.
+
+  # =========================================================================
+  # OFF-ROAD, RALLY, DIPLOMATIC, MILITARY, TRADE, EXPORT, PERSONAL.
+  # =========================================================================
+  - id: no-offroad-1990
+    class: standard
+    categories: [tractor, machine, snowmobile, atv, truck]
+    period: { start: 1990 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 99999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{4,5}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[ABCDEFGHJKLNPRSTUVWXYZ]{2} ?[1-9]\d{3,4}\z'
+      progression: "same letter allocation and same number ranges as the ordinary white plate — only the colour differs"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      plate_variants:
+        - { w: 303, h: 85, unit: mm, note: "lite smalt, the common form on tractors and snowmobiles" }
+      background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: spec, spec_note: "§ 2-11 tredje ledd a: 'lysegule tegn på sort bunn'" }
+      foreground: "#F2E14C"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+    region_encoding: no-districts.yml
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-11 tredje ledd a: vehicles used only off public roads carry light-yellow characters on a black ground. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): 'anleggsskilt' — tractors, snowmobiles, airport and harbour vehicles; the same letter codes and numbering as the white plate; SVALBARD uses this type because its roads are privately owned. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE ANLEGGSSKILT — black with light-yellow characters, for vehicles
+      approved but never driven on public roads. THE SVALBARD POINT is the one
+      worth knowing: Svalbard's roads are private, so every vehicle in the
+      archipelago carries this plate, on the ZN and FH combinations. That makes
+      the black plate the only Norwegian plate whose colour plus combination
+      together do encode a place. CLASS CAVEAT: recorded as `standard` because
+      _meta/classes.yml has no off-road class; se.yml takes the same course for
+      the Swedish terrängskoter plate.
+
+  - id: no-rally-1996
+    class: standard
+    categories: [car, motorcycle]
+    period: { start: 1996 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 99999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{4,5}\z'
+      regex_strict: '\A[ABCDEFGHJKLNPRSTUVWXYZ]{2} ?[1-9]\d{3,4}\z'
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 303, h: 85, unit: mm, note: "SMALL plates only — rally cars are the one car category that takes the small plate as standard" }
+      background: { color: "#000000", finish: painted, hex_basis: spec, spec_note: "§ 2-11 tredje ledd e: 'hvite tegn på sort bunn'" }
+      foreground: "#FFFFFF"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+    region_encoding: no-districts.yml
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-11 tredje ledd e: licensed competition vehicles exempt from engangsavgift carry white characters on black. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/LTI/forskrift/1996-06-14-595  # forskrift 14. juni 1996 nr. 595, in force on publication: adds the rally provision at § 2-3 nr. 3 litra e, § 2-4 nr. 3 and § 2-5 nr. 2 litra e, conditioned on the vehicle being 'lisensiert i overensstemmelse med reglement gitt av Norges Bilsportforbund'. THE DATING INSTRUMENT. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/LTI/forskrift/1997-06-17-768  # forskrift 17. juni 1997 nr. 768, in force 17 June 1997: extends the same black plate to licensed TRIAL and ENDURO motorcycles. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): the holder needs a personal licence from an NMF club and must carry vognkort, licence and club confirmation of training times; road use is limited to travel to and from training or competition. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE RALLY PLATE — white on black, and instrument-dated to a day, which
+      makes it one of the better-evidenced entries here. period.start 1996 is
+      forskrift 14 June 1996 nr. 595, which took effect on publication; the
+      1997 amendment extended it to trial and enduro motorcycles, so a
+      motorcycle rally plate cannot predate 17 June 1997 — recorded in
+      categories rather than split into a second series. CLASS CAVEAT:
+      `standard`, because _meta/classes.yml has no competition class; the plate
+      marks a vehicle exempt from registration tax but liable to annual tax and
+      third-party insurance. Note the collision hazard with no-offroad-1990:
+      both are BLACK, and they are told apart only by character colour — white
+      here, light yellow there.
+
+  - id: no-diplomatic-1990
+    class: diplomatic
+    categories: [car, van, trailer]
+    period: { start: 1990 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "CD 99999"
+      regex: '\ACD ?\d{4,5}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "the letters are the literal CD; five digits on vehicles, four on trailers" }
+      progression: >-
+        THE FIRST TWO DIGITS AFTER CD IDENTIFY THE MISSION, the rest is a
+        sequence within it — the only decodable dimension of a Norwegian
+        diplomatic plate. The code list itself was NOT retrieved: it is set by
+        Utenriksdepartementet and published in no instrument this pass could
+        reach, so no decode table is authored. Recorded so one can be hung off
+        this series later without an id change.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#1A85FF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed, spec_note: "§ 2-11 tredje ledd d: 'gule tegn på blå reflekterende bunn' — colour named, not numbered" }
+      foreground: "#FFD700"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+    region_encoding: "mission code — decode table not authored; see format.progression"
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-11 tredje ledd d: yellow characters on a blue retroreflective ground for diplomatic vehicles. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://www.vegvesen.no/kjoretoy/eie-og-vedlikeholde/skilt/skiltserier/  # 'Ambassadekjøretøy (Corps Diplomatique): CD' among the nationwide combinations. PRIMARY, accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): CD plus five digits, trailers four; the first two digits give the mission; the British, Israeli and US embassies stopped using them (2002, 2002 and 2001) and now use ordinary plates; from 1922 diplomatic cars carried an additional oval CD or CC sign in black on white while keeping ordinary numbers. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      CORPS DIPLOMATIQUE — yellow on blue. Worth recording that the plate is not
+      compulsory for missions and several of the largest have abandoned it: the
+      US embassy from 2001, the British and Israeli embassies from 2002, all now
+      on ordinary white plates. So a Norwegian diplomatic vehicle is NOT
+      reliably identifiable from its plate, and "CD plate" is a sufficient but
+      not a necessary condition. period.start 1990 is the parent forskrift's
+      entry into force, which is the earliest date this pass can defend for the
+      CURRENT design; the diplomatic regime itself is far older — distinguishing
+      CD/CC signs were carried from 1922 alongside ordinary numbers — and the
+      instrument that first created a dedicated blue plate was not retrieved.
+
+  - id: no-military-1932
+    class: military
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, trailer, machine]
+    period: { start: 1932 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "999999"
+      regex: '\A\d{3,6}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "digits only — the ONLY Norwegian series with no letters at all; trailers likewise three to six digits" }
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#E8A317", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed, spec_note: "§ 2-11 tredje ledd c: 'sorte tegn på gul bunn'" }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+      colour_disagreement: >-
+        RECORDED, NOT AVERAGED. The regulation says GUL (yellow);
+        Statens vegvesen's own plain-language colour table and no.wikipedia both
+        call the ground ORANGE. The hex above sits where the two readings meet
+        and is `observed`, not spec. Historically the ground was yellow and,
+        from 1945, bronze-coloured anodised aluminium — which plausibly explains
+        how one colour acquired two names.
+    region_encoding: none
+    region_encoding_note: "none — the military sequence is national and carries no geography"
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-11 tredje ledd c: vehicles belonging to Forsvaret carry black characters on a yellow ground. PRIMARY for the colour. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): military plates from 1932, yellow and from 1945 bronze anodised, three to six digits with no letters. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      FORSVARETS KJENNEMERKER. The distinguishing fact is structural rather than
+      chromatic: this is the only Norwegian series with NO LETTER GROUP at all,
+      so a bare three-to-six-digit string is unambiguously military in the
+      modern era — with ONE collision, which a parse API must handle: the export
+      plate (no-export-1971) is also digits-only, exactly five of them, so any
+      five-digit string matches BOTH series and the two can be separated only by
+      colour (orange/yellow ground here, white with red side fields there).
+      Three-, four- and six-digit strings are unambiguously military.
+      period.start 1932 is secondary-wikipedia; the instrument was not
+      retrieved, and the colour (but not the date) is confirmed by the current
+      regulation.
+
+  - id: no-military-test-1945
+    class: military
+    categories: [car, van, truck, machine]
+    period: { start: 1945 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "FMU 999"
+      regex: '\A(?:FMU|T-U) ?\d{3}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          Two fixed literal prefixes and nothing else: FMU = Forsvarsmuseet,
+          T-U = test og utvikling. The hyphen in T-U is an emitted separator
+          inside a sourced token, the same posture _meta/separators.yml records
+          for the Spanish military "-VE" suffix.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#E8A317", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#CC0000"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): military test plates from 1945, red characters on the bronze/orange military ground, three characters (FMU or T-U) plus three digits, today used by only two units. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      MILITARY TEST PLATES — red characters on the military ground, and now
+      vanishingly rare: only two units still hold them, the Armed Forces Museum
+      (FMU) and the test-and-development organisation (T-U). Wholly
+      secondary-wikipedia, including the 1945 start; no instrument mentions
+      them, and § 2-11 tredje ledd c covers only Forsvaret's ordinary plates.
+      Recorded because the shape is unmistakable and a parse API meeting
+      "FMU 123" should not fail; a verifier should treat the whole entry as
+      unconfirmed.
+
+  - id: no-dealer-annual-2015
+    class: dealer
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, moped, trailer, tractor, machine]
+    period: { start: 2015 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLL 99"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{3} ?\d{2}T?\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          Three letters and two digits since June 2015. Trailer plates append a
+          literal T after the digits — a suffix inside the mark, not a separate
+          field, which is why it sits in the regex rather than in `design`.
+      progression: >-
+        NO GEOGRAPHIC ALLOCATION AT ALL, and the authority says so: plates are
+        produced consecutively regardless of which trafikkstasjon ordered them.
+        This is the one Norwegian series where the letters are known to be
+        meaningless.
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#CC0000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed, spec_note: "§ 2-11 tredje ledd f: 'Årsprøvekjennemerke skal ha hvite tegn på rød bunn'" }
+      foreground: "#FFFFFF"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+    binding: business
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-11 tredje ledd f (white on red) and §§ 2-20 to 2-23 (who may hold an årsprøvekjennemerke and how it may be used). Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): 'Kjennemerkene består fra juni 2015 av tre bokstaver etterfulgt av to siffer'; the trailer T suffix; no geographic distribution; valid in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland; not for carrying persons or goods without permission endorsed on the kjøreseddel. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE ANNUAL TRADE PLATE — bound to a BUSINESS, not a vehicle, like the
+      German rote Kennzeichen and the Swedish saluvagnsskylt. period.start 2015
+      dates the CURRENT three-letter format (June 2015, secondary-wikipedia),
+      not the regime, which is far older; the predecessor format was not
+      established and no series is authored for it — a recorded gap. The
+      cross-border validity is unusual and worth surfacing: an årsprøve-
+      kjennemerke may be used in Sweden, Denmark and Finland as well as Norway.
+
+  - id: no-dealer-day-1990
+    class: dealer
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, moped, trailer, tractor, machine]
+    period: { start: 1990 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LL 999"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z]{2} ?\d{3}\z'
+      charset: { notes: "two letters and three digits, with the dates of validity printed on the mark beside the number" }
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm, note: "nominal — in practice now an ADHESIVE FOIL rather than a plate, applied for the day" }
+      background: { color: "#CC0000", finish: painted, hex_basis: observed, spec_note: "§ 2-11 tredje ledd f: 'Dagsprøvekjennemerke skal ha sorte tegn på rød bunn'" }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+      extra_field: { position: right, content: "the dates on which the mark is valid" }
+    binding: business
+    region_encoding: none
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-11 tredje ledd f: black characters on red for dagsprøvekjennemerke. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/LTI/forskrift/1998-06-18-589  # forskrift 18. juni 1998 nr. 589, in force 1 July 1998: adds the single-use variant — 'Engangs dagsprøvekjennemerke skal ha sorte tegn på rød bunn' — at § 2-5 nr. 2 f. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://www.vegvesen.no/kjoretoy/eie-og-vedlikeholde/skilt/proveskilt/  # Statens vegvesen: dagsprøvekjennemerke costs 340 kr per 24 hours, is issued as adhesive foil, and the purchaser must be at least 16. PRIMARY, accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE DAY TRADE PLATE — black on red, the inverse of the annual plate's
+      white on red, which is the whole visual distinction between them. Used by
+      dealers for test drives and for the gap between border clearance and
+      approval of an imported vehicle. period.start 1990 is the parent
+      forskrift's entry into force; the format (two letters + three digits) is
+      secondary-wikipedia and the colour is primary. Physically these are no
+      longer plates at all but stickers, which is why `design.plate` is marked
+      nominal.
+
+  - id: no-export-1971
+    class: export
+    categories: [car, van]
+    period: { start: 1971 }
+    period_evidence: secondary-wikipedia
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "99999"
+      regex: '\A\d{5}\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          Five digits and no letters. The month and year of expiry are printed
+          in the RED SIDE FIELDS, not in the mark — the se.yml taxi-T posture:
+          a stamped field beside the number is design, not serial.
+      progression: >-
+        THE FIRST DIGIT IS THE ISSUING POLICE DISTRICT — 1 Oslo, 2 Larvik,
+        3 Kristiansand, 4 Stavanger, 5 Bergen, 6 Trondheim, 7 Troms. A small
+        decode, inline rather than in a decode file per PRD-PLATES §2.4. In 2004
+        Oslo exhausted its combinations and restarted its sequence from the
+        beginning, so the digit does NOT support any age inference.
+      district_codes:
+        "1": Oslo
+        "2": Larvik
+        "3": Kristiansand
+        "4": Stavanger
+        "5": Bergen
+        "6": Trondheim
+        "7": Troms
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: observed }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: none }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+      side_fields:
+        left: { color: "#CC0000", content: "expiry month, white on red", width: 45, unit: mm }
+        right: { color: "#CC0000", content: "expiry year, white on red", width: 45, unit: mm }
+        note: "§ 2-11 tredje ledd g prescribes 'en 45 mm loddrett, rød bord på hver side' carrying the expiry date — the one Norwegian plate with borders on BOTH sides and the only one that carries its own expiry on its face"
+    region_encoding: "issuing police district — inline in format.district_codes"
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2  # § 2-11 tredje ledd g: the 45 mm vertical red border on each side, bearing the expiry date, for temporarily imported/exported vehicles. PRIMARY for the design. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjennemerke_for_motorkj%C3%B8ret%C3%B8y_i_Norge  # secondary-wikipedia (rev. 2026-07-16): factory-new duty-free vehicles bought for export; issued by the POLICE, mostly Oslo politidistrikt; the seven district digits; introduced in 1971 replacing the Q plates; Oslo's series restarted in 2004. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      THE EXPORT PLATE, and the direct successor to the pre-1971 Q series for
+      uncustomed vehicles (see no-counties-1913.yml, letter Q) — which is a
+      genuinely satisfying continuity: the same job, moved from a letter to a
+      colour scheme, on the same 1971 date as the general reform. Issued by the
+      POLICE rather than by Statens vegvesen, uniquely in this file.
+      period.start 1971 is secondary-wikipedia; the design is primary. The
+      district digit is the only Norwegian region encoding outside the two
+      letter tables, and it decodes the ISSUING OFFICE, not a destination.
+      PARSE COLLISION, stated on both sides: a bare five-digit string matches
+      no-military-1932 as well as this series, because both are digits-only.
+      Nothing in the string separates them — only the ground colour and this
+      plate's red expiry borders do.
+
+  - id: no-personal-2017
+    class: personalized
+    categories: [car, van, truck, bus, motorcycle, trailer]
+    period: { start: 2017 }
+    period_evidence: instrument-in-force
+    matching: strict
+    format:
+      pattern: "LLLLLLL"
+      regex: '\A[A-Z0-9]{2,7}\z'
+      regex_statutory: '\A[A-Z0-9](?:[A-Z0-9]| ){0,5}[A-Z0-9]\z'
+      charset:
+        notes: >-
+          § 2a-2, verbatim: "minst to og maksimalt sju norske bokstaver eller
+          arabiske tall. Mellomrom er å anse som et tegn." A SPACE COUNTS AS A
+          CHARACTER — which is why this series carries a `regex_statutory`: the
+          outer legal bound admits an interior space, while `regex` describes
+          the ordinary space-free mark. It is the one place in this file where
+          _meta/separators.yml's emitted SPACE is serial-significant rather
+          than a group gap, and a separator-stripping consumer will silently
+          collapse "MIN BIL" to "MINBIL". Recorded rather than resolved: it is
+          a genuine tension with PRD-PLATES §2.6, not a data error, and it
+          affects only this series.
+          The authority narrows the statute further by plate size — seven
+          characters fit the 52 x 11 cm plate, six the small, US and motorcycle
+          plates. Both bounds are cited.
+      progression: "owner-chosen, subject to refusal; the mark is PERSONAL and does not follow the vehicle on sale, though the holder may move it to another vehicle he owns"
+    design:
+      plate: { w: 520, h: 110, unit: mm }
+      plate_variants:
+        - { w: 303, h: 85, unit: mm, note: "small plate — six characters maximum" }
+        - { w: 303, h: 153, unit: mm, note: "US-skilt — six characters maximum" }
+      background: { color: "#FFFFFF", finish: retroreflective, hex_basis: spec }
+      foreground: "#000000"
+      band: { side: left, color: "#003399", content: "norwegian-flag+N", hex_basis: observed }
+      emblem: { present: false }
+      rear_differs: false
+      note: "also issued on the GREEN varebil klasse 2 ground — recorded as a variant on no-green-varebil-1990 rather than duplicated here"
+    region_encoding: none
+    region_encoding_note: "none by construction — the characters are the owner's choice"
+    sources:
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/1990-01-25-92/KAPITTEL_2a  # kapittel 2a, §§ 2a-1 to 2a-10: application, composition, issue and use, loss, renewal, sale of the vehicle, transfer, re-use, revocation and change of combination. Footnote: 'Kapitlet tilføyd ved forskrift 12 juni 2017 nr. 722 (i kraft 15 juni 2017).' Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://lovdata.no/dokument/LTI/forskrift/2017-06-12-722  # the introducing forskrift: § 2a-2 'minst to og maksimalt sju norske bokstaver eller arabiske tall. Mellomrom er å anse som et tegn'; § 2a-5 renewal 'med en periode på 10 år'; the fee is left to Vegdirektoratet. THE DATING INSTRUMENT. Accessed 2026-08-02"
+      - "https://www.vegvesen.no/kjoretoy/eie-og-vedlikeholde/skilt/personlig-skilt/  # Statens vegvesen: 9 000 kr, the right runs 10 years with the first renewals due in summer 2027, applicant must be 18 and must own the vehicle, no co-owners, leased vehicles ineligible. PRIMARY, accessed 2026-08-02"
+    notes: >-
+      PERSONAL KJENNEMERKER, and Norway came to them late — 15 JUNE 2017, dated
+      to the day by the forskrift that inserted kapittel 2a. The right lasts ten
+      years and is renewable, the fee was 9 000 kr at introduction, and the
+      revenue is earmarked for road-safety measures. The mark attaches to the
+      PERSON, not the vehicle: on sale it comes off and the vehicle reverts to
+      an ordinary number, which makes `binding` genuinely ambiguous for this
+      series alone — it is recorded at jurisdiction level as `vehicle` because
+      every other Norwegian series is.