Picture 1: 1960 - 1982
Picture 2: 1982 - 1986
Picture 3: 1986 - 1992
1945-1986: plates of Marina Militare (it was called Regia Marina before the Second World War: it means Royal Navy) had the same numbering format from 1927 to 1986. They had the letters MM in red followed by 5 digits: the first showed the naval base where the vehicle came from, as you can see in the first table below, the second was always 0 and then the last three were the number of the vehicle. The vans for telecommunications were the only exception because they had just 4 digits and the 0 in second position was not present. The numbering was common for all kinds of vehicles and when they reached 999, they started again from 001, skipping those numbers already in use on other vehicles. All the plates were made and painted by hand till the 1960s; at the beginning they were made of two lines, with the last 4 numbers in the second (picture number 1), but they became made of just one line in 1982 (picture number 2).
1986-1997: in 1986 the numbering system changed a lot and the new format had 3 numbers followed by 2 letters, as you can see in the pictures number 3 and 4. Moreover a little green star, like that used by the army, was added after the letters MM and a little seal with letters MM was present under the star. The number ranged from 001 to 899 for autovehicles and from 900 to 999 for motorcycles (plates for motorcycles were still made of two lines with the first 9 on the first line). Only naval base of Taranto used also plates with the format A00 in place of the numbers because finished all other possible numbers (picture number 5). The letters showed the origin of the vehicle, as you can check in the second table below. In 1992 the look of the plateschanged a bit, as you can see in the pictures.
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Picture 1: 1960 - 1982 |
Picture 2: 1982 - 1986 Picture 3: 1986 - 1992 |
 Picture 4: 1992 - 1997 |
 Picture 5: 1986 - 1992 (Taranto) |
1997-Today: the numbering format changed again in 1997, when the Navy started using the unified numbering system. The new format is made of two letters and then 3 numbers, as you can see in picture number 6, and it's impossible to understand where it is from. There's a little green circle between the letters and the number, but I don't know its purpose. The previous plates were not changed and moreover today the vehicle doesn't change the plate if it's moved from one naval base to another, while this was normal in the past.
Picture 6: 1997 - Today
Trailers:: before 1997, trailers had got plates with the same numbering system of all the other vehicles, but there were many different models. In some cases normal plates without any special mark were used, while sometimes they had a little R (it stands for "rimorchio") placed somewhere, as you can see in picture number 7, though this was not very common. Since 1997, when the unified numbering system was introduced, new plates for trailers have been issued, as shown in picture number 8.
 Picture 7: Trailer until 1997 |
 Picture 8: Trailer, 1997- Today |
Test: the Navy has also got some test plates with a little green P (it stands for "prova"), but at the present time I aven't got any picture of them.
I want to thank very much Marcello Taverna for all the pictures, except for the number 7 and 8 for which I have to thank Paolo Troncatti and Stefano Lucchi.
