Obviously these are just some of the missing pictures, but I'm sure that there are many more that could be
added to this web site. So every picture you send me
will me very appreciated! Thank you very much!
- Guglielmo
Evangelista has got a picture of a plate made of just one line, with white characters on black, with the
letters TF followed by the symbol of the Association of Disabled Men and the number 0852. What is it?
These are three hypothesis that he made:
1) From 1900 to 1943 Italy had the concession of the part "F" of the Chinese town of Tientsin that was split
among all the main European countries, the US and the Japan: so the plate could be "Tientsin F". Anyway the
symbol of the Association of Disabled Men was introduced in 1944 and it seems to be very unlikely that Italian
submarines, that went to the Far East to take strategic metal and were the only link with the motherland, could
bring a set of new plates in that year.
2) From 1940 to 1945, Italy occupied a small part of the French territory, from the border of Piemonte and Liguria up to
Nice and it didn't have an administrative arrangement of any kind. So the plate could be "Territorio Francese"
(French Territory). Anyway it's strange that none of the many French plate collectors knows such a plate.
3) At the beginning the vehicles used in the south of Libya used plates issued in any of the coastal provinces, but
it's a wierd system and it's possible that some changes were made; since most of the people and the few civil structures
were placed in the area named Fezzan, it's likely that the plate means "Territorio del Fezzan" (Territory of
Fezzan). Moreover this was the original name of the area, also in French after that France took the control of it in
1943 up tp 1950.
There are some more doubts: the zero in first position and the format on just one line. For the first one, the same
happened also in Rhodes, so it is not so strange. For the second, this format could be used for uniformity with
the previous plates used, in China or in France or in its colonies.
- Marco
De Dona sent me a picture taken between 1943 and 1945 where you can see a Breda B56 truck with the plate
"C.F.G. 2135" in service from Rome to Milan. In the full picture (click on the small picture of the
plate below to enlarge it) there are some prints in German and some others in Italian. On the front of the truck
you can read "Dringender dienst" and "Vorrang geben" (respectively "urgent service"
and "give top priority", in German), while on the side there is the word "Servizio" (service),
but it's impossible to read more.
The plate C.F.G. probably belongs to the short life of the Italian Social Republic,
but the exact meaning is unknown. It's also possible, even if less likely, that it is an unknown German plate.
- Alessandro
Libanore found these plates of the Italian Army that have a zero in first position. As you can see in the page of
Esercito Italiano I don't know yet the meaning of such a digit and which
vehicles it was used on. Anyone of you know something more?
- I found a picture, snapped in Trieste in 1946, where you can
see a plate with the print "Polizia Stradale": for other details and the picture go to the section about
Polizia Stradale. Please let me know what you think about
this plate!
- Martin van
der Valk sent me the picture of a couple of plates from San Marino
with the colours yellow and blue, that I have never seen before. I haven't got a clue about the kind of vehicle
they were used on or if they are fake. Every tip on these plates is very welcome!
- I'm trying to figure out what kind of plates the
Carabinieri used between 1945 and 1949: in some sources I found the
letters CC.RR., while the picture below, snapped by Alessandro
Libanore shows a plate with just the letters CC. Have you got any idea about it?
- I received an email from
Fabrizio Rotoloni and he wrote me about a car of 1938 that
probably belonged to the Ministry of Interior and had the plate number NPE ***, where the asterisks stand for a
number of three digits. This is all I know about this plate and it could even be a foreign plate, but I'm not sure
about it and so I decided to add it in the page of misteries: every new detail or clue about it is very
welcome!
- Some of the codes used
after 1927 were never assigned to any province, though many of them could use these codes: for example, BE and MA
(Belluno, Benevento and Bergamo for BE; Macerata, Massa Carrara and Matera for MA). Someone suggested that these codes
were saved to be used for towns in the colonies (Bengasi and Massaua), but this seems to be very unlikely. Does anyone
know a better explanation?
- Filippo
Proietti told me that he saw in Rome a plate with the letters DSL in red followed by three numbers and two
letters in black. I haven't got a clue what kind of plate it is (is it Italian?) and so I add it among the
misteries.
- Guglielmo
Evangelista saw a picture, taken about in 1930, where there is a Lancia armoured car of the "Milizia
Volontaria di Sicurezza Nazionale" (voluntary army for national security) of Milan: the plate is clack on
white with the number "A M 5". The meaning of this abbreviation is unknown (maybe Autoblindo Milizia?)
and moreover it seems that the MVSN had never any Lancia vehicle.
- Marcello
Taverna sent a picture taken in Sanremo in 1913 where you can see a plate with two lines, but it's completely
unreadable. The strange thing in the picture is the oval "C" placed on the left of the plate. It's very
unlikely that it may mean Cuba and someone suggested that it may stand for "Console". Any other idea?
