Velology

Velology is the study and collection of vehicle tax discs,[1] particularly of those issued in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1921 to 30 September 2014.

Similar systems exist in some other countries, such as in Ireland, but the use of automatic number plate recognition has rendered tax discs redundant in the United Kingdom.

[4] Early discs were made from plain paper, without perforations; the selvedge was cut or folded to create the main circular shape.

[5] In 1961 major changes occurred, with a redesign of the printed pattern – for better security – and a new system of monthly issues, rather than the standard December expiry of the past.

[5] The last tax discs in the United Kingdom expired on 30 September 2015, but the requirement to display them ended on 1 October 2014.

[12] A design variant was adopted in Wales in the early 1970s with the month expressed as a number instead of by name and other details printed additionally in Welsh.

This was introduced when the government decided that all official documentation in Wales would be bilingual, but it was judged that the print size would be too small for the name of month to be abbreviated and displayed in two languages.