Kiribati

STATUS: Independent island nation, from Great Britain, in 1975. Formerly known as the Gilbert Islands.

CAPITAL: Tarawa

WORLD LOCATION: Central Pacific Ocean

PRONOUNCED: Kir ih BOSS

FIRST LICENSE PLATES IN USE: 1975

MOTOR VEHICLES CURRENTLY REGISTERED:  Approx. 500

PLATES ARE: Owner provided. Most plates are very primitive in design, as to lack of materials on the island, especially the shortage of metal. Many plates are hand painted on wood, plexiglass (see header plate, this is clear plexi with black paint applied to the back, and the number painted in white on the front), rubber from innertubes, and I've even seen some on cardboard and burlap. If you ever get any plates from the island of Kiribati, be sure to keep any paperwork you get WITH the plate, as it doesn't take much to produce fake Kiribati plates.

The is only on series of plate in use, basically for all vehicles - white on black, with an island code (almost exclusively either BTC or TUC) and a serial number.

BTC - Betio Town Council

TUC - Teinainamo Urban Council

There are a large number of other code prefix sets for other Kiribati islands, but it's not know if the smaller islands ever bothered to license their vehicles.

SINGLE PLATES OR PAIRS: Unknown

ISO: KI

CARS DRIVE ON: Left

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