Understanding the Commission number of a Spitfire
Beginning in late 1962, the Triumph Spitfires were built and commissioned using the same scheme that Triumph had been using for years.  The Commission number is broken down into three parts, the prefix, the serial number and the suffix.  Each of these elements reveal certain details about the individual car as shown below/
PREFIX:

First one or two character:s: Defines the assembly point
(no characters before the "F" denotes the car was assembled in the UK)









Remaining characters: Defines the model.

 

 

 

 

 

SERIAL NUMBER

 

 

 

SUFFIX

 

 

 

 

NOTES:

1 or B = Belgium
2   = Australia
3   = New Zealand
4   = South Africa
5   = Malta
6   = India
7   = Eire (Republic of Ireland)
8   = Philippines
9   = Peru
10 = Portugal
11 = Israel

FC  = Spitfire Mk1 (Spitfire4) or Mk2
FD  = Spitfire Mk3
FDU = US Spec Spitfire Mk3
FH  =  Spitfire IV or Spitfire 1500
FK  = US Spec Spitfire IV
FL   = Swedish Spec Spitfire IV
FM  = US Spec Spitfire 1500





Defines the manufacturing order of the particular model.  Each model begins with a new serial sequence and that sequence is not consecutive through the entire model because new year models starting with the 1968 year model started with an even number so that there are gaps at the end of year models.




L    = Left Hand Drive  (Cars without L are RHD)
O   = Overdrive
U   = US Spec emissions and safety standards
IU  = US Spec emissions and safety standards assembled in Belgium
C = California Emissions compliant





1.  Some commission plates have the suffix stamped far to the right of the other elements but these characters are still part of the entire commission number.

2.  Some countries added characters to the commission plate after vehicles were imported.  These extra characters can be identified by a noticably different font from the original data on the plate.  The BMIHT will not be able to identify those added characters in their data because the added chareacters were never reported to the BMIHT and were only used in that particular country.  One of the main countries who did this is Canada.