@CCF: No, this is not correct. In the past a plenty of European countries, except the Netherlands and Luxemburg -Belgium, too??- (and Sweden since 1973) had plates, where you could see, where the car was coming from.
In Germany it's still usual. There are some exceptions for government-cars, but the first letters (one, two or three) are showing the town or county, where the car is coming from.
Denmark's system is more complicated. There is shown the area, also the type of car in the number-code.
In Britain -except personalized plates- you could see the area, too (I think, the last two letters of the group with three letters), in the past also the year of first registration was to see.
Austrian and Swiss plates are showing the towns (Austria except the new pesonalized plates) or countries (Switzerland).
In Turkey the group of two numbers is showing the town, beginning alphabetic with 01 for Adana (Istanbul has 34).