Hello fellow Guzzisti’s,
Wondering if anyone can shed some light or have any enlightening thoughts regarding Vin tags. I currently have my ‘78 LeMans up for sale and have an interested party. My bike had a complete restoration approximately 15 years ago by a previous owner. After forwarding pictures the interested person has noted that the frame had been powder coated and the tag seems new. His concern is that the vin tag is riveted on both top and bottom ( if my aging brain serves me correctly ) and “ normally they are riveted three times on both of the longer edges. I’m going to have to look closer at my bike to see what he’s talking about. By the way my bike has the correct vin and stamped engine casing numbers correlating for 1978. Any and all thoughts would be greatly appreciated ta !
search: “moto guzzi vin tag” and select images. looks like your “stickler for detail” is right. i’d call that a red flag, myself, but your bike, your call (o;
Rivet counters! 
Hello, I’ve just been out and checked my machine to see what it looks like.
Mine has the plate attached by two rivets, one at top, one bottom, both midpoint of the short edge of the plate. It’s the original homologation plate; I masked it off before powder-coating 30 years ago because I really didn’t want to tamper with it.
I’ve been looking through the parts book, and I can’t find the plate in the main section, but in the modifications/variants pages there are two different plates.
The US page shows 6 rivets to attach the plate. The other ( presumably RoW ) page lists two rivets, though both drawings imply four holes for each; I think that’s just artistic licence.
The plates have two different part numbers; 17918421 for the US and 14918451 for RoW, presumably because the US required different info. I believe this may be the case because as I understand it the US authorities register motorbikes under their engine numbers, not the chassis number, so this would need to appear on the plate. I’m told on good authority this is the reason for some dispute over the identity of the ‘actual’ Captain America 'bike from Easy Rider…
Anyway, the rivets have the same part number for both, as you’d expect.
I think your buyer has info from US models, either from a US site or from seeing US import machines. I’d say your two rivets is correct for a European/UK model.
Anyone else have any thoughts ?
You just have to love this forum! 
Would like to thank everyone for their input regarding my Vin plate. After investigating further and even checking my own ( two rivets lol ), the interested rivet counter didn’t commit to buying. The market is quite soft currently and after he just watched a LeMans go on the BringaTrailer website for $10k decided my bike was too much for him. Blimey the things blokes decide to try on, I dunno .!!
Thanks again lads : )
Don’t remember 6 rivets for the plate for my 1976 LM.
Seems a bit overkill? One at each end is more likely.
Found this Gregory Bender page - apparently depends on model, see photos.
Model identification - frame and engine numbers, special codes - Loop frames - Moto Guzzi - Topics - Gregory Bender
Looks like, if left and right are the longest edges (words go across), 6 rivets; if top and bottom are the longest edges (words go along), 2 rivets, one at each end.
Thanks again lads - I knew I didn’t need to second guess myself and be led down the garden path.!
Cheers Mike - I should have checked out Greg’s site…