is it a cota 200 or mh200 ?

[billp]

help required to identify my new purchase to hopefully obtain proof of manufacture date to enable registration for road use for dvla, bike was bought as a cota 200 but having doubts now as may be a mh200, it came with a white tank and cota 200 decals but has a montesa honda vin plate rivitted on front of steering stock and also a stamped number on side of steering stock both numbers are the same and start as MH200 prefix,  the engine number has the same last three digits as the frame number but starts with 29H so numbers appear to be matching, however the 29H is puzzling as sources suggest 29M should be the prefix, the frame has the engine protection loops and the carb is the amal mk2, have tried contacting honda uk when i thought the bike was a cota 200 but they were unable to date bike saying numbers incomplete ?  hoping someone can help or suggest who to contact to identify bike.

[feetupsbetter]

Hello there, have you also considered the possibility of model ref Cota 200 ‘C’.
Back in ‘85 I bought an (alleged) ‘83 model which carried the 200C decals on the white tank unit just under the seat area. It wasn’t road reg’d but I think I had a dealer sales receipt from a previous owner listing it as 1983 200C. That was around the transition time from montesa to Honda. Unfortunately it was stolen a year or two later & I didn’t have any record of numbers but 29M sounds familiar (and isn’t far from 29H when reading through layers of paint). Mine had white fibreglass tank (I believe the MH models all had red plastic tanks with a large MH logo running along the side), red frame with single down tube to a curved split cradle under the engine with a pretty poor thin pressed bash plate. The rims were gold (akront branded ?) with black hubs and particularly notable was half width front hub where the earlier ones seemed to have smaller diameter full width hubs. If I remember rightly, when the MH models came out (84/85 ?) they were the same as the ‘C’ except for colour scheme & plastic tank, red tank, black frame.

I don’t remember any riveted vin plate, steering lock was just a kind of tube welded to the headstock, holding the lock inside with a thin metal pivoting cover over it. 
Appreciate there’s nothing definitive in that just (pretty vague) memories but it might jog someone else’s memory.

cheers