On the registries, I like the Naval Construction Contract explanation. The ships are number based on the order in which the Fedration council allocates the funds (or whatever they use for money, because they dont have money but they do have money sometimes) to build them.
It's story time...
For example, lets say it is the 2340s or 50s. The council says, 'lets plan to build 1000 starships.' So they make out the contracts for 59000 through 60000 and assign them names. Some ships, like the Ambassador-class USS YouessessNCC-59501 are built within a year because they already have the design down pat, having built them for a decade or three. But the USS PrometheusNCC-59650 is a new design, which they dont even have a shape for yet. So Dr. Banzai draws some sketches, submits them, they get rejected so he gets mad and makes some more with an impossible configuration. He goes on sabbatical to Risa for a few years while the council studies the feasibility of making a multi-vector attack ship. Dr. Banzai dies of jamaharon and the project is put on hold. A new Prometheus is built in 2360, and destroyed by tribbles in the Gamma Quadrant in 2370. Finally construction begins on this new class, and in 2374 the starship USS PrometheusNCC-59650 is built. But evryone gets mad because it's registry number doesnt match! So the Federation council lets it get captured by Romulans to quell the protests on the homeworlds. Ah, politics....

So even though some Sabres have 8xxxx registries, Starfleet isnt going to be mass producing the contracts that begin with that until they move out all the paperwork on the 7xxxx vessels

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I didn't think that the Oberth model had any phaser banks on it anywhere. Have we ever seen one fire

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I, too, prefer the Naval Construction Contract theory, but unfortunately it still doesn't explain why ships in the same class would have wildly divergent numbers if the class has just been proposed. I'll grant you that, for example, if the fleet decided it needed some replacement Excelsiors in the mid 24th century, they would have much higher registries than the initial production run.

However, this still leaves us with a registration scheme that largely makes no sense. Let's be realistic. Whatever part of the Federation government that oversees fleet funding isn't going to wake up one morning and say "OK, today we're going to buy two Galaxys, three Nebulas, a Defiant and five Danubes." From an economic and logistical standpoint, that would be madness. Starship production runs would be allocated in single blocks, and so should their registry numbers. Given the way starships are numbered currently, unless they pick the numbers by throwing darts at a wall chart, I can't figure out the logic of the system.

It definitely would be easier if they had listened to Franz Joseph instead of Greg Jein (the progenitor of the Constitution 956 through 1831 numbers from the Commodore's wall). But they didnt

I'm not saying they only order a few at a time. the only thing we do know is that the registries are roughly sequential, but not completely, so starships are not ordered in blocks or built at the same speed.
But what dont you think my explanation explains?

[ September 10, 2001: Message edited by: CaptainMike ]