Rare car number plates to be auctioned at Bonhams' Goodwood Revival Sale

Two related United Kingdom car registration number plates are expected to sell for £150,000 - £200,000 at Bonhams' Goodwood Revival Collectors Motor Cars and Automobilia Sale on September 17th.

1 Mum and 1 Dad car number plates to auction for £150,000
Image: Bonhams

 

The number plates read 1 MUM and 1 DAD. One small catch is that the plates can only be used for 8 years as they are held on DVLA V778 Retentions Documents and both expire on 29 Jan 2030, so you'll need to assign the plates to new cars before then,

Also available are two 888 number plates sure to be popular with Chinese bidders given the lucky number status.

In 2016 the Hong Kong number plate '28' sold for US$2.8m as the number 28 sounds like a phrase similar to 'easy money' in Cantonese.

888 JJJ number plate to be auctioned at Bonhams
Image: Bonhams

 

888 JJJ and JJJ 888 are due to expire in October and November of 2023 and bidding starts at a very reasonable £2,000 - £4,000, with the added incentive that funds will be donated to the Alzheimer's Society of Great Britain.

Maybe suprisingly, car number plates have proven to be great investments over the years.

The world record price paid for a number plate is for the number '1' which sold for $14,800,000 in Abu Dhabi 

In the United Kingdom the record price is the £518,480 price paid for the plate '25 0' in 2014 which now takes pride of place on a Ferrari 250 GTO. 

One of the oldest UK plates 'X1', which was created back in 1903, sold in 2012 for £502,500.

Our favourite, RR1 sold for £472,000 in 2018, having previously sold for £5,000 in 1968, which is an almost 8.5% per annum compound return over the last 54 years. Few investments can beat that.  

 

 

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