Private Number Plates: the Finishing Touch!

Regtransfers.co.uk teamed up with the exclusive Segrave Club for a photo shoot the other day. Their fantastic cars donned some of our best private number plates and posed for the camera.

We think you'll agree that these cars simply beg for something a bit more individual than the soulless, random string of numbers and letters of a standard car registration. If you drove one of these babies you'd so want it to be competely unique, wouldn't you? And you hardly buy a car like one of those shown below if you were shy about being noticed, eh?

US Number Plates Censors Worse Than Ours!

We have posted previously about censorship of number plates practiced by certain American authorities. We have also had a gentle dig at our friends from the DVLA when they have withheld certain sequences of characters from the normal issue series of registrations, supposedly because such sequences of characters might resemble offensive words etc.

Well, here's another example of personal number plates censorship from the USA. In Nevada a complaint was files against the car registration SEXRXRR. The complaint claimed that the number represented "sex, drugs and rock & roll". The committee responsible for ensuring that number plates don't warp the fragile personalities of Nevada's citizens agreed with the complainant and withdrew the registration from use.

SEXRXRR... "Sex, drugs and rock & roll"? Hang on, maybe if I narrow my eyes and kind of squint sideways... Nope, it still looks nothing like it.

Strewth, at least the DVLA number plates censor pick numbers that vaguely resemble the word. Very vaguely sometimes...

SEXRXRR? Nah.

Search for Legendary A 1 Private Number Plates

Many of you will be familiar with at least part of the history of A 1, probably the "holy Grail" of UK private number plates. The story goes that this London number was issued in 1903 to Earl Russell, who displayed it on a Napier motor car. Several books and internet pages have documented various versions of the registration's subsequent history, chronicling its movements between a series of private and corporate owners, and ending with its reported sale to a member of a foreign royal family in 2005. The widely circulated tale tells that A 1 was assigned to a white Bentley for the use of its royal owner, however current data indicates that A 1 now resides upon a Black Mini Cooper.

Over the past few years, Regtransfers has been approached by many journalists and members of the public requesting firm confirmation of the status of A 1. Some of these people have been interested in the possibility of the mark ever coming onto the market again, while the media have often wanted to include A 1 in various articles about car registrations.

The recent low profile of A 1 has contributed to a certain sense of mystery regarding its current situation. Enterprising plate-watchers who have kept tabs on the number have been surprised by its apparent transfer to a Mini: a nice enough car, but perhaps not what one would expect to find kitted out with the UK's ultimate distinguished registration.

Clearly, many people would dearly love to know for sure where A 1 is, who now owns it, if it will ever be sold again, why it is assigned to a Mini and whether or not the bearer vehicle is in daily use so they might have a chance of spotting this superstar plate. Regtransfers is trying to find a way to contact the current owner, or their representative with a view to asking if we may have a little information which we can share with the UK's personal number plates enthusiasts.

Any contact would, of course, be conducted with total respect for the privacy of the owner. That said, we really would be delighted if we could get just a little more information to bring the history of A 1 firmly and accurately up to date.

Regtransfers is offering a cash bounty to anyone who provides information leading to successful, confirmed contact with the current owner. Again, we emphasise that the owner’s privacy will be fully respected.

Anyone with information is invited to contact Regtransfers.co.uk at a1@regtransfers.co.uk, or to call 01582 470089.

Yay! It's Freebie Time Again!

Once again, Regtransfers.co.uk is proud to announce the latest issue of our FREE magazine, Regtransfers.co.uk: The World of Personal Number Plates.

This time we feature an interview with Theo Paphitis, the entrepreneur best known for his his connections with stationery chain Ryman, lingerie chain La Senza, Millwall FC and, of course, BBC TV's Dragons' Den. Theo is the second of the Dragons to appear in our pages and this series of interviews is proving very popular indeed. Also in this issue: an interview with 'Deadly' Doug Ellis, former chairman of Aston Villa FC; an article about Maybach cars, the ultimate in motoring luxury; readers' stories; news and comment from the world of personalised vehicle registrations and car number plates; listings of the very best numbers currently available in the UK; informative and entertaining number plates articles and, of course, the regular column contributed by the Registration Numbers Club.

All that, and more, completely free of charge! Copies are leaving the office in a veritable torrent, so order your free magazine now to avoid disappointment.

The Number Plates Oracle

Regtransfers.co.uk is probably responsible for sharing more useful information about UK car registrations and number plates than anyone in the country - even more than DVLA. Have you ever tried to find the answer to a simple number plates-related question on their website? Sheesh...

Seriously, we do our best to provide all the information and advice you could need, and we take special care with the details in our press and media section. We like to see the press getting their facts right when they write about our industry.

Len Stout is one of our main evangelists. Not only is he a big fan of private car registrations (he owns S7 OUT, the best "Stout" plate you could hope to find), Len is also very knowledgeable on the subject.

For the last couple of years, Len has been the semi-resident, guest number plates expert for BBC 3 Counties Radio, and he is frequently asked to go into the station to answer listeners' questions about car registrations and number plates. He even sticks his neck out to give preliminary estimates of the possible values for some of the plates owned by callers to the station.

The pic above shows Len during his latest spot on the Lorna Milton Afternoon Show.

That show is, at the time of writing, probably still available via the BBC's online "Listen Again" service. Please visit the BBC website for details.

Of course, there's no real need to call a radio phone-in to get the very best advice on private regstrations and number plates. Regtransfers.co.uk's expert advisers are always ready to help on 01582 477333.

Illegal Number Plates?

Aren't government departments wonderful? They move with such slow, majestic dignity that it's suprising that they ever get anything done.

Ah, no... not wonderful. I meant useless.

In 2001 we were told that it would be fine to display UK national flag emblems on our number plates. In fact we were led to believe that the regulations would be changed to explicitly allow it. It's now 2008 and it is still technically a contevention of the regulations to display them.

In Wales, apparently, some unfortunate people have even been give stress at MoT time, and have been told that these non-regulation plates are enough to justify an MoT failure.

As far as we are aware, that situation was just due to the traditional breaking down of communication between central government and those "on the ground" who are given the job of enforcing ambiguous rules and laws.

Anyway, it is not surprising that many people - especially in Wales - think it is high time that the authorities srted themselves out and got this clarified. To that end, Plaid Cymru have an online petition designed to light a bit of a fire under the relevant bottoms.

If you'd like to participate you will find DETAILS HERE.

International Private Number Plates Price Records

Visitors to Regtransfers.co.uk and Numberplates.com will have noticed how much space has been devoted to record-breaking number plate sales in the last year or so. It's not really surprising, as price records have been set and exceeded with startling frequency as more and more countries gather a base of number plates enthusiasts.

At Regtransfers we try to bring you as much information as possible on our topic. We are building the site into THE information resource for all things to do with UK and international car registrations - and we have only just got started.

Amongst the content we have online are articles listing the most expensive number plates sold in the world. Where we do that we list the prices in local currency of the country where the sale took place as well as in UK pounds. We have found that this actually presents us with some pretty strange challenges as the world of international exchange rates can be a pretty weird one.

One of the things which gave me a headache when checking and updating this information was this:

In one article I revisited past records from a few years ago and compared prices then with prices now. Quite a few of the car registrations concerned were sold in non-UK currencies - in Hong Kong dollars and United Arab Emirates Dirhams, for example. One of the things that had me scratching my head was converting those currencies to quote them in pounds...

A recent sale in Hong Kong (where the currency is the Hong Kong dollar) saw the lucky number 18 sell for 16 million HKD. The previous record was held by number 9 which sold for 13 million HKD in 1994. In order to show these prices in UK pounds I used an online currency converter, first converting 16 million HKD into pounds at current rates. After that I used a similar facility to convert the 13 million HKD from the 1994 sale into UK pounds at exchange rates as they were at that time.

To my surprise, the plate with the higher price in Hong Kong dollars had the lower price in UK pounds. So... er... technically, the plate which holds the Hong Kong record doesn't hold it at all if you convert the currencies into UK. Or does it?

I'm not even sure any more. This is all so confusing that I'm going to have a little lie down. After that I might have another go at trying to understand it.

Or I might not.

Another Emirates Number Plates Auction!

Good heavens... It was only a few weeks ago, in February, that we reported the setting of a new world record for the highest price ever paid anywhere in the world for a personal car registration. Well, over the weekend there was yet another sale of "distinguished number plates" in Abu Dhabi.

The results this time didn't approach the stellar extravagance of the February sale where the number 1 set a new world record, but it did manage to set a new United Arab Emirates record for the most expensive two-digit number sold. The registration 13 was bought for Dh £4.25 million, which is about £571,000 in UK terms.

We sort of wish they'd start leaving bigger gaps between their sales. We need time to get our breath back...

World Record for "Distinguished Number Plates"

Further to the last post about the Abu Dhabi sale of the number 1...

The world record for the highest price ever paid for a car registration was comprehensively obliterated by the auction result. The successful bidder, a Mr Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri, paid over £7 million, thus doubling the previous world record price paid at an Emirates Auction sale last year.

Regtransfers.co.uk congratulates Emirates Auctions on achieving their second world record in a remarkably short time.

Emirates Auctions MD Abdulla Matar Al Mannaei said that 100 percent of the plates put up for auction were snapped up by buyers – a rare feat for any auction, where a sell rate of 95 percent is standard.

What makes us all the more enthusiastic about the spectacular results achieved by Mr Al Mannaei and his company is the range of good causes that benefit from the proceeds of the sales.

The five previous auctions raised £28 million from the sale of 393 plates, which went towards the support of special needs projects and victims of road accidents. Proceeds from this most recent auction will go towards building a national rehabilitation centre for traffic accident victims -- the first of its kind in the UAE. It will be run along the lines of the most advanced rehabilitation centers in the world and will provide physiotherapy, and other medical, psychological, social, occupational and recreational support.

Yet ANOTHER Number Plates Record

Yup, it's the weekend of the greatly anticipated auction in Abu Dhabi where the number "1" is expected to sell for several millions of pounds. At the last of these grand events, the car registration "5" was sold for £3.5 million, so it is no great surprise that Guinness World Records will be in attendance in anticipation of more material for their famous book!

Emirates Auctions, the organizers of the sale, are optimistic that the event will be the most spectacular private number plates sale held anywhere in the world so far. Certainly, some of those attending are amongst the wealthiest people in the region, and the opulent surroundings are certainly conducive to extravagant spending.

We'll update you on the outcome after we speak to our friends at Emirates Auctions after the sale.

Valentines Plates.

You really are leaving it late getting that special present. Not necessarily too late though.

If you want to get your hubby, wife or lover a really special, unique gift then why not consider a personal number plate. "Personal" is the important word here. This is a gift that shows how much thought and effort you put into thinking the idea up, and choosing the right registration...

Just give our advisors a call on 01582 477333 and see if we can help you earn those brownie points for the coming year.

Er... of course you could just make do with a box of chocolates or another cartoon tie. *Sigh*...

US Private Number Plates Threatened... Briefly

For those of you who don't subscribe to our Regwise number plates newsletter we thought we'd share a ludicrous little story we saw a while ago.

You may recall a bit of a buzz about number plates censorship in the UK last year. Well, the subject came up again last month, when DVLA got the jitters about plates bearing the character ccombinations 08 WMS and 08 RON. Apparently, if you ignore the zero, and treat the 8 as a letter B, these resemble the Welsh words for "bums" and "breast". Shocking, eh? [rolls eyes and yawns]

Well, DMV officials in the USA have a similar bowdlerist aspect to their personalities, and they also feel compelled to sanitise the content of licence plates - just in case someone should be so shocked and offended that they go mad and turn to communism or give up hamburgers or something...

The Department of Motor Vehicles in South Dakota was so stressed by this huge responsibility that it actually asked the state legislature to ban private number plates - or "vanity plates" as Americans call them. To their great disappointment the suggestion was thrown out by a committee of less sensitive souls. So, South Dakota gets to keep its private plates and the DMV gets to keep acting as censor and thus protecting people from corruption by exposure to the dreadful moral hazard of car number plates.

The UK's Priciest Private Number Plates

As we reported, Mr Afzal Kahn of bespoke car specialists Project Kahn has become the proud owner of the UK's most expensive personal number plates. The number F 1 was expected to make a good price, but £440,625 is a pretty spectacular sum!

Afzal is a regular customer of Regtransfers.co.uk, so our marketing manager was invited to the exclusive press conference early on the morning of Monday 28th January 2008. Although it was a very foggy and freezing cold morning, she did manage to control her shivering for a few moments in order to snatch some of the first video footage of the record-breaking number on its new car. We offer a brief snippet here for you to go "ooh" and "ah" at.

The money raised from the sale will go to the education and training of young drivers. Hundreds of young and recently passed drivers will be given help to take the Pass Plus test, which gives advanced training in driving techniques.

Private Number Plates Sell for Highest Ever Prices!

A New World Car Registrations Record?

Regular readers [OK, who laughed?] will probably remember that we reported the sale of the number '5' in Abu Dhabi some time ago. That single-digit registration sold for an astonishing £3.5 million, thus setting a record for the world's most expensive car registration (see image).

Well, at another sale next month, the number '1' is expected to sell for an even higher price. Representatives from Guinness World Records have been invited to attend the sale.

Watch this space for news.

New UK Number Plates Price Record!

Meanwhile, closer to home, the registration F 1 was recently purchased by Afzal Kahn of exclusive vehicle customisation company Project Kahn. By the way, Afzal and his business feature in the current issue of our free magazine.

F 1 was purchased for a spectacular £440,625, which makes it the most expensive personal car number plate ever purchased in the UK.

New Number Plates Mag Kicks Off a Happy New Year

So, Happy New Year everyone.

To get things off to a good start we are delighted to bring you what must be one of the best issues of Regtransfers.co.uk: The World of Personalised Number Plates that we have produced so far.

The 2008 New Year issue features an exclusive interview with Dragons' Den panel member Duncan Bannatyne. Duncan very kindly set aside some time to speak with our reporting team, and he spoke at some length about his life, his career and, of course, his personalised car registrations. Fans of the show really should check out the interview - it turns out that he's not as scary in real life as he might seem on telly. Duncan is really a nice chap.

Also in this amazing issue is an interview with Keith Harris, legendary TV ventriloquist and now cult entertainer. Keith is best known for his partnership with a certain green duck... who also appears in the article.

For those of you who have still not had a copy of our magazine, watch my lips... IT... IS... FREE. You don't have to pay. Please just click the link to pop along and order a copy from this page and we'll send one out to you free.

I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but the mag is absolutely brilliant (I should know, I wrote some of it). What have you got to lose? Demand your copy NOW!