January
The DVLA's first auction of the year was a relatively subdued affair, with no headline grabbing big sales. That was no surprise, as many buyers and their wallets were probably still smarting from the cost of Christmas. Nevertheless, there was still plenty of interest, and almost 2,000 private registrations were sold.
Regtransfers announced the availability of the historic registration number AP 1. Issued on 2 January 1904, a coveted, two-letter number-one registration from the earliest days of Britain's car registration system, AP 1 is the archetypal personal number plate.
We also reported the sale of VIP 1, the number famous for its appearance on the Popemobile during Pope John Paul II's visit to Ireland in 1979. Legend has it that VIP 1 was also owned by oligarch and former Chelsea FC owner, Roman Abramovich. The new owner, Peter Waddell, reportedly said that he paid "north of" £2 million pounds for VIP 1 - a claim that we are not able to verify.
February
The February DVLA auction saw the return of the big money. The top sale was that of 3 FU, which sold for £89,960, almost twice as much as the previous month's best performer. Meanwhile, at an auction in Hong Kong, a number plate bearing the single letter S was sold for the equivalent of £1.45 million. At the time of writing, Hong Kong registration S is placed at number 36 on the Regtransfers chart of the most expensive number plates in the world.
February was the month in which the term "ghost plates" began to get wider exposure in the UK. The phrase, which has been used for years in the USA, was initially used here, somewhat vaguely, to refer to any kind of illegal number plates, deliberately intended to evade identification. In the months since, its meaning has narrowed to apply mostly to number plates manufactured or treated to be unreadable by ANPR cameras. Regtransfers reported the introduction of a Ten Minute Rule Bill in Parliament by MP Sarah Coombes, that drew attention to the problem of illegal number plates.
March
In March, Regtransfers took issue with a questionable article, published on the BBC website, about the sale of number plates on Amazon. While we didn't dispute the claim that online marketplaces are infested with vendors willing to supply number plates without seeing the legally required documentation, we did question the BBC's reporting and some of the images used in the piece.
The BBC gave details of the "registration numbers" for which they had purchased plates without providing documents. The problem was that the numbers the BBC used were not in a valid UK registration format and so they could have been legally provided as "show plates" for off-road use. No documentation would have been required. When we pointed out the errors, instead of acknowledging the substandard report, the BBC simply made a furtive edit to the page.
The top sale at March's DVLA Auction was that of 101 O. A combination with great visual impact, 101 O was deemed by its buyer to be worth its impressive £116,950 all-in price. This was a striking example of the O-plate format that we have seen consistently perform well at auction.
In news, we reported that the value of DVLA's sales during the period from the 2020 financial year until February 2025 was over £300 million higher than the total for the previous five years. A strong indication of the growing popularity of private registrations.
April
Our April Fools gag this year claimed that a Bedfordshire IT company was developing QR number plate codes that would be printed on car roofs, enabling overhead cameras to identify vehicles. The article was riddled with clues that it was nonsense, but we still managed to hook a few unsuspecting website visitors.
Regtransfers exclusively revealed details of the registration numbers that DVLA planned to ban from the release of this year's '75' registrations. The banned combinations were, as always, those that the agency's censors considered could be seen as offensive, inflammatory, insulting, obscene or otherwise inappropriate. Censorship of registration releases is a routine part of each new series, as DVLA withholds plates because of perceived references to violence, terrorism, warfare, drugs, crime, sexual orientation, sexual activity, gender identity, religion, race or politics.
Amongst our most popular April blog posts were our overview of the kinds of registration numbers that have proved consistently popular at auction, and our article about the number plates owned by famous boxers.
There seems to be something about personal plates that particularly appeals to boxers and our free magazine, The World of Personal Number Plates has featured many of the UK's top fighters, including "Gypsy King" Tyson Fury and "Dynamite" Daniel Dubois.
May
At the beginning of May, we explained how our friends at Yiannimize had managed to break our website! The Yiannimize YouTube channel published a video called 'Exposing The World Of Number Plates'. The video proved very popular and we were happy to see that it featured Regtransfers quite prominently. The exposure brought an unexpected influx of visitors to Regtransfers.co.uk. So many, in fact, that our normally robust website briefly fell over and had to take a few minutes to regain its composure.
We know Yianni Charalambous didn't do it deliberately, so no hard feelings!
Also in May, we reported the impending auction sale of J35 TER ("Jester"), the number plate formerly owned by Cornish comedian Jethro (real name Geoffrey (Geoff) Rowe), who died in December 2021 at the age of 73.
Once again, the top sale at the DVLA auction was that of an O registration. 54 O commanded a very respectable £72,639, showing, once again, the enduring appeal of O plates, especially those with the fewest digits.
The registration that took second place in the price rankings was 7 FU, which sold for £54,663. There was a time when FU registrations were withheld from release by DVLA due to the possible meaning of the FU characters. Since DVLA decided they were safe, and began offering them in February 2024, they've become very good sellers in the auctions.
June
In June, we followed up on the previous month's story about the auction of J35 TER, the number formerly owned by Cornish comedian Jethro. The auctioneer's estimate for the late comedian's plate was £15,000 to £20,000. By the end of the online auction, J35 TER had exceeded expectations and sold for a hefty £30,500. The auctioneer said, "The origin of it (J35 TER) is important and I think that's definitely helped us promote it, and obviously helped the sale prices be very very healthy."
Also in June's number plates news, we highlighted the growing problem of cloned number plates, a topic we seem to have to report on regularly. Data from ANPR operators and police forces across the UK showed that around 13% of petrol station fuel thefts were committed by drivers of vehicles displaying cloned number plates.
June's DVLA auction provided some excitement, with 8 FU achieving a spectacular £115,640. Perhaps surprisingly, the price paid for 8 FU was more than double that paid for 7 FU at the previous month's auction, despite the latter featuring the lower digit. Another illustration of the popularity of FU numbers since DVLA decided they should no longer be banned.
In second place in June's auction price ranking was 95 A, another heavy-hitter, which sold for £91,257.
July
Regtransfers announced that we were, once again, offering the legendary registration MB 1 for sale. MB 1 is famous for its association with its former owner, the late entertainer Max Bygraves. Max himself was also something of a legend, having achieved fame in most areas of British entertainment during the mid-20th century.
Regtransfers had bought and sold MB 1 before, and were delighted to be reacquainted with this old favourite and, once again, to have the privilege of offering it for sale.
Another number one registration, JB 1, shattered the record for the most expensive registration number ever sold in the UK. When it was auctioned at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, JB 1 achieved a fantastic £608,600, thus taking the top spot from 25 O (£518,480), which had held the title since 2014. However, JB 1's reign was to be briefer than anyone expected, as we will see.
The Registration Numbers Club (RNC) held its annual rally at Wythall Transport Museum on 6th July. More than 60 vehicles took part and Regtransfers were proud to sponsor the trophy awards for the event. It was nice to see a journalist and photographer from The Guardian were present, and showing an interest in the plates on show.
The RNC held its first rally back in 1977. The event is a favourite with enthusiasts, who consider it a highlight of the year.
August
Unusually, in August, we had reason to take a look at number plates in the Channel Islands. Jersey's J5 number plate sold for £350,000 at auction, becoming the island's second most expensive registration ever.
The Channel Islands are not part of the UK and have a different car registrations system. One of the rules applying to Jersey's plates is that they must be sold on a vehicle. J5 was sold on a broken down scooter, which gave the media plenty of opportunities to have some fun and to spin the sale as being that of a £350,000 broken down scooter.
Jersey's most expensive number plate sale was that of J4, which achieved £380,000 in 2020.
Also in August, Regtransfers published a blog post examining the private plates owned by the UK's top business people. Over the years, we have served a large number of entrepreneurs and business owners, including some of the country's most successful people. We take great satisfaction in the knowledge that these successful and astute people consider private plates to be a sound investment.
September
The highest price at September's DVLA auction came as no surprise. Once again, an O registration outperformed the competition. At £131,061, 52 O became the fifth most expensive 'O' registration ever sold at a DVLA auction. At the time, it was also the highest price paid at a 2025 DVLA auction. The most expensive O registration ever sold in the UK was, of course, 25 O bought by Ferrari dealer John Collins in 2014.
September's auction was also notable for delivering two sales that exceeded £100,000. Second place was taken by ELL 10T, an excellent name registration at £103,840.
Once again, Goodwood made the headlines as the venue for a lively registrations auction. The sale at Goodwood Revival on Saturday, 13th September saw HC 1 achieve a total of £195,500. The real spectacle, however, was provided by DB 1, for which one determined bidder parted with £437,000. DB 1 currently occupies eighth position on Regtransfers' list of the UK's most expensive plates.
October
Following our overviews of the number plates owned by famous boxers and business people, Regtransfers published a similar look at the cars and registrations chosen by famous musicians. Featuring acts ranging from George Formby and Max Bygraves to The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Jamiroquai, it was fascinating to see the extravagant choices made by some of our most flamboyant stars.
At October's DVLA auction, the two top performances seemed rather modest compared to the excitement of previous auctions, but the results were still interesting. AUT 15M and 303 O both sold for £37,172. The sale of AUT 15M, a very clear representation of "autism", had everyone hoping it would be used to promote awareness of neurodiversity. 303 O gave us another example of the popularity of O at auction.
In another of our regular exclusives, Regtransfers revealed the plates that DVLA would censor and exclude from the release of the 26 series, the first registration release of 2026. The list contained over 400 suppressed registration character combinations. As always, the controversial words and messages that triggered censorship were references to crime, violence, religion, sex, sexual and gender identity, weapons, insults, racism and sexism etc.
November
In November, the media took up our story about the censorship of the 2026 release of the 25 series number plates. As usual, they had their facts muddled. A number of newspaper websites somehow managed to get the idea that the list of banned plates meant that people might end up with those numbers and their cars, and thus be at risk of incurring a fine. One of the scaremongering headlines read: "New list of number plates BANNED by DVLA for being ‘too rude’ are revealed – they could land you with a £1k fine."
Obviously, if DVLA withholds the registrations, they won't be issued at all and so will not appear on cars or earn any fines. November also brought arguably the biggest number plate news of the year. At Sotheby’s London Motor Week auction on 1st November 2025, JB 1's UK record for the most expensive registration number ever sold was obliterated by the sale of 1 F for £926,000 (including estimated fees and taxes). For the first time ever in a public sale, a British number plate came within just a few bids of the magic £1 million figure.
It seemed rather a shame that the winner of this historic auction chose to remain anonymous.
December
A Parliamentary report into number plates concluded that substantial changes were needed to the UK's number plate system. Amongst the issues highlighted were lack of effective enforcement of number plate rules and standards, and the problem of "ghost" number plates that have been manufactured or altered to make them unreadable by enforcement cameras.
At the time of writing, it seems likely that the report's impact will lead to a tightening of regulations governing the supply of number plates, and a change to the rules and the British standard that dictate the precise physical properties required in number plates. This last aspect may mean the banning of 3D and "4D" number plates.
It will be interesting to see how all this develops in 2026.
