We were recently approached by a journalist who was writing about the proposed auction of the Scottish private plate HS 0. We were asked to estimate what price the plate could achieve at auction and, after consideration, we decided that it could easily make more than £150,000.
If there's one thing we've learned in recent years it is that people are willing to pay extraordinary amounts for outstanding and rare plates, and HS 0 is certainly both of those things. In fact, £150,000 may well turn out to be a conservative estimate.
Legend has it...
Single and double-digit registrations consisting of just one or two letters and a zero are very rare. They were not issued as part of the regular registrations releases but were, instead, created specially for use by local authorities for use on official vehicles. The full details are now hard to ascertain but, so far as we are aware, the story is as follows.
As the use of cars became more widespread, those in prominent local government positions were deemed worthy of special treatment when it came to assigning registrations to their civic vehicles. Many councils displayed number-1 plates on mayoral cars but some were too late and found that the number-1 registrations they wanted for their glorious leaders' cars had already been issued and snapped up by lesser mortals.
Various sources have recorded that the issue of G 0 to the Lord Provost of Glasgow was arranged because the original holder of G 1 had refused to hand it over for use on the local bigwig's vehicle. Similarly, the blunt refusal of S 1's owner to part with it resulted in the creation of S 0 for display on the Lord Provost of Edinburgh's car.
Details are scant regarding other local authorities' zero plates but it seems likely that similar circumstances may explain the issue of HS 0 (Eastwood/Renfrewshire), RG 0 (Aberdeen), SY 0 (Midlothian), V 0 (Lanarkshire/Glasgow) and VS 0 (Greenock). LM 0, issued for use by The City of London, is the only English plate of this kind we are aware of.
HS 0 was issued to Eastwood District Council in Scotland. That authority is no more, having been abolished and its duties taken over by East Renfrewshire Council in 1996, so it is the East Renfrewshire authority that is now considering selling the registration.
In 2006, Lady Provost of Aberdeen, Helen Reynolds, visited the RNC Scottish Rally held at the Grampian Transport Museum, Alford, near Aberdeen in her official vehicle bearing RG 0. (Photo credit: Rod Lomax)
Not so simple
While sales of car registration numbers by councils and other public bodies have happened before, the circumstances of the sales have not always been entirely clear and some have attracted controversy. Additionally, even the transfer eligibility of some of these zero numbers has been a little unclear.
In 2017 we reported a bit of a fuss surrounding the sale of AB 1 by West Mercia Police and their police and crime commissioner to a former senior officer. The contentious aspect to that sale appeared to be that the number had initially been earmarked for public auction but was subsequently withdrawn and sold privately to a former chief constable of the force.
A 2016 Daily Record article reported that the director of Taxpayer Scotland had called on councils and provosts to release funds by selling off their numerous private registrations. Eben Wilson said,
While special number plates like these can be seen as community assets, they suggest an attitude of grandness that is rather old-fashioned today.
At that time, most councils seemed reluctant to consider the move and assorted refusals and excuses were soon forthcoming. Dundee Council refused to part with what they called "part of the civic regalia" and the Lord Provost of Edinburgh likened the historic plates to museums and galleries and said it would be inappropriate to sell. Glasgow, meanwhile, said,
The DVLA issued zero plates directly to a handful of authorities in the UK many years ago, specifically for civic use. Given that fact, we don’t believe they are ours to sell.
Can it be done?
Taxpayer Scotland may approve of East Renfrewshire's tentative plans to sell but those plans are, of course, subject to HS 0's eligibility for transfer to a third party. Some sources that have published historical information about councils' zero plates have claimed that some were subject to restrictions preventing their sale. Certainly one writer on the subject of Glasgow's G 0 has claimed that such a restriction prevents the sale of that plate.
As we don't know why such rules should apply to certain zero plates and not others, that question of transferability does linger in the background. Regtransfers has contacted DVLA with a request for clarification on the status of these registration numbers, so watch this space.
Where are they now?
| Registration | Assigned to |
|---|---|
| G 0 | Not assigned |
| HS 0 | Not assigned |
| LM 0 | Black Rolls Royce |
| RG 0 | Black BMW limousine |
| S 0 | Grey BMW saloon |
| SY 0 | Black Nissan hatchback (elec) |
| V 0 | Black VW limousine |
| VS 0 | Silver VW MPV |
