Personalised number plates have always been popular with car owners looking to splash out and make their mark out in the world – injecting a little bit of personality on the roads.
Even celebrities are big fans, from Lord Sugar with his tribute to both his name and his company, Amstrad with his AMS 1 plate; to comedian Jimmy Tarbuck’s COM 1C plate; and Paul Daniels’ very apt MAG 1C plate. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge even drove away from their royal wedding with one that read JU5T WED.
In 2012 the UK’s Driver and Licensing Agency made £67 million from sales of personalised registration plates. But this list of the top 10 most expensive plates in the world takes it to a whole different level:
10. ‘1 RH’ – £247, 000
Robert Harverson from Surrey forked out the amount at an auction in Yorkshire, after initially intending to spend only between £100,000 and £150,000. But as the plate matched his initials he decided to keep on bidding.
9. ’51 NGH’ – £254, 000
Bought in the UK again by a Sikh buyer – surprisingly, for two and a half times more than the associated ‘S1 NGH’ number plate, and remaind the most expensive Asian plate sold in Britain.
8. ‘GS 1’ – £258, 775
Sold in Perth, Scotland after originally being registered in 1928 by the town that it was sold from.
7. ‘VIP 1’ – £285, 000
Originally found on Pope John Paul II’s ‘Pope mobile’ it is now owned by Chelsea Football Club owner, Roman Abramovich.
6. ‘M1’ – £330, 000
Mike McCoomb made his fortune by selling his mobile phone business to BT Cellnet. Apparently. He bought this plate as a gift for his son’s birthday.
5. ‘1D’ – £352, 411
Currently in the possession of a Lebanese property developer, it was bought for his wife’s birthday – although we’re sure it’d be popular now with the members of boy band, One Direction; popularly known as ‘1D’!
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4. ‘S1’ – £404, 063
This anonymous owner stated after winning this number plate that it would sit upon their old red Skoda – but it was once owned by the Lord Justic Clerk of Scotland and was also Edinburgh’s first ever number plate.
3. ‘F1’ – £440, 000
A little bit different from belonging to a Skoda, this pricey plate belongs to an esteemed performance car, the Mercedes-Benz McLaren. Afzal Khan purchased it, making history as Britain’s most expensive number plate.
2. ‘5’ – £3.5 million
Talal Ali Mohammed Khoury bought the number ‘5’ plate, breaking the world record at the time with over 25 million Dirhams in Abu Dhabi in 2007 – despite admitting it had absolutely no significance at all to him.
‘1’ – £7 million
Quite aptly, at first place is the number ‘1’ plate – well, of course, everyone wants to be the best, right? Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khourri bought it in Abu Dhabi in 2008 saying quite simply that his reason for buying it was because ‘it’s the best number’.
You should talk to your insurance policy provider if you buy such an expensive registration plate as it may affect your insurance premium.
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Information provided by Unicom Insurance
