Welcome to this month's medley of number plate news stories from abroad.
Cricketer's plate scores big in Australia
A number plate that formerly belonged to Aussie cricket legend Sir Don Bradman was sold at auction on 9th April 2024 for a whopping $232,737.50 AUD (approximately £121,192 GBP). In the weeks leading up to the sale, conducted by Sydney auctioneers Lawsons, news headlines had speculated on the possibility of the number plate selling for $200,000 AUD so, for once, reality lived up to journalistic hype.
In a cricket career that spanned the 20 years from 1928 - 1948, Donald Bradman (known as The Don) achieved spectacular things. His test career batting-average was over 99.9% and he is still widely considered the greatest batsman of all time. So notable was the stature earned by his skill and popularity that, during a bout of serious ill health in 1934, King George V asked to be kept informed of Bradman's condition.
The Don’s plate, New South Wales number 1114, was assigned to a Chevrolet that was presented to Bradman when he and the Australian team returned home as winners of the 1930 Ashes test.
Dubai auction upsets the 'World's most expensive plate' rankings again
As you probably know, Regtransfers endeavours to maintain an up-to-date table of the 50 most expensive number plates in the world (as defined by their last confirmed sale price). We don't mind doing the work, but it sometimes feels as if we no sooner update it than one or another auction in the United Arab Emirates means that we have to revise it all over again.
At the end of March 2024, a charity auction in Dubai meant that we had to make room for four new entries into the chart of the priciest plates. V39 sold for Dh4 million AED (approximately £862,752), P42 sold for Dh3.225 million AED (approximately £695,594), with both O51 and Q49 attracting Dh3 million (approximately £647,064).
We've updated the chart, of course, but there's no doubt we'll have to do it again soon.
Historic St Louis license plate was thrown out with the trash
A license plate issued in 1911 bearing the name of the City of St Louis, the year 1911 and the single number '1' was thrown away with rubbish 40 years ago. Some years after it was issued, the number plate was framed and hung on the wall of a bank in the city, as part of a display promoting government bonds. When the bank later changed hands, and the building was renovated, the display, including the number plate, was tossed into a barrel of debris for disposal.
A former employee of the bank randomly rescued the framed display from the trash and took it home. It subsequently languished, forgotten, in a corner of the man's basement. In 2023, his son was clearing out his father's home when he stumbled across the license plate display and realised it may be something of interest and significance. It seems he was correct as experts at Donley Auctions have estimated its value at $10,000 to $20,000.
A spokesman for Donley's said "It just takes two guys who want it badly enough,".
The secret facility making Wyoming's controversial license plates
For once, number plate controversy isn't over hidden insults or inappropriate messages concealed amongst their characters. In Wyoming, USA, the debate is over the colour of the state's new license plates.
Previous iterations of Wyoming's plates feature depictions of the state's landscapes and scenery, especially mountain scenes. The plates have also been bright and colourful. Variations in imagery and colour have made them very popular with collectors. The new version, however, has struggled to raise much enthusiasm.
State law requires that the plates will still retain the iconic bocking horse that always features on Wyoming license plates, but gone is the mountain skyline that drivers are accustomed to. Instead, a relatively sombre-looking design features a red border around a plate that looks black as night, but which is officially a very dark blue.
The design is based on Wyoming's state flag with its dark blue field, and it also features the buffalo device from the flag. The buffalo is printed in a kind of light blue-grey with the state seal superimposed on it is the same dark blue as the plate background. The registration characters and the bucking horse image top stand out in white. All in all, it gives an almost monochrome impression compared to earlier versions.
The factory making the new license plates is a plain warehouse in Cheyenne, which no one would guess is the source of such an important and ubiquitous part of residents' lives. The owner of the business is quite happy to maintain that low profile.
A spokesman said “We’re in no-man’s land out here. Nobody knows we’re here, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. We don’t want the general public to know where this is at.”
Critics of the new plates will have to wait eight years for the next design. Meanwhile the run of the new black … sorry, blue plates will see 900,000 of them shipped from the factory. In total they will have used up almost 55,000kg of aluminium.
* Wyoming number plate image courtesy of worldlicenseplates.com.
