Personalised Number Plate Information

NUMBER PLATES:

Following the astounding America's Cup success one cheeky Kiwi is auctioning off a TEAMNZ number plate on Trade Me - with a starting bid of $20,000.

The user floppy9 has listed the plate from Taranaki. It urged buyers to "be the first to show them off around the streets of New Zealand".

Peter Burling was at the helm for Emirates Team New Zealand this week, when the Kiwis overwhelmed holders Oracle Team USA 7-1 to lift the Auld Mug off Bermuda on June 27.

Three bids had already been placed at the time of writing, bringing the total up to $20,100.

One buyer suggested a trade with their "ORACLE" plate that they wanted to get rid of.

Floppy9 advised to hold on to it until the next America's Cup as a good investment.

The seller divulged in the Questions and Answers section that they had bought the plates a very long time ago. They said the successful bidder would receive brand new plates instead of the ones pictured.

The Perak Road Transport Department (JPJ) is receiving many enquiries about three unique vehicle registration numbers that resemble the Malay phrase "Aku Boss" (I am the boss).

State JPJ director-general Mohd Zawawi Zakaria said they were expecting many bids for the vehicle registration numbers AKU 805, AKU 8055 and AKU 1305 over the next two weeks.

"The bidding starts today and ends on July 18," he told reporters at the JPJ building here.

There are three categories of numbers being offered, namely golden numbers, attractive numbers and popular numbers.

Mohd Zawawi said there is a minimum RM10,000 bid for golden numbers (1 to 10), RM2,000 for attractive numbers (11 to 19) and repetitive numbers (e.g., 22, 777, 9999), while bids for popular numbers start from RM300.

"Even though 805, 8055 and 1305 are normal running numbers, these numbers will be listed under the popular numbers category due to expected demand," he said.

However, he warned the potential winner of the AKU 1305 number to ensure JPJ specifications for registration plates are followed and not to place the "1" and "3" numbers so close together that it reads like a "B".
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The first series of number plates were issued in 1903 and ran until 1932, using the series A 1 to YY 9999. The letter or pair of letters indicated the local authority in whose area the vehicle was registered, for example A - London, B - Lancashire, C - West Riding of Yorkshire. In England and Wales the letter codes were initially allocated in order of population size (by the 1901 census) whilst Scotland and Ireland had their own sequences incorporating the letters S" and "I" respectively, which were allocated alphabetically: IA = Antrim, IB = Armagh, etc. When a licensing authority reached 9999, it was allocated another two letter mark, but there was no pattern to these subsequent allocations as they were allocated on a first come first served basis. There are three interesting anomalies where a zero has been issued - The Lord Provost of Edinburgh has S 0 and his Glasgow counterpart has G 0 while the official car of the Lord Provost of Aberdeen has RG 0. In addition the Lord Mayor

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A Kiwi with an obsession for the Devil's number is selling his satanic number plate. The price? $66,666 obviously.

But it doesn't stop there.

Wellington's David Blackmore has been amassing things sporting the numbers "666" for 30 years, is now selling the whole collection.

A phone number, website name and a PO Box number, all featuring the number of the beast, are also up for grabs.

The satanic number plate is sure to raise eyebrows

"I've even looked under the cupboard the stairs, he wasn't under there either," Blackmore quipped.

The multimillionaire property developer is leaving New Zealand for good, in favour of Australia's sunny Gold Coast.

"I'm going to spend the rest of my life sitting back and enjoying it rather than participating in the rat-race any longer – I'll leave that to the rats."

Blackmore says number plates are a waste of space if they don't mean something to someone.

"Numbers are just numbers, in China, triple six is actually a very lucky number, second only to 888 of course."

He said it all started when he couldn't get his favourite race number in a car race he was entering.

"Believe it or not, my favourite number is 13. I was borne on the 13th, and turned 13 years old on Friday the 13th."

"They said 13 was taken 'but that's an unlucky number, the next unlucky number we have is 666', so I took it – and that's how Team Satan racing came to be."

And from there, collecting assets bearing the satanic brand became something of a sport.

666 COLLECTION

He got the number plate 66666 in 1988, when personalised plates first came out, and is now asking $66,000 for it.

That year he brought 1000 personalised number plates for under $300 each – and has been selling them off ever since.

The highest price fetched for a plate was $75,000 for "WW".

He got the phone number 021 666 666 about 20 years ago, off a woman who wanted $10,000 for it: "So naturally I paid $6666for it."

He got the website domain name 666.co.nz about 10 years ago, for less than $100 per year for the registration.

A friend gave him the 666 Auckland postal box address, to complement his collection, about 10 years ago.

"I've also got the original New Zealand number plate 666, from back when number plates were just numerals, this was before the time when number plates had letters on them."

"You can't use it – it's just a bit of tin now, but I'll never part with that. I paid him $666 for it."

And to complete the collection, his email is 6@66.co.nz.

Blackmore hopes to get $66,666 for the combo but is open to selling them separately.

The self-professed collector of weird and wonderful things first started in number plates, then moved on to antiques, boats and even taxidermy.

He also has green a purple Lamborghini with the number plate JOKER and the Rolls-Royce had the number plate BROKE on it.

BAD LUCK?

Blackmore admits the inauspicious number did bring him bad luck once, when the Bentley turbo he was racing in the late 90s crashed – causing more than $40,000 damage.

"But it was all about having a bit of fun, were weren't trying to win," he said.

"We were the forerunners of drifting in New Zealand.

"Our objective was to go around as many corners as possible, sideways and in a cloud of smoke."

Needless to say, Blackmore hasn't raced the Bentley since.

WHAT'S BEHIND THE NUMBER?

666 has become one of the most widely recognised symbols for the Devil in modern popular culture.

It is called the "number of the beast" in the Bible's New Testament, Book of Revelation.

Some people take the Satanic associations of 666 so seriously that they actively avoid things related to 666. This is known as hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

Aside from religious meanings, the number is also interesting mathematically.

666 is the sum of squares of the first seven prime numbers.

It's also the sum of the first 36 numbers, i.e. 1 + 2 + 3 + ... + 34 + 35 + 36 = 666.

And therefore it is the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel – 0 through 36.

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For those residents wishing to secure their vehicle registration plates, and so preventing them from being stolen, the Kirwans Bridge Neighbourhood Watch is holding a Safe Plate Day at the next Nagambie market.

The group will be setting up in Blayney Lane on Saturday.

For just a gold coin donation, get your number plates secured with the one-way safety screws.

● Another crime prevention initiative being held this weekend will be at the Tallarook market on Sunday.

Police will be there with engraving equipment to put identifying numbers on residents pushbikes, scooters and any other similar equipment.

Bring your property down, with your drivers licence and that number will be engraved on the item.

This helps to prevent theft and also greatly assists police to find owners if property does get stolen or lost.

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Diplomatic Plates 'D' what are they?

Diplomatic plates

Since 1979 cars operated by foreign embassies, high commissions, consular staff, and various international organisations have been given plates with a distinguishing format of three numbers, one letter, three numbers. The letter is D for diplomats or X for accredited non-diplomatic staff. The first group of three numbers identifies the country or organisation to whom the plate has been issued, the second group of three numbers is a serial number, starting at 101 for diplomats (although some embassies were erroneously issued 100), 400 for non-diplomatic staff of international organisations, and 700 for consular staff. Thus, for example, 101 D 101 identifies the first plate allocated to the Afghanistan embassy, 900 X 400 is the first plate allocated to the Commonwealth Secretariat.

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