Personalised Number Plate Information

NUMBER PLATES:

The original NSW licence plate No. 4 sold under the hammer on Monday night for $2.45 million, setting an Australian record.

Chinese-Australian wine collector and sex toy magnate Peter Tseng bought the rare collector’s item before a crowd of 300 people at the 2017 Shannons Sydney Winter Classic Auction, who applauded when the hammer fell on his purchase.

Mr Tseng, who arrived in his red Ferrari bearing the No. 2 licence plate, is a renowned number plate collector, owning the Hong Kong-registered No. 1 number plate and a personalised licence plate “ONE” registered to his 1969 Mercedes in Sydney.

Mr Tseng is understood to have bought the 1910-registered plate from entrepreneur Steve Shelley, co-founder of workforce management software company Deputy and owner of the Burraneer mansion “Nautilus”, which won Australian House of the Year last year.

The No. 4 plates were last seen on Shelley’s dual cab ute before it was registered at the Shannons auction with a guide of $1.2 million to $1.4 million.

After an opening bid of $1 million, bids quickly rose in $100,000 lots between two buyers until Mr Tseng raised his hand at the $1.35 million level. Mr Tseng did not put his hand down throughout the auction, leaving it raised for the next 22 bids until the mystery underbidder – known only as “Ray” – dropped out.

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The original NSW licence plate No. 4 sold under the hammer on Monday night for $2.45 million, setting an Australian record.

Chinese-Australian wine collector and sex toy magnate Peter Tseng bought the rare collector’s item before a crowd of 300 people at the 2017 Shannons Sydney Winter Classic Auction, who applauded when the hammer fell on his purchase.

Mr Tseng, who arrived in his red Ferrari bearing the No. 2 licence plate, is a renowned number plate collector, owning the Hong Kong-registered No. 1 number plate and a personalised licence plate “ONE” registered to his 1969 Mercedes in Sydney.

The crowd at the number plate auction applauded when Peter Tseng made his record purchase.
The crowd at the number plate auction applauded when Peter Tseng made his record purchase.

Mr Tseng is understood to have bought the 1910-registered plate from entrepreneur Steve Shelley, co-founder of workforce management software company Deputy and owner of the Burraneer mansion “Nautilus”, which won Australian House of the Year last year.

The No. 4 plates were last seen on Shelley’s dual cab ute before it was registered at the Shannons auction with a guide of $1.2 million to $1.4 million.

After an opening bid of $1 million, bids quickly rose in $100,000 lots between two buyers until Mr Tseng raised his hand at the $1.35 million level. Mr Tseng did not put his hand down throughout the auction, leaving it raised for the next 22 bids until the mystery underbidder – known only as “Ray” – dropped out.

Peter Tseng arrived at the auction in his red Ferrari, which bears the No. 2 licence plate.
Peter Tseng arrived at the auction in his red Ferrari, which bears the No. 2 licence plate.

The sale result – at more than $1 million above the highest guide expectations – was the most expensive item sold on the night, which included car memorabilia like the 1920s Michelin Compressor and a 1924 Rolls Royce Barker cabriolet that sold for $123,000. The second most expensive item sold on the night was a 1960 Mercedes Benz Roadster 190SL for $195,000.

The $2.45 million sale result is double Sydney’s median house price and matched the recent sales of a renovated three-bedroom, two-bathroom Victorian semi on Woollahra’s Roslyndale Avenue, and a Californian bungalow also with three bedrooms on almost 600 square metres on Macpherson Street in Cremorne.

Like most single-digit number plates, the No. 4 number plate is known for its ownership providence, most notably when it was registered to the Rolls Royce of Aussie John Symond, founder and executive chairman of Aussie Home Loans.

Sources have come forward to reveal Aussie John sold the plate in late 2015 to art collector and leading Brett Whiteley art dealer Steve Nasteski in late 2015 for about $850,000.​

Mr Nasteski is another well known number plate collector, having bought as many as eight rare two-digit number plates from the late stockbroker Rene Rivkin in 2004 through Nasser Elkordi, an associate of John Ibrahim and former flatmate of radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands.

Despite Nasteski’s penchant for number plates, he sold the No. 4 plate last year to Mr Shelley for between $800,000 and $900,000.

At that level, Mr Shelley would have made a windfall of more than $1.6 million on the number plate in the 18 months he owned it.

Mr Tseng featured in the 2013 Australian documentary film, Red Obsession, narrated by Russell Crowe, which tracked the dramatic rise and fall in the price of French wines between 2011 and 2012.

Monday night’s auction is expected to set a new benchmark in the cost of single-digit plates. Mr Tseng’s purchase of the No. 2 plate set a record at $750,000 that was topped in 2008 when the No. 6 number plate sold for $800,000.

The No. 1 plate is owned by the family of the late founding chairman of Australian National Airways, Sir Frederick Stewart, who had owned it since the 1930s.

In Victoria, single-digit number plates are also investment-grade assets. The No. 1 VIC plate is owned by former Foster’s Group chief Peter Bartels.

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By 1982, the year suffixes had reached Y and so from 1983 onwards the sequence was reversed again, so that the year letter - starting again at A" - preceded the numbers then the letters of the registration. The available range was then A21 AAA to Y999 YYY, the numbers 1-20 being held back for the government's proposed, and later implemented, DVLA select registration sales scheme. Towards the mid-1990s there was some discussion about introducing a unified scheme for Europe, which would also incorporate the country code of origin of the vehicle, but after much debate such a scheme was not adopted due to lack of countries willing to participate. The changes in 1983 also brought the letter Q into use - although on a very small and limited scale. It was used on vehicles of indeterminate age, such as those assembled from kits, substantial rebuilds, or imported vehicles where the documentation is insufficient to determine the age. There was a marked increase in the use of Q registrations

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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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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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If Sydneysiders thought property prices had hit peak ridiculous, licence number plate collectors have gone one better with the original NSW No.4 plate up for sale for between $1.2 million and $1.4 million.

The asking price tops the $1.18 million median house price in Sydney, and doesn't even include the Rolls-Royce that it was attached to until early last year when it was owned by Aussie John Symond.

The founder and executive chairman of Aussie Home Loans bought it in 2010 from property developer Ivan Holland, who had secured it in an art swap from businessman and art collector John Schaeffer.

Aussie John was approached to sell the 1910-registered plate early last year, but with a $1.2 million price tag the buyer from Asia declined.

Mr Symond has confirmed he sold the plates 18 months ago to a mystery buyer in South Sydney.

Numberplate aficionado Shane Moore said the plate is widely rumoured to have been sold by Mr Symond for about $1 million.

"Single-digit plates rarely trade so quickly," said Mr Moore, who runs the numberplates.com.au website.

"They are usually held within the one family for decades. As an asset class they've appreciated in value in recent years, but they're also a volatile asset. If things go badly, investors will sell off the plates."

Registered in 1910, the No.4 licence plate is the most expensive item set to go under the hammer on August 28 at the 2017 Shannons Sydney Winter Classic Auction.

It tops the asking prices for 26 cars on offer, including a 1924 Rolls-Royce for $120,000, a 1964 Porsche for $125,000 and a Mustang Fastback for $120,000.

Single-digit, heritage licence plates have long been a highly prized collectible among the ultra-wealthy. In 2008, the No.6 NSW number plate sold for $800,000. It topped the previous high of $683,000 paid in 2003 by an Asian businessman for No.2.

The No.1 plate is owned by the family of the late founding chairman of Australian National Airways, Sir Frederick Stewart, who had owned it since the 1930s.

The No.8 plate was regarded as the most valuable because it is regarded as auspicious in traditional Chinese culture. It last traded in 2010 for $500,000.

In Victoria, single-digit number plates are also investment-grade assets. The number 1 VIC plate is owned by former Foster's Group chief Peter Bartels.

In 2013 British businessman Afzal Kahn knocked back £8.5 million for his "F1" numberplate, having bought it for a record £440,000 in 2008, according to The Telegraph in London.

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By 1932, the available numbers within this scheme were running out, and an extended scheme was introduced. This scheme consisted of three letters and up to three digits, taken from the series AAA 1 to YYY 999. The letters I, Q, and Z were never used, as they were considered too easy to mistake for other letters or numbers or were reserved for special use, such as the use of I and Z for Irish registrations and Q for temporary imports. (After independence, the Republic of Ireland continued to use this scheme until 1986, and Northern Ireland still uses it.)

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