Car Number Plate Bidder Buys The Car Licence Plate VS 1 In Auction

The canton of Valais is 160,100 francs richer after an anonymous bidder bought the car number plate VS 1 in an auction that finished on Tuesday.

The figure is the highest amount ever paid for a vehicle car registration plate in Switzerland and "surpassed expectations", said the cantonal authorities in a statement.

The canton’s road traffic and navigation service (SCN) launched the auction on February 15th with bids open for a month on a number of plates.

The VS 1 plate attracted 17 bidders, with the highest bid coming from a person using the pseudonym Matrans.

His or her 160,100 winning bid breaks the Swiss record previously set in the canton of St Gallen where 135,000 francs was paid for the plate SG 1.

The new owner of VS 1 will remain anonymous for the time being, said the canton. When the car is officially registered with that plate the owner can themselves decide if they wish any publicity.

The auction continues with five new plates, including VS 12 and VS 103, on the platform vs.ch/autos

The amount raised from the Valais’ first ever licence plate auction will go into the canton’s public coffers.

So what are the top selling number plates in the UK? The DVLA has been selling private plates to UK motorists since 1989. During this time, there have been a number of records set, but most of the top 10 have been bought in the past 15 years. Here’s what currently makes the list:

25 0 – A Ferrari dealer bought this for £518k in 2014. It is now on a £10 million Ferrari 250 SWB.
F 1 – A businessman, Afzal Khan, bought this for £440k in 2008 and put it on his McLaren-Mercedes SLR.
S 1 – This was bought in 2008 for £404k by an anonymous buyer.
1 D – Businessman Nabil Bishara bought this plate in 2009 (before One Direction was formed, so it is not a reference to the band) for £352k.
M 1 – Businessman Mike McCoomb bought this number plate in 2006 for £331k, apparently for his son, who was 10 at the time.
VIP 1 – Chelsea owner and businessman Roman Abramovich bought this plate for £285k in 2006.
51 NGH – This number plate, which looks like the surname Singh, was sold in 2006 for £254k.
1 RH – Businessman Robert Haverson bought this in 2006 for £247k.
K1 NGS – This reg plate, which looks like the word “kings”, was bought anonymously in 1993 for £231k.
1 0 – This very simple but striking number plate was bought anonymously in 2009 for £170k.

These are large amounts of money, but they are all small compared to the top-selling number plates found in other parts of the world. Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, has the record for the most expensive number plate ever sold. That number plate was a simple “1”. It was bought in 2008 by businessman Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri for £7.25 million.

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