Doctor Who Number Plate Launched By DVLA

The DVLA is calling out to Doctor Who fans as it promotes its latest number plate sale, offering ‘Who 63’ for sale to Whovians with deep pockets.

Whatever your opinion on personalised number plates, it’s big business not just for purveyors of registration numbers, but for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) too.
Each year the DVLA holds sales to flog number plates no longer, or never in, circulation to raise a few bob, with prices ranging from a few hundred pounds to over £500k for ’25 O’.

So with the latest number plate sale due to run from 22-24 November, DVLA are promoting it with what they think is the perfect plate for a Doctor Who fan – or Whovian – with the sale of ‘WHO 63’.

It might not quite be the ‘WHO 1’ famed for being on John Pertwee’s Doctor Who car, but it does denote the year Doctor Who first aired (1963) and will go under the hammer almost exactly 54 years to the day Doctor Who first aired at 5.15pm on 23 November 1963.

But it’s not just Doctor Who fans being enticed to buy a new number plate, with Manchester football fans wooed with ‘M17 CTY’ and MA17 ‘UTD’, and potential buyers who are desperate to tell the world their name (or an approximation) with ‘DOU 9G’ and PA11 DDY’, amongst others.

"It is a historic and highly significant number for us because it is the symbol of the establishment of the UAE which was created on December 2," he was quoted as saying by a Russian-language business daily published in Moscow. The auction saw fierce competition between bidders hailing from all community segments.

The popular auction generated a revenue of more than $15m. 60 distinguished Abu Dhabi number plates were auctioned at Emirates Palace hotel. Abu Dhabi Police, in cooperation with Emirates Auction, held the public auction on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the country's establishment.

The auction listed the numbers on the company's website, including five double-digit plates, 15 three-digit plates, 19 four-digit and 17 five-digit plates. Fancy numbers like 10, 60, 333, 600, 999, 1000, 1111, 5050, 6000, 6060, 6666, 9090, 9999, 10000, 55555, 60000, 66666 were also sold at high numbers at the event attended by 800 people from across the region.

In November, an Emirati businessman who bought the car plate Number 1 for Dhs 31m at an auction in Abu Dhabi was charged with fraud after his cheque bounced.

Emirates Auction has announced that it will hold a public auction for 50 distinguished vehicle number plates for Ajman on Saturday, 25th of November, at the Bahi Ajman Palace Hotel.

Emirates Auction said that all the numbers available are from category 'H' which is being offered for the first time in Ajman and will be available for sale exclusively through auctions. The numbers available include one single-digit number plate bearing the number '2' and four double-digit plates, as well as 14 three-digit, 14 four-digit, and 17 five-digit number plates.

Abdulla M. AlMannaei, Chairman and Managing Director of Emirates Auction, said that he expected the auction to witness a huge turnout from enthusiasts.

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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