Popular Number Plates

When it comes to car number plates, Californians have several to choose from that can depict everything from a dancing Snoopy to a majestic whale tale to a fire fighter.

But by far the most popular number plate to be attached to the state’s cars is a throwback to the 60s – that has no imagery at all - but rather just bold, gold letters on a black background.

According to The New York Times, the “California 1960s legacy number plate” is the special number plate desired by more Golden State drivers than any other.

More than 230,000 of the placards, first issued in the decade when Fred Flintstone was having a yabba dabba doo time and muscle cars ruled the road, have been sold since the Department of Motor Vehicles reintroduced them in 2015.

The “Have a heart, Be a star, Help our KIDS” plate, that can include a handprint, a heart or star is second on the list with 91,000 and the third most popular is the majestic whale tail with 67,000, the Times reported.

Then-Assemblyman Mike Gatto wrote the bill that created the legacy plate program in 2012 so that classic car owners could have a plate that reflected the years their vehicles rolled off the assembly line.

But the number plates are showing up on cars of all makes and models and years.

Why are they so popular? “Because they look so cool,” wrote Gary Richards of The Mercury News last year.

The DMV began issuing the plates once the agency had received 7,500 preorders, the number needed for them to be manufactured. (Alas, 1950s and 1970s fans, those decades were also going to be available but neither hit the above magic number.)

The replica number plates, which are produced at Folsom State Prison, cost $50 and can be ordered for any year vehicle. More info can be found here. Proceeds from the sales go to the Environmental License Plate fund, which benefits environmental projects in the state.

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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