Reg Plates Auction Rules And Securing Your Plates

A Rhode Island couple is pushing for an exception to state law that would allow them to raise money for charity by selling their prized family heirloom -- number plate No. 11.

Low-numbered number plates could once fetch high prices in the state, but now owners can only transfer them to relatives. Otherwise, a lottery is held to award it to someone else.

The Pawtucket Times reported that David and Carol Anne Hayes, both in their 70s, won't be able to pass their number plate to their children, who live out of state. Instead, they asked a state House committee last week to create an exception for charitable auctions.

David told the panel he was offered $25,000 cash for the plate 40 years ago, and imagines it would be much more valuable now.

THEFT of number plates in Echuca-Moama is rising by 20 per cent annually.

Which is why Echuca West Neighbourhood Watch and Echuca police are on a mission to stop the increase or at least slow it down.

Neighbourhood Watch will be holding its second Safe Plate Day for the year at Bunnings, Echuca on Saturday, May 6 from 9am until 2pm.

Interested people can have special theft proof number plate one-way screws fitted to their vehicles.

Echuca West Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator Len Wills said fitting the screws was an easy crime prevention measure.

‘‘We can protect vehicle owners from the inconvenience and cost that stolen number plates cause,’’ Mr Wills said.

He said Victoria police, through Neighbourhood Watch, had taken these measures to reduce crime in the community.

On May 6 Neighbourhood Watch will be offering a new service — ‘‘park and shop’’.

‘‘For those who want to have safe plate screws fitted while they visit Bunnings,’’ Mr Wills said.

‘‘There will be signs to direct drivers to the park and shop area.’’

The day is sponsored by Bunnings and safe plate screws are supplied at no cost.

Mr Wills said Neighbourhood Watch would appreciate any donations on the day to go towards community activities.

How close a series of letters or numbers are to a real name of word: if the match quality is high (and the numbers and letters are very convincing in making a popular word), the value of the registration plate will be higher. This means that a match like 5IMON, for the name Simon, will be worth a lot more than a more obscure set of letters and numbers that are not as convincing a match, such as S17 MMM for the name Sam.

The style of the plate: this means establishing if it is a new-style plate, an older-style format or if it is dateless or Irish, for instance. Other options are that it is a prefix-style plate or a suffix-style plate. New-style number plates, which have been produced since 2001, tend to be the least valuable because they are a bit less appealing to some collectors, plus the rule about not having plates that are newer than your car can also come into play, putting people off from buying a newer-style plate for their older car. Prefix-style number plates, which were in production between 1983 and 2001 can be more popular as more vehicles are entitled to have those licence numbers, and they may have fewer characters in total. Suffix-style plates, issued from 1963 to 1983 are relatively rare, which means they can attract higher prices than prefix-style plates and newer designs. Dateless number plates, also known as cherished number plates, were produced between 1903 and 1963 and are nearly always the most valuable number plate configurations; they have fewer digits and their dateless nature means that people can hide the age of their car. Irish number plates are similar to dateless number plates, especially because they don’t have a year identifier. They also tend to be cheaper than other types of vehicle registration plates.

number plates reg transfers