It should be noted that there are no restrictions on using a vanity or cherished registration on a car that is newer than the original date of the registration plate, but it is prohibited to transfer a registration that is newer than the vehicle it is used on. This is to prevent the transfer of newer registrations to older vehicles as a measure to protect consumers.

Unique Number Plates

Y B-ZAR?

Because his license plate is APRIST — short for apiarist, a fancy word for beekeeper.

“Lots of people don’t get it, because it’s not a very common word,” said Clark, who keeps honeybees in the backyard of his Old Louisville home. “Every once in a while, somebody sees is and asks me about beekeeping and honey. But the whole point of a vanity plate is to create a word which is just like the real words but is itself a puzzle, so when you’re driving down the road, it’s ‘Oh, yeah, I got it!’”

Even in the early days, people recognised the significance and enjoyment brought by owning a prestigious or personalised number plate and often kept them within the family for many years. Their significance is often highly personalised to their owners. Some like to have a registration that originated in their local area, some are attracted to owning their own initials and others enjoy the fun of a word based registration mark.

Within the UK itself there are currently two numbering and registration systems: one for Great Britain, which is administered by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), and one for Northern Ireland, administered by the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA): both have equal status.

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 of London has the registration LB 0.

2010 Car Number Plates

We’re now just over a month away from the introduction of the 2010 number plate on all new cars hitting the road after the beginning of March.

While the excitement surrounding the introduction of new number plates may go over some people’s heads, during the past few years a real demand has grown for personalised plates, with some selling for an absolute fortune at auction.

Music legend Elton John’s former number plate ELT 70N recently went up for auction for just under £1,000, but that’s nothing compared to the £113,815 one crazy person (in the nicest sense) shelled out on a 1 HRH number plate auctioned by the DVLA at the beginning of 2009. And even that has some way to go to surpass £254,000 paid to take ownership of the 51 NGH plate.

'The 1 CUE cherished Number offers a unique chance to show the world you are at the top of your game' Bruno Morris of Image registrations told us.

Cherished numbers are a great investment and now is the perfect time to start your collection.

Cherished Number Auction Listing Now Online

The cherished registration auction listing is now available online at the Image Reg website.

Prices are still subdued so its a perfect time to invest in cherished plates.

We also offer a bidding service so why not let us take the strain for you and have over 13 years of experience at hand.

Contact us now to find our more, 01482 627 628.