£100k for MN 1 number plate

At an auction held at the Mount Murray Hotel and Country Club on Friday 6th February 2009, the number plate MN 1 sold for £100,000 to an anonymous bidder. Not bad for an island with a population of 80,000.

"I think everyone was about to fall off their chair in amazement", said a spokesperson for the auction organisers.

The registration was part of a collection owned by the late John Moore who had a large collection of classic cars and number plates. When MN 1 was originally issued it was to a George Drinkwater of Bradden and was used on his steam powered car.

Snow Day

Well the end of last week was written off for many people due to the snow. I can't remember seeing that much snow before and I'm older than the "twenty years since we've had this much snow". I do remember seeing the number plate 5 NOW a few years which would have been very appropriate for last week. I don’t have a picture of that but here’s a picture of some snow dressed as a snowman.

Number plates as investments

The DVLA held the first of this year's six personalised number plate auctions last week. The auction for 1600 private registrations took place at Whittlebury Hall, Towcester, Northamptonshire.

The top 3 best sellers of the auction were:

1 O - £210,242
1 HRH - £113,815
3 S - £94,035

1 O was sold to an phone bidder who wishes to remain anonymous.

1 HRH was bought by a Berkshire-based businessman. He said, “In my mind, there aren’t many registrations that can better 1 HRH. While bought as an investment, it will be placed on one of my cars.”

And venture capitalist, Spencer Day bought 3 S. He said, “There’s no better time than at present to invest money in personalised registrations. While I have no immediate plans to sell it, I am confident 3 S will give me a healthy return on my investment.”

Don't know where to invest your money? It seems number plates are a good bet.