Heritage number plates expected to go for big money

While Personalised Plates in New Zealand can pick up huge interest and even more money for the right plate, over the ditch in Australia heritage number plates from the early years of Aussie motoring history are set to sell over $100,000.

A total of 24 New South Wales (NSW) car number plates - 23 put to auction by the NSW Roads and Maritime Services - will be offered as the first lots of the Auction, which commences at 7pm in Shannons St.Leonards showroom.

NSW introduced alphanumeric number plates in 1938 making the all number plates highly desirable.

The Auction lotting list includes six, highly-prized three-digit plates; 11 four-digit; six five-digit and a lone six-digital plate.

All but the six, three-digit plates will be offered with 'no reserve'.

The three-digit place are headed by the numbers '209', 217', '219' and '226', each of which is expected to sell in the $85,000-$100,000 range.

The top four-digit plates, '1994', '8882' and '8898' are slated to sell in the $30,000-$36,000 range - the latter two because of their 'lucky number' significance to many Asian buyers.

Auctioneers expect the most desirable five-digit plates - '30003', '22221' and '13333' to sell for $22,000-$28,000 because of their appealing numeric order, while the lone six-digit plate, '163327' put to auction by a private seller, has a guiding range of $10,000-15,000.

If all the number plates sell for their high estimates, their sale alone will produce a $1.134 million auction result.

From past experience in its similar number plate sales, Shannons believe the result could easily exceed that figure, as number plates continue their proven investment value.