Cherished Number Plate Information

Information about cherished number plate BAL 14D.

This plate was sold at auction on 24/10/2007

This plate would be perfect for anybody wishing to spell the following: BALLAD, MUSIC, SONG

Private registrations can be a great investment, with important low number, dateless plates being the most attractive. The most expensive plate bought so far in the UK is F 1, which was purchased in February 2008 from Essex County Council by businessman, Afzal Kahn, for £440, 625. This may seem like an huge amount of money, but it should be noted that Mr Kahn’s F 1 could actually hold its value better than the Ferrari that carries it. In September, the plate S 1 was bought for &opund;404,062.50, which shows that the popularity for number plates continues.

The popularity of personalized car numbers has given birth to a very healthy marketplace. Whereas the majority of owners acquire their numbers for pleasure, there are an increasing number of investment-conscious customers who acquire their plates with a view to selling them later at a profit. A former BBC Top Gear presenter is widely quoted as having said that a well chosen private number can be better than money in the bank. Certainly some of Britain's most astute business people are converted to the personal registrations cause. Sir Alan Sugar, Duncan Bannatyne, Theo Paphitis - they all own carefully chosen cherished numbers.

Given that the law compels every driver on the UK's roads to display an identifying number plate, it is not surprising that people have found ways to turn that restriction into a bit of fun. A compulsory vehicle registration may have been introduced for tedious bureaucratic reasons, but people have come to realise that, by selecting the characters displayed on their plates, they are often able to contrive combinations that look very much like names and words. These personal touches help an otherwise unremarkable car to stand out from any number of identical vehicles.