The rumor within Tesla – big redundancies on the way Getting a personal license plate in Sweden is neither particularly expensive nor complicated.
You come up with a combination of two to seven characters that is not used, offends or can be confused with a regular number. Then you pay SEK 6,200, and then get to keep the number for 10 years.
In some other countries the system is more complicated. There, you are not allowed to create a character combination completely freely, and once you have got your hands on a registration, you own it until further notice.
For this reason, some rare or desirable registration numbers can fetch staggering sums on the used market. Here are some of the world’s most expensive registrations.
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P7: The most expensive plate is in Dubai
Unsurprisingly, the most expensive registration number ever sold publicly is found in the status-hungry emirate of Dubai, where the shortest character combinations are the most expensive.
In April 2023, an anonymous bidder offered registration number P7 at an auction for a whopping 55 million dirhams, corresponding to over SEK 156 million. The entire exorbitant sum went to charity, according to CNN.
W – Hong Kong’s most expensive license plate
Another place where there are a lot of high-net-worth individuals in search of status is Hong Kong, and there, too, short combinations carry a lot of weight.
The registration number W was sold in 2021 for 26 million Hong Kong dollars, corresponding to just under 35 million kroner, reports CNN.
This is significantly cheaper than the P7 plate from Dubai, but still a lot of money.
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Delaware 11 – most expensive in the US
Delaware isn’t necessarily the most talked-about or glamorous state in the US, but it is certainly home to the country’s most expensive reg sheet according to CBS News.
Here, the very lowest numbers are reserved for high-ranking officials. Plate number 1 is reserved for the state governor, number 2 for the lieutenant governor and number 3 for the secretary of state.
Delaware’s most expensive royal house to ever be sold is number 11, which was bought by the real estate family Fuscos in 2008 for $675,000, equivalent to just over SEK 7 million.
This is the most expensive license plate ever sold in the United States.
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25 O – most expensive in the UK
One of the countries where registration numbers are traded the most is Great Britain, where you often try to find combinations that suit the car on which the plate is to be placed.
The most expensive plate that has been sold in the country is 25 O, which can be read as 250, according to Privatenumberplates.com.
Britain’s most expensive sheet metal sits on a Ferrari 250 SWB – Photo: Gooding & Co
The combination thus fits very well on a Ferrari 250, which is a series of cars that regularly break records for the sums they command at auction. The record price for a Ferrari 250 GTO is SEK 730 million.
The registration number 25 O was sold to Ferrari enthusiast John Collins for £518,480 at auction, equivalent to just under SEK 7 million. It now sits on Collins’ Ferrari 250 SWB.
California MM – most expensive advertised sign
The most expensive registration number in the USA may have gone for a little over 7 million kroner, but according to Robb Report there are Americans with significantly higher ambitions than that.
In California, the registration MM came on the market in 2022, with a price tag of SEK 24.3 million, corresponding to over SEK 254 million.
There are no reports of the plate being sold, but if it were to be sold for the asking price, it would have become the most expensive registration plate in the world with a margin of roughly SEK 100 million.
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