Australia’s most sought-after license plate has hit the market and while bidding only recently opened and will run until the third week of January, bids have already surpassed the AU$10 million ($6.7 million) mark.
The plate is number ‘1’ in the state of New South Wales and has never been offered for public auction before. It is believed to be the first registration plate affixed to a vehicle in Australia when it was issued to the state’s first Police Commissioner. It remained under his possession until the 1930s when it was acquired by businessman Sir Frederick Stewart and registered to his Oldsmobile.
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Stewart passed away in 1961 but the plate remained in the family and in 1988, his widow Lady Majorie Stewart, reportedly turned down an offer of AU$200,000 ($134,000) for the plate. She died in 2000 but once again, the family held onto the plate. Only now are they selling the plates through Lloyds.
While bidding on the plate will remain open for a further five weeks, it is already on track to set a record for the most expensive license plate ever sold in Australia. That crown is currently held by number ‘4’ in New South Wales which traded hands for AU$2.45 million back in 2017. NSW ‘1’ has been rarely seen in recent decades but was spotted affixed to a classic Daimler model back in 2014.
The most expensive license plate ever sold globally is ‘P 7’ which fetched 55 million dirhams ($14.97 million) in the United Arab Emirates earlier this year. That sale toppled the previous record that had stood since 2008 when Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri splurged 52.2 million dirhams ($14.2 million) on the number ‘1’ plate in Abu Dhabi.
