Car culture covers a lot of space in the automotive world, so much so that a license plate can sell for $170,000 without any sweat. The British plate in question — it has a registration number of “O 10” — is one of the rarest ones in the world, largely because of how old it is. The identity of the new owner wasn’t revealed, but the plates did sell for a whopping £128,800 (close to $170,000 based on current exchange rates) at Silverstone Auctions. For a little perspective, the plate is more expensive than a 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT R, which sells for around $163,000 in the U.S.



FAQ

Q: What’s the story behind the “O 10” license plate?

For a rare license plate to fetch the value that it does, it has to have a rich and interesting history. Well, it doesn’t get richer and more interesting than the history of the “O 10” license plate. According to documents, the license plate was originally owned by Charles Thompson, a businessman who was born in 1874 in Birmingham.

Thompson’s family has owned the plate for its whole existence and his great-grandson, the vendor of the plate, decided to part with it after the family had owned it for the last 118 years. When Charles Thompson died, the plate was used by his son — the vendor’s father — Barry Thompson, who used it on all of his cars for over 60 years until his death in 2017. {{Among the cars that carried the “O 10” license plate include several Austin A35s, Minis, Vauxhall Cavaliers, Ford Cortinas, and Peugeot models}}.

It’s not exactly a list of desirable cars, and it goes to show that sometimes, a license plate can be more expensive than the car that’s wearing it.

Shortly after Thompson’s death three years ago, the license plate was held by the local Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Agency until it was eventually sold by Silverstone Auctions for a whopping $170,000.

Q: Is it the most expensive license plate ever sold?

A license plate that sells for $170,000 is no joke, but it’s also not the most expensive license plate ever sold. Not by a long shot. The most expensive license plate in the world is the “F1” license plate, which is owned by car tuning tycoon Azfal Kahn of Kahn Design. The plate is estimated to be worth around $16 million today. {{It tells you a lot about its value that Kahn, who has the plate on his Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, turned down an offer of £10 million ($13 million) for the plate back in 2018}}. Considering that the plate is reportedly worth $3 million more than what he was offered in 2018, I’d say that Kahn was smart not to sell the plate back then.

While the “F1” license plate is considered the holy grail among license plates, there is one other plate that can give it a serious run for its money. Back in 2008, a businessman named Saeed Abdul Ghafour Khouri paid 52.2 million dirham — that’s the equivalent of $14.3 million back then — for the local license plate “1” in Abu Dhabi. At that time, it became the most expensive license plate in the world, beating plate number “5,” which was procured by stockbroker Talal Khouri for $6.8 million a year before Saeed Khouri dropped the hammer on the “1” plate.

Q: What’s the most expensive license plate in the U.S.?

There’s no specific answer to this because it varies depending on who you ask. What we know is that old Delaware license plates are some of the most sought-after license plates in the world. {{Two plates in particular — the Delaware 11 and Delaware 20 — sold for $675,000 and $410,000, respectively, in the last couple of years}}.

But most license plate enthusiasts point to the 1921 Alaska license plate as the unicorn among all unicorns. Only four are known to exist, and finding them is more difficult than finding a needle in 10 haystacks. It’s unclear how much the 1921 Alaska plate is worth today, but we do know that the current owner of one of the four existing license plates bought his plate for “only” $60,000 back in 2000. That’s 20 years ago. Only the Lord knows how much it costs in today’s robust license plate collectible market.