Who owns the most expensive number plates in the world?
WHAT better way for the rich to show their richness by buying extortionately priced number plates for their already expensive cars.
We take a look at the most expensive number plates in the world - and yes it may shock you.
Who owns the most expensive number plates in the world?
Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri’s £7.2m ‘1’
The most expensive number plate in the world - made up of a single digit, ‘1’ was sold to Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri for Dh52.million ($14m, £7.2m).
He bought it from a number plate auction organised by Emirates Auction Company in 2008.
Khouri is the CEO of Abdul Khaleq Al Khouri & Bros Co and CEO of Milipol International Est.
Afzal Kahn’s £7m ‘F1’
In 2018, British automotive designer Afzal Kahn was described as “the king of car customisation”.
He bought his ‘F1’ number plate in 2008 for £440,000.
He has since been offered £20 million for the plate but has no intentions of selling it any time soon.
Balwinder Sahni’s £6m ‘D5’
Indian businessman Balwinder Sahhni forked out 33 Million AED, which roughly equivalent to £6.6 million in 2016.
Shai said that he wanted the number plate because his lucky number is nine and ‘D’ is the fourth letter in the alphabet, so four plus five equals nine.
Sahni told journalists that it will go on his Rolls Royce.
He is Chairman and CEO of RSG International, with its focus on property development in the UAE, Kuwait, India and the US.
Abdullah Al Mahri's £6m ‘1’
It’s no surprise that another UAE plate is topping this list.
Abdullah Al Mahri bought this plate in 2016 for 31 million AED, which is around £6.2 million.
The auction in Abu Dhabi saw the sales of many valuable and rarest number plates.
Mahri’s number ‘1’ plate took the number one spot, but other plates sold for millions of dirhams include ‘7’, ‘50’, ‘11’, ‘22’, and ‘66’.
Lucky 28 for £1.6 million
It’s popular to see personalised number plates with lucky numbers on them in Hong Kong.
In 2016, a ‘28’ number plate was sold for 18.1 million Hong Kong dollars which is about £1.6 million.
The word for 28 sounds just like a phrase meaning “easy money” in Cantonese.
Peter Bartels’ £1.7m '1'
There are several ‘1’ number plates in Australia, but the Victoria ‘1’ is said to be of the most value.
Estimated to be worth 2.4 million Australian dollars, the plate was last seen in Victoria in 2021 on a Mercedes AMG.
The plate is owned by an Australian businessman Peter Bartels, who was the CEO of supermarket chain Coles and the beer brand Fosters.
Peter Tseng’s £1.3m 'NSW 4'
In 2017, Chinese-Australian billionaire, Peter Tseng pushed an ‘NSW 4’ number plate for $2.45 million Australian dollars.
The New South Wales plate was first registered in 1910.
Tseng is a rare plate collector, wine enthusiast, and adult toy manufacturer.
John Collins’ £500,000 '25 O'
‘25 O’ was purchased by John Collins for over half a million in 2014.
Collins is a classic car dealer and the number plate ‘25 O’ meant that it was the perfect plate for some of the world’s most expensive classic cars -the Ferrari 250 series of sports cars released in the 1950s and 1960s.
Collins said he would put his newly purchased ‘25 O’ number plate on his 1961 Ferrari 250 SWB.
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Grand Prix number '1 'for £400,000
Number plates ‘1’ and ‘2’, which are registered in South Australia, were sold in 2020, with number ‘1’ selling for 700,000 Australian Dollars.
The plate is also a limited-edition Grand Prix plate, produced in 1985 to celebrate the Adelaide Grand Prix.
Nabil Bishara’s £350,000 '1 D'
The number plate ‘1 D’ was bought by Lebanese tycoon Nabil Bishara in 2009.
Bishara told the press that the plate was a birthday present for his wife and would go on her Bentley.
Goodwood Festival of Speed 'M 1' for £300,000
M1 sold for £300,000 in 2006 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The registration was the first plate to be issued in Cheshire and first purchased in 1903.
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It was owned by racing car enthusiast Maurice Egerton, Lord of Tatton Park in Cheshire.
The original plate remains on a 1900 Benz that Maurice restored, owned by the National Trust, but in 2006 the right to use ‘M1’ on a number plate was sold.