The first car number plate issued in Australia is being sold at auction, and feverish bidding has already passed $10 million with more than a month to go.
The historic New South Wales “NSW 1” plate has never been offered at public auction until now, but after being listed online for 72 hours bids broke the $10 million mark, says auctioneer Lloyds.
The plate was believed to be the first registration plate fixed to a vehicle in Australia. It was released in 1910 to the NSW police commissioner.
But what happened to it in the following years has been hard to track.
By the 1930s it was the plate on the Oldsmobile owned by NSW industrialist and politician Sir Frederick Stewart.
After his death, the number plate was left to his widow, Lady Marjorie Stewart, who put it on her Ford Fairmont Ghia during the 1980s and other cars.
She knocked back an offer of $200,000 for NSW 1 in 1988, according to the listing.
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The impressive opening to bidding is set to make “NSW 1” becoming the most expensive number plate to sell in Australia when bidding closes next month.
The auction of the ‘NSW 4’ plate in 2017 – which sold for $2.45 million.
“This is the first time ‘NSW 1’ is being offered via public auction in more than 110 years and will probably be the last. It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure the most desirable and prestigious number plates in Australia,” said chief operations officer for Lloyds Auctions, Lee Hames.
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The most expensive number plate sold in the world was in 2008 when United Arab Emirates registration ‘1’ sold for for almost $20.5 million.
