Our Plates Brimmeth Over
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday March 29, 1996
Messages and mind-sets on vehicle number plates brim with wit - sometimes.
Every day the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority plays a game of cat and mouse with a variety of narcissists, exhibition-ists and others who need to express themselves via their car number plates.
Beyond special issue plates, some owners not only express but indulge themselves by investing tens of thousands of dollars at auctions for collectable low-number and custom plates.
According to a North Shore plate collector, the buyers' rule of thumb rates three-digit black and white plates as worth about $15,000, two-digit plates at between $20,000 and $30,000 and single-digit issues at least $30,000, ranging up to $100,000.
Personalised plates, with initials and chosen numbers, cost $142 in the standard large size black-on-yellow format, or $156 for the newer black-on-white thin plate for cars or motorcycles.
Custom plates, also black on white, cost $316 per year on a lease basis, and are tradable.
The RTA issues up to 300 personalised plates daily, and deciding on acceptable message for a car to wear keeps Karlene Faull, the RTA's co-ordinator of plates management, cryptically challenged.
"Initial vetting is done at the registry where the person applies for the plates," Ms Faull said, "and I have to check a daily list of plate messages.
"We walk a fine line between not being prudish and causing offence. As a general rule, if the customer can't or won't explain the meaning of a plate, we get suspicious."
MAD69R (claimed to be for a 1969 hotrod), ENIS (for a P-plater), FARQ, KIXARS, IOUSFA and UB6IB9 have all been rejected, but the sensitivities of the community extend further.
The day after Ayrton Senna died, for example, the RTA had many requests for SENNA. But, according the Formula One champion his due respect, the plate was issued six months later, and then only to a fan who had to prove his long time devotion to the racer.
Other languages can cause problems. MERDE, a French obscenity, was withdrawn after a complaint, and unless your initials are GOD, forget it.
Any plate bearing 8 is popular among the Chinese community, who consider it lucky; the number 4, associated with death, is anathema. Many people reject the devil's number, 666, and unlucky 13.
LICKIT (on the back of an ice-cream van), PIGBUM (on a smallgoods truck) and STIFF (adorning Madame Lash's hearse) passed the context test.
The big money is in original early numeral-only plates, issued between 1910 and 1937. These are available by private sale or from RTA auctions, and the most valuable are the early single numeral plates, which can command six-figure amounts. Numbers 1 to 100 are still in circulation.
Before matching wits with the RTA, check that someone hasn't thought of your message already. Call 13-2213 to check, or inquire at your nearest motor registry. But be warned. People for whom a number plate is one of life's less important accessories, may think URSILY, ALOSER or UNCOOL.
© 1996 Sydney Morning Herald