Personalised or private number plates are often referred to as vanity plates and any registration with two to three consecutive valid letters and a number from 1 to 999 with possibly another letter is allowed. Because many vehicles registered before 1963 have been destroyed, these “dateless” pre 1963 personal or private plates are usually highly sought after and valuable, and can be used to conceal the age of an older vehicle.

The Government’s Cherished Mark Transfer scheme allows owners to display a registration index more appropriate to a speciality or collector’s vehicle, and many private dealers act as agents for DVLA issues, and also hold their own private stock of dateless registrations and other cherished marks. The DVLA however can only offer for sale registrations that have never previously been issued and thus have a limited offering and limited scope. One may not use a registration index to make a vehicle appear newer than it actually is.

Prices of these plates are increasing on a yearly basis and to illustrate this are three examples of cherished plate values. At the end of year 2008 the record played for a number plate is £397,500 paid at auction in September by an anonymous buyer for the plate S 1. This unique number was originally owned by Sir John MacDonald and was the first ever number plate in Edinburgh. The number plate F1 was sold for £375,000 on 25th January 2008 and was originally fixed to a Panhard motor car in 1904, the number M1 was sold at Goodwood for £33,000 in June 2006, giving some idea of the value of some of the vanity or private number plates.

It should be noted that there are no restrictions on using a vanity or cherished registration on a car that is newer than the original date of the registration plate, but it is prohibited to transfer a registration that is newer than the vehicle it is used on. This is to prevent the transfer of newer registrations to older vehicles as a measure to protect consumers.