Event: The Great Plate Auction
Date: 22 November 1983
Location: Sydney Entertainment Centre
This was the first heritage number plate auction held in NSW, and was held by the Department of Motor Transport.
Around 6,000 people attended the auction and a total of $1,418,600 worth of number plates where sold.
The heritage plates offered where split into three different categories – Historic, Distinctive and Memento.
We are in possession of one of the original auction booklets which lists all of the plates offered, however we only have prices for a limited number of plates.
If any of the numbers below appear as a link, you can follow the link to our photo of the plate fitted to a car.
“Historic”
75 “historic” heritage plates were offered at the auction. These included single digit and two digit plates, along with three digit plates starting with a ‘1’.
1 digit:
2 digit:
- 16 – ?
- 33 – ?
- 47 – ?
- 48 – ?
- 52 – ?
- 56 – ?
- 59 – ?
- 62 – ?
- 65 – ?
- 69 – ?
- 71 – ?
- 73 – ?
- 75 – ?
- 76 – ?
- 77 – ?
- 81 – ?
- 82 – ?
- 83 – ?
- 84 – ?
- 89 – ?
- 92 – ?
- 93 – ?
- 94 – ?
- 95 – ?
3 digit:
- 103 – ?
- 107 – ?
- 111 – ?
- 112 – ?
- 113 – ?
- 114 – ?
- 115 – ?
- 118 – ?
- 120 – ?
- 127 – ?
- 132 – ?
- 134 – ?
- 135 – ?
- 138 – ?
- 141 – ?
- 142 – ?
- 145 – ?
- 146 – ?
- 147 – ?
- 149 – ?
- 154 – ?
- 155 – ?
- 156 – ?
- 157 – ?
- 158 – $7,500
- 159 – $7,000 (maybe)
- 160 – $10,000
- 161 – $9,500
- 164 – $7,500
- 165 – $7,500
- 167 – $7,800
- 168 – $8,800
- 171 – ?
- 173 – ?
- 174 – ?
- 176 – ?
- 177 – ?
- 178 – ?
- 179 – ?
- 182 – ?
- 184 – ?
- 186 – ?
- 187 – ?
- 192 – ?
- 193 – ?
- 194 – ?
- 196 – ?
- 197 – ?
“Distinctive”
Fifteen “distinctive” heritage plates were offered, which ranged from three to six digits, with all plates containing repeating numbers.
3 digit:
- 222 – $21,000
- 444 – $24,000
- 555 – ?
4 digit:
- 1111 – $20,000 (unclear)
- 2222 – $17,000
- 3333 – $15,000 or $15,500
- 5555 – $16,500
- 7777 – $22,000
- 8888 – $20,000
6 digit:
- 444444 – $13,000
- 555555 – $11,000
- 666666 – $11,000
- 777777 – $17,000
- 888888 – $14,000
- 999999 – $11,000
“Memento”
1,400 “memento” heritage plates were offered, ranging from four to six digits.
6 digit:
- 999939 – $4,300
There were many more 6-digit plates offered at the auction. These will be slowly added to this page over time.
We know that NSW 1 was not offered, unlike in Victoria and Queensland where the number 1 plates were offered at similar auctions around the same time.
The reason for this was simply that NSW 1 was already in private ownership.
If you have any information on sales prices for any of the plates we would love to hear from you.