Hey Steven, you can thank me for that! Back in 1983 when the then DMT started auctioning numeric plate fallen into disuse, one of their sales pitch statements was “two for the car, one for the bar”. This of course referred to 2 full sized plates to use on your car and the miniature souvenir to hang in your bar. They continued to release plates by auction, and also by tender, until 1991, but then inexplicably stopped. Then over time they simply forgot about it, forgetting about the people still buying & selling getting their mini. The people within the RTA at the time move on, change roles, etc, and they dropped the ball.
Then in 2000 I hot my 3 digit. I knew about the minis, and I wanted mine! I fought them. They wanted me to produce proof they did it! Which I did as I had original DMT documentation from the auctions, all saying they did it. Then they wanted proof I paid my transfer fee! No problem, here’s my receipt for $1300. They then made me one! And re-introduced the service. But get this, they started charging people $90 if they wanted one from just an enquiry!
Anyway, glad to see they are still doing it, and for free. So they should!