Govt begins sale of personalised vehicle registration plates costing up to £500,000

Personalised vehicle registration plates costing up to £500,000 are currently being sold, with a special ‘G1B’ plate set to be auctioned for the GBC Open Day.

For the past few days Gibraltarians have been snapping up their chosen licence plates featuring special dates and names.

The registration plates were unveiled by the Gibraltar Government on Friday and cost upwards from £1,250.

The premium plates such as ‘G 0’, ‘G AMG63’, ‘G F1’ and ‘G P1’ are currently on sale for £500,000 each.

There are other plates up for auction soon such as ‘G A’ which has a reserve price of £50,000.

The registration plate ‘G GIB’ will be auctioned by the Government and the proceeds with be donated to the GBC Open Day.

At the closing of Parliament on Friday evening, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo announced the pending auction.

“The Government and the people have donated to the GBC Open Day, today that we have opened private number plates for registration, the registration mark ‘G1B’ which reads ‘Gib’ from a distance so that it can be auctioned by GBC and that all the proceeds of that auction should go to the GBC Open Day,” Mr Picardo said.

Several other plates will be made available for auction including ‘G 007’ with a reserve price of £25,000, ‘G V1P’ priced at £10,000 and ‘G T4X1’ priced at £5,000.

Personalised plates are currently available in various price tiers.

The most premium plates cost £500,000 but have a starting price of £5,000.

Plates that are G followed by one character have a starting price of £10,000.

The price continues to reduce with the more letters and digits the plate if comprised of, with the lowest price being £1,250.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Department (DVLD) and the Customer Care Hub are overseeing the sale and issuance of these unique personalised registration plates.

To ensure that all plates maintain a high standard, the DVLD will take steps to prevent offensive content.

Plates may be revoked if deemed inappropriate and a full refund will be issued.

The letters ‘I’, ‘O’, ‘Q’, ‘S’, and ‘Z’ are excluded to avoid potential confusion with numerical characters.

Upon purchasing a personalised plate, owners will receive a certificate of ownership.

The certificate of ownership will be collected from the Customer Care Hub, 323 Main Street and must be taken to the DVLD when registering the personalised plate to a vehicle as proof of ownership.

If a Premium, Auction or G + 1-character personalised plate is resold by the owner, the seller is required to pay the licensing authority 10% of any profit from the sale to transfer the ownership.

"This is an exciting initiative that will generate revenue for the Government and engage interest from all Gibraltar vehicle owners,” Mr Picardo said prior to the launch.

“A personalised plate allows individuals to display their name, initials, birthdate, hobbies, car model, profession, etc.”

“This initiative provides an opportunity to replicate successful programs from other countries worldwide, including the UK, Belgium and Canada.”

The plates are currently available from: www.personalisedplates.gov.gi