Personalised number plates are littering the UK’s roads today but the release of new ‘16’ number plates may be as innocent as you may expect.
For the majority of us, the new selection of number plates available enables us to customise our vehicles with a combination of numbers and letters that signify special names, dates and initials.
However, some cheeky motorists are being banned from attempting to display potentially-offensive combinations on their vehicles.
DVLA, the government body who take charge of all motoring, vehicle and taxing issues relating to UK vehicles, released a list of registration marks that were banned ahead of their bulk ‘16’ plate release in March earlier this year.
The list, which includes plates that are believed to be religious, homophobic and of general poor taste, means that the number plate attached to a vehicle cannot be made to display explicit messages.
Super Car Reg #GSpot #Funny #Famous #Celebrities own great private registrations. #Elite #AList #TV #Film #Rude pic.twitter.com/FqgjjvHyrx
— Aston J Martin (@SuperCarReg) January 16, 2015
The configuration of UK number plates has meant that a plate can consist of a two letters, followed by 2 numbers and three letters.
“B16 COX”, “B16 NOB” and “B16 SHT” were just a handful of the combinations that utilised the newly-available ‘16’ number to allude to the word ‘big’. Although it may sound like a completely innocent word, the following three letters would definitely result in eye rolls from some other drivers on the road!
Registration marks that imply swearing words like “BU16 SHT” and “BU16 GER” have gained a strong following and the banning of the combination is likely to leave eagle-eyed fans disappointed that they can’t purchase them.
Other forbidden combinations include “OR16 ASM”, “P16 SHT” and “CR16 PLE” – plates that would be guaranteed to receive second-looks when displayed on a vehicle.
The market for private number plates in the UK is worth around £2.3 billion per year and although the banned plates aren’t available to generate any money for DVLA, it would undoubtedly bring them in a fair income if the rude plates were available for sale.
The biggest sellers from online number plate provider Platehunter feature names and common words.
They predict that “WR16 GHT”, “AL16 SON” and “RO16 ERT” will be the plates bringing in the biggest funds, with excited fans all over the world keeping an eye out for their release.
The most expensive private plate ever bought in the UK was “25 O”, which managed to sell for a staggering £518,000.
Although the banned number plates from this years’ batch wouldn’t be expecting to reach these heights, it’ll come as no surprise that they would generate a fair bit of income combined!