‘Worth more than the car’: The backstory of this rarely seen number plate

If you spend enough time on the roads, it's likely you've had the good fortune of spotting a single-digit number plate at least once.

One much-spotted example is the Victorian '1' heritage plate, which typically causes a stir any time it's photographed and shared on social media.

Most recently, it has once again surfaced on the Exotic Car Spotting Australia and Heritage Number Plate Spotting Facebook groups, after being spied on a silver Mercedes-AMG C43 wagon.

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“What a waste of money. IDC [I don’t care] what anyone says the amount of things you could do with millions and you go and buy a number plate,” one Facebook commenter said, while another remarked, “the plate's worth more than the car”.

Rare plate enthusiasts were quick to speculate on the estimated value of the '1' plate, with one Facebook post stating: "There have been reports of the owner knocking back offers in the vicinity of $8M”.

“I know the owner I can say they’ve had offers of close to double that,” one commenter claimed.

According to Australian heritage plate historians numberplate.com.au, the estimated value of the Victorian '1' license plate is closer to a staggering $20 million.

"The plate itself has very little value and is only 'leased' from the registry. The rights to display are owned and are the valuable asset," a numberplates.com.au spokesperson told Drive.

"There is no capital gains tax on [the] number plate either so they make an exceptional investment."

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, “the lower the number, the higher the value” with the general estimation of value for heritage plates as follows:

"Single-digit heritage plates are worth $3 million to $10 million, two-digit plates: $900,000 to $3 million, three-digit plates: $500,000, four-digit plates: $200,000, five-digit plates: $100,000, and six-digit plates: $40,000".

Australian website numberplates.com.au has previously published the illustrious history of the VIC 1 heritage plate.

It is widely speculated that single-digit Victoria number plates 1-6 were originally made in 1932 and were reserved for Government officials – however, none of them could agree on who had the right to own the coveted license plate.

Rather than reaching a compromise, the authorities involved kept the plates in a safe and 50 years later, in the 1980s, they were auctioned off.

The first owner of '1' was retired Ballarat mechanic Mr Gary Price, who purchased the plate at an October 1984 auction for $165,000 (inflation-adjusted $571,551).

From there, Izzy Herzog, the owner of City Saab, purchased the plates for an undisclosed amount and fitted them to a Saab 9000 Turbo. according to information shared with numberplates.com.au by then-head of PR for City Saab, Francois Roth.

A 1988 newspaper article validated this section of the number plate’s history, stating: “While previous owners had seen fit to keep the plates under lock and key, City Saab used them to help raise $22,000 for Deafness Foundation in November.”

While it hasn’t been definitively acknowledged by authorities, previous rumours claimed the license plate was next owned by John Avram who reportedly purchased the plates for $250,000 (inflation-adjusted $685,514).

According to one Facebook user: "The next time the plate was seen by a collector was in early 1991 when Ron Guy photographed it on John Avram's black Rolls-Royce in Shepparton."

However, unsubstantiated reports on the Heritage Plate Spotting Facebook page allege Mr Avram was in financial trouble and to help alleviate debt issues, sold the license plate for a rumoured $100,000 (inflation-adjusted to $214,761) to Carlton and United Brewery (CUB) and the license plate was allegedly registered to the alcohol company by 1991.

Following the acquisition of the VIC 1 heritage plate, CUB displayed it on an HSV SV5000 specifically made for one of its brands, Victoria Bitter (VB).

According to previous reports, the current owner of the plate is believed to be Peter Bartels, the former CEO of Carlton & United Breweries and Fosters, who obtained it as part of his package when he left the company in 1992.

Throughout its life, the VIC 1 number plate has been heavily documented and photographed – displayed on mostly luxury vehicles from the likes of a Mercedes-AMG E55, a Mercedes-AMG E63 and a Porsche 911 Turbo.