What is a cherished number plate?

Cherished number plates aren’t just run-of-the-mill number plates. They’re cherished for a reason. A cherished number plate isn’t simply a number plate that people value highly. It refers to a specific type of number plate, issued before 1963.

These number plates are ideal as a source for personalised number plates, that you can then have as 3D gel plates or 4D plates.

What’s So Special About Cherished Number Plates?

Basically, it comes down to the format of these number plates issued before 1963.

These plates don’t have a date-identifier on them. There’s no character indicating the year of issue.

This makes these older number plates very straightforward in their arrangement of characters and numbers, for example:

AD 8 or 12 BC.

Earlier plates had letters followed by numbers. Later on, this was reversed, with numbers coming first.

Cherished number plates are highly desirable as personalised plates and some can command very high prices.

However, there are lots of them and they come onto the market frequently, and if you’re in the right place at the right time, you might be able to snap one up for a few hundred pounds.

Is it worth it? Yes, if you’re looking for a personalised number plate that is short and will have maximum impact.

But once you get a cherished number plate, how do you hold onto it?

How Do I Keep My Cherished Number Plate?

If you decide to change your car but you don’t want to lose your cherished, personalised number plate, you can apply to take it off your current vehicle.

By doing this, you can keep the same registration number to use later or to assign it to another vehicle.

Normally, if you take your personalised registration number off the car, it will revert to its original registration. To keep your cherished number plate, your vehicle must be eligible under DVLA rules.

You must apply to the DVLA to take your registration number off your vehicle. You can do this online.

The application will cost you £80.

If your application is successful, DVLA will give you a reference number in a V778 retention document with a new logbook. The process is usually very quick.

Once you have this reference number, you can apply to transfer your personalised registration to a new vehicle.

Find Out More About 3D and 4D Number Plates

Browse our collections online or use our number plate builder to get the perfect design for your cherished number plate.