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License plates can be as expensive as a luxury car. The cantons make good money with such auctions.
For some, it’s a simple sequence of numbers on a piece of sheet metal. For others, it’s a status symbol – the icing on the cake of a beautiful or expensive car. License plates with low numbers or Schnaps numbers are particularly popular. The “ZH 888” sign was sold on Wednesday evening on the Zurich Road Traffic Office’s website for CHF 194,000. In recent years, in various cantons, sometimes high sums have been paid for particularly coveted number plates.
The most expensive number plate cost over 230,000 francs
The auction of “VS 1” caused a stir. The highest bidder paid a good 160,000 francs for it in 2017. In the canton of St. Gallen, the “SG 4” license plate went for just under 180,000 francs last May. The most expensive number plate in Switzerland to date is “ZG 10”: the highest bidder paid a whopping 233,000 francs for it.
But who are the people who pay so much money for a piece of tin? The cantonal road traffic offices do not provide any information about this. The buyers usually want to remain anonymous. On the cantonal auction portals, interested parties bid with a user name of their choice: for example “Littlebylittle”, “Carrera GT” or “Legende”.
“Of course, we carry out a brief check on all bidders to see whether they are actually solvent,” says Zurich government councilor Mario Fehr, who is responsible for these auctions in the canton of Zurich. “But the auctions should also have something playful about them,” emphasizes Fehr. Above all, there are financial interests behind it. The cantons make good money with such auctions.
Lucrative business for cantons
The road traffic offices offer the number plates on their own platforms. 37 license plates are auctioned off in the canton of Zurich every week. Among them are not only very deep or particularly spectacular combinations of numbers.
Legend:
Not only particularly deep or spectacular license plates are auctioned. The canton of Zurich sells 37 number plates per week.
Screenshot auction.stva.zh.ch
Several hundred thousand francs flow into the state coffers in various cantons every year. In the canton of Zurich it is even more than five million francs per year or 100,000 francs per week. “That’s a good tip,” says government councilor Mario Fehr. The money will benefit all residents of the canton. For example, the road traffic office can offer free advice – for people with disabilities who want to stay mobile thanks to the car.