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Licence plate 35 is up for sale for the first time in 99 years. Photo: James Coleman.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been in the same Canberra family since 1927, when a drive to Sydney meant stopping to open farm gates.<\/p>\n
Now ACT number plate \u201935\u2019 is going to auction for the first time \u2013 and it could fetch a small fortune.<\/p>\n
Warren Vant drives a hail-damaged Nissan X-Trail. On paper, it\u2019s not worth much. Except for the pieces of metal pinned to each end. That alone could put its value into six figures.<\/p>\n
For almost a century, ACT number plate 35 has belonged to the same Canberra family, passed down through three generations since 1927.<\/p>\n
Now, for the first time in its 99-year history, it\u2019s going up for sale, as part of local auction house CARBIDS\u2019 November number-plate auction.<\/p>\n
Warren didn\u2019t make this decision lightly; those two little digits carry a lot of history.<\/p>\n
Warren\u2019s grandparents, Bernard and Alice Vant, moved to Canberra from Sydney in about 1927, bringing their only child, Clifford, with them. Bernard joined the city\u2019s early parks and gardens workforce, helping plant trees around the developing capital.<\/p>\n
The family initially lived in Braddon before settling in Turner.<\/p>\n
Back then, driver licences were few and far between and, without photos, they even included the driver\u2019s height and eye colour.<\/p>\n
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\u201935\u2019 has been through many iterations in 99 years. Photo: James Coleman.<\/p>\n
The then Federal Capital Commission issued Bernard licence number 35 on 1 July 1927.<\/p>\n
So, when it came time to register a car, he decided he\u2019d quite like the same number on that too, which wasn\u2019t hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were probably only 35 people driving back then \u2013 everyone would have known everyone,\u201d Warren says.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe probably could have even got a lower-digit number.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201935\u2019 came with the \u2018Licence to drive a motor vehicle\u2019. Photo: James Coleman.<\/p>\n
Back then, Canberra was a rather different place. Mostly paddock, with much more paddock between it and the nearest big smoke.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe talked about having to open and close farm gates as they drove to and from Sydney,\u201d Warren recalls.<\/p>\n
Warren doesn\u2019t know what car his grandfather originally fitted the plate to, but remembers it appearing on a variety of ordinary family vehicles over the following decades.<\/p>\n
The plate has also been re-minted, which is why it was black and white at first before moving to today\u2019s ACT colours of blue and white.<\/p>\n
When Bernard retired and returned to Sydney, Clifford, Warren\u2019s father, kept the plate in Canberra for around 40 years.<\/p>\n
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\u201935\u2019 before it got the blue-and-white makeover. Photo: James Coleman.<\/p>\n
Among the cars it adorned were an FB Holden, an HG Holden, and eventually, a Mitsubishi Magna. All Australian, if nothing exotic.<\/p>\n
When Clifford died, Warren\u2019s mother took ownership of the plate before passing it to Warren when she stopped driving.<\/p>\n
Its most recent home has been his trusty, literally weather-beaten, Nissan X-Trail.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell people when they\u2019re sitting in it, you\u2019re in an $180-odd-thousand car here,\u201d Warren says.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s probably not wrong.<\/p>\n
The current ACT number-plate auction record stands at $181,000, achieved by another two-digit plate, \u201854\u2019, sold through CARBIDS in November 2025.<\/p>\n
Other notable results include single-letter plate \u2018X\u2019, which fetched $147,200 in December 2022, \u2018V\u2019 at $87,600 in August 2023, and three-digit plate \u2018125\u2019, which sold for $86,100 in July 2023.<\/p>\n
Plate \u201835\u2019 belongs to the ACT\u2019s original sequential number-plate series, dating back to February 1927.<\/p>\n
Numbers from 1 to 99 are all privately held.<\/p>\n
Tired of getting taken for a ride at the dealership? Download our free car loans e-book<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n So why sell something that\u2019s been in the family for nearly 100 years?<\/p>\n Warren says the decision follows his mother\u2019s death. The plate forms part of the family estate, and his brother no longer lives in Canberra. Then there\u2019s the question of what happens when Warren eventually passes it on himself.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got three sons. How am I going to split it between them?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s quite sad \u2026 Mum\u2019s gone. That plate was important to her. But now seems the right time to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Licence plate 35 is up for sale for the first time in 99 years. Photo: James Coleman.<\/p>\n CARBIDS CEO Ben Hastings says rare number plates attract buyers for several reasons, from status and investment potential to a fascination with Canberra\u2019s motoring history.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s partly a status symbol, and it\u2019s partly the heritage,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people are doing it as an investment as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Generally, the lower the number, the higher the price. Hastings says combinations containing the number eight are also particularly popular because of its association with good fortune in Chinese culture.<\/p>\n But \u201935\u2019 has something else going for it: a documented family history stretching back to Canberra\u2019s earliest days, including an old photograph of the plate on one of the family\u2019s cars.<\/p>\n \u201cFor some people, it is just the history behind them,\u201d Hastings says.<\/p>\n And where do these expensive plates end up? Some go to collectors; others go to investors who eventually resell them.<\/p>\n Other times, Hastings says, \u201cthey just disappear into the abyss\u201d and are rarely seen on cars around town.<\/p>\n For Warren, the sale marks the end of an era.<\/p>\n Bidding for \u201835\u2019<\/a> closes on Wednesday, 4 November, through CARBIDS\u2019 monthly number-plate auction<\/a>. The buyer\u2019s premium has also been reduced to 5.25 per cent, down from 12.75 per cent.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/lmc-logo-square.png\"){kind=logo}
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