Cherished Number Plates

National Numbers is one of the UK's most reputable personalised number plate suppliers, and we have a huge range of dateless and cherished private number plates available for sale with a simple checkout process.

The cherished number plate format is incredibly popular, and is often considered the perfect plate for older or more distinguished vehicles on the roads. As opposed to new number plate styles that have regular release dates every year, cherished car registration plates do not feature an age identifier and many of them have been around for over a century. In fact, they've been around longer than any other number plate format and were the original vehicle registration style introduced in 1903.

This makes them very popular as a personalised vehicle registration option because they look more unique than new registration plates, but are still road legal and original government stock.

As a cherished number plate provider, we have a massive selection of cherished car number plates from the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency available to buy today.

In fact, we stock all formats of private plates online, and can even provide acrylic plates from our parent company, Jepson & Co Ltd, the oldest DVLA number plate manufacturer in the UK.

Featured cherished number plates

What are cherished number plates?

As far as private registration plates go, cherished, also known as dateless registration marks, are extremely coveted and much sought after by UK buyers. With unique spacing compared to current style and other DVLA personalised registration, cherished number plates adhere to British Standards but offer something special for your vehicle.

As well as adding a layer of character to your car with something truly unique, you can also hold cherished registration plates on a retention document to accumulate in value and use as an investment.

National Numbers is a recognised reseller of DVLA registrations and replacement number plates, and we're one of the oldest dealers in the country. This means that if you’re looking for a place to buy cherished number plates, you've come to the right place.

How to transfer a cherished number plate

Cherished number plates exist in two states - on a certificate of entitlement (showing you as the legal owner), or on a vehicle. You can transfer a cherished plate from a vehicle to a certificate, or vice versa, with a DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) fee of £80 payable to make a registration 'transferable'.

The transfer process for registrations can be carried out online or via the post; but will require the V5C log book for any vehicles involved. The vehicles must be taxed and tested, and of course any certificate must be valid and not expired.

If you remove a registration from a vehicle to a certificate or another vehicle, the vehicle will receive another registration mark to take its place. This will typically be the original registration from before it was given a cherished number, or a random reg of suitable age for the vehicle.

How to sell cherished number plates

Firstly, we give you a FREE valuation with a suggested sale price you can modify. We then advertise your plate, find you a buyer, and handle the transfer.

Finally, you get paid what you agreed with no deductions. The buyer pays all transfer costs.

Cherished private registrations are valuable investments in the UK and can fetch a pretty penny to private buyers. Browse our range of dateless number plates to find your own cherished number plate investment, available to buy instantly with debit or credit card options available.

If you own a cherished number plate, or any format number plate that you want to transfer to another vehicle, be it current style, a Northern Ireland car registration, suffix, or prefix, you can find out how to transfer number plates from vehicle to vehicle here.

History of cherished number plates

Cherished number plates have existed since DVLA registrations were originally issued in 1903, and they were the first number plate format to be released. This means that they came before prefix number plates, suffix plates, Northern Ireland number plates, and new style registrations.

The reason for the release of number plates in the first place came about due to the Motor Car Act of 1903. This new form of legislation focussed on driving licenses, setting formal speed limits, and the ability to distinguish between vehicles on the road by using number plates.

Take a look at the below graphic of DVLA number plates to examine the history of number plate formats in more detail. And you can find out more about the history of UK number plates here.

Cherished number plate FAQs

We get asked a lot of questions about cherished number plates at National Numbers, so let's take a look at some of the most commonly asked queries we're often presented with.