Are these the most collectible cherished car number plates available?

‘Double-digit doogies’ hit the market at over £116,000 each

Eleven is a very special number – and now, for the first time, the vehicle registration numbers 11 O and O 11 are available together in the UK.

Even at a valuation of over £100,000 each, these two unique numbers could be an investment bargain – particularly if kept together as a pair.  Both are dateless and lifetime registrations – unlike most UK registrations they give no indication of the age of the vehicle, and they can be transferred from vehicle to vehicle at any time.

“I have been waiting for years to get this pair together,” says Des Elton, CEO of Speedyreg.co.uk, the UK’s leading dealers in dateless vehicle registrations.  “I acquired O 11 a long time ago and as soon as its mate 11 O became available I snapped it up.

“Single letters have become very rare, and when combined with the number eleven they become even more attractive to the collectors of cherished plates and to the increasing numbers of investors who have been watching the market and seen how the best number plates can improve in value better than many equities or art, stamps and antiques.

Investment value potential

“When you add in Department of Transport transfer fees and VAT, the total cost of each number is £116,405, but with auction prices for collectible plates going as high as £400,000, there is still a lot of room for growth in value.  The class of investors entering the cherished numbers market are seeking to make this kind of purchase during the economic downturn, and money is not a problem for them.  £100,000 is a fraction of what many in the City are getting in their bonuses!”

Eleven is a special number for many reasons.  It is the first of the Master Numbers in numerology and marked an important stage in human evolution – the first number we could count beyond ten, the maximum for our fingers and thumbs.

Currently, it features prominently in pop culture, including Bob Dorough’s Schoolhouse Rock song “The Good Eleven”, which he dubbed “Double-digit doogies”. (You can see the full lyric at http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/Good.html and details of the Grateful Dead’s The Eleven at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eleven. There are several videos featuring Eleven in rock music on YouTube.

The phrase “eleventh hour” implies urgency in many languages and is of special significance in the Doomsday clock countdown to disaster for the human race.

Significant Elevens in history

An important date in recent history – Nine-Eleven – marks American Airlines flight 11 being flown by terrorists into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  The 1918 Armistice that ended the First World War came into effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year.   November 11 continues to be a special day to pay tribute to military casualties as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veteran’s Day in the USA.

For experts in mathematics and astrology, eleven has particular significance for many reasons, and it features also in literature, the cinema, sports, science and history.

Mathematical curiosities associated with eleven are many, as can be seen on a calculator where its characteristics as a strobogrammatic and a dihedral prime ensure that it reads the same if you turn the calculator upside down or reflect it in a mirror.  Any number that you can divide by eleven will result in another multiple of 11 when you reverse it digits.

Metal dealers and soccer fans among potential buyers

“Maybe a metal dealer will want one or both plates,” says Des Elton.  “They have been doing rather well lately and the colleagues and rivals they want to impress know that eleven is the atomic number of sodium, with the chemical Group 11 including copper, silver, and gold, the three main metals of special value used in coinage.

“When we speak of the ‘first eleven’ we describe the best available, so there could be particular appeal also to sports fans.   Soccer, cricket, hockey and American football all have eleven players in a team and car number 11 was driven by Ayrton Senna when he won the 1988 Formula One World Championship.  Eleven has particular significance as a shirt number in soccer because it is worn by  several prominent players – including Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs – playing as midfielders or strikers in the 4-4-2 formation.”

(There is a special feature on collectible soccer plates at https://www.speedyreg.co.uk/blogs/2010/12/manchester-uniteds-great-run-boosts-values-of-fan-number-plates/)

Elevens in space, music and gambling

Of course, eleven is particularly significant in space exploration with Apollo 11 being the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon. Sunspots cycle over periods of about eleven years and the number eleven features prominently in clusters, constellations and other astronomical references.

The 11th astrological sign of the Zodiac is Aquarius, and there have been eleven different Doctor Who characterisations time travelling on television.

Musically, perhaps the best known references are the eleven consecutive repetitions of the same chord in Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and the interval of an octave and a fourth being called  an eleventh. Many bassoons have eleven thumb keys, while a complete eleventh chord demonstrates nearly every note of a diatonic scale.

Eleven is very important for gamblers with an Ace being a prized card which can be counted as either one or eleven in Pontoon or Blackjack.  Two successful films set in Las Vegas have been called Ocean’s Eleven – the first starring the Sinatra Rat Pack and the latest George Clooney and Brad Pitt.  Three films have each won Best Picture among eleven Academy Awards — Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997), and The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.,, whichever is more advantageous for the player.

Computer users will know that the F11 plays a special role in controlling the screen display in browsers and in the Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix X11 windowing systems.

And if you live or visit London, remember that the number 11 bus is a great way getting to many of the best sightseeing locations!

• If you know of any other significant or interesting associations with Eleven, post them in the comments at https://www.speedyreg.co.uk/blogs/