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Welcome To Delaware, Home Of The $410,000 License¹ Plate

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

License plates are strictly² utilitarian³ in most states - a number to identify a car. Some states a little artwork - oranges in Florida, a peach in Georgia - slogans like land of Lincoln in Illinois, live free or die in New Hampshire. But in Delaware, license plates can be investments.

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UNIDENTIFIED AUCTIONEER: Let me get 200, 225, 200,000...

SIMON: On Monday, a license plate hit the block at Emmert Auction⁴ Associates in Rehoboth Beach. William Butch Emmert is owner of that auction house. Thanks for being with us, Mr. Emmert.

WILLIAM EMMERT: My pleasure.

SIMON: How much did it go for?

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UNIDENTIFIED AUCTIONEER: Sold - $410,000...

EMMERT: Four hundred ten thousand dollars for license plate No. 20.

SIMON: Did it belong to Marilyn Monroe or Abraham Lincoln? What makes...

EMMERT: (Laughter) Nope, it was from an estate up in northern Delaware - from Greenville, Del. - and a lovely lady that passed away, you know, of some means and wasn't a celebrity⁵. But anybody that has tag like that inherently is a celebrity in the state of Delaware.

SIMON: And I still don't quite understand. I mean, I'm a baseball fan but still don't understand why the Honus Wagner card is worth millions of dollars. What makes a license plate worth almost half a million dollars?

EMMERT: Well, in the state of Delaware, the governor has No. 1. The lieutenant⁶ governor has No. 2. The secretary of state has No. 3. Everything above No. 3, from 3 to infinity⁷, are all there, available and can be traded. Originally, they were traded for political favors in the '40s and '50s. And then, later, as it became much more prominent to trade them - you know, to sell them for money - what you're actually doing is, you're exchanging tags with someone who has a worthless tag, and the cost is the boot.

SIMON: Well, it's not a worthless tag; it lets you drive, right?

EMMERT: It's not a worthless tag at all. I'm talking about someone trades a worthless tag for the expensive tag and puts it on their car. It's not the plate; it's the number. You know, in the state of Delaware, it's strictly the number. It's a way of transferring wealth from one generation to another. It's like owning a great piece of art. We've seen these tags, like No. 20 - in 1958, '59 this tag was worth $5,000. It just sold for $410,000.

SIMON: If you'd bought gold bullion⁸ at those prices, I'm not sure they'd be - they would have multiplied that much.

EMMERT: No, I'm sure not. Very recently, one of my customers had a low tag on his car, and a gentleman pulled him off the road and asked him if he had come over on the Mayflower. You know, that...

SIMON: (Laughter).

EMMERT: (Laughter) You know, that's - it's old-line Delaware families that are wealthy.

SIMON: But let me understand it. In theory, someone who is a descendant of the founder⁹ of Delaware who had - let's all make it up - who had, let's say, license plate 15...

EMMERT: Right.

SIMON: ...Could sell that to some Eastern European billionaire who just came over, right?

EMMERT: Oh, absolutely. We had people bidding on the tag No. 20 and other tags that we had in the sale that were in Norway but on vacation. But, you know, as long as you're a Delaware resident and you have a license in Delaware, you can certainly do it. Several years back, we sold the world record for a single-digit plate; we sold No. 6 for around $700,000.

SIMON: May I ask - what's your license plate?

EMMERT: One hundred seven.

SIMON: That's a good one, right?

EMMERT: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a good one. Actually, I have several. I have several low license plates. I don't have any as low as 20 or anything like that, but I have some pretty good low ones.

SIMON: Butch Emmert owns Emmert Auction Associates in Delaware. Thanks very much for being with us, Mr. Emmert.

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EMMERT: Scott, my great pleasure.

SIMON: And may all your license plates be low numbers.

EMMERT: (Laughter) There you go.