Welcome home JAG 21E

[johnben]

Finally got round to applying for a Heritage Certificate earlier this year and on receiving it I found that the original colour was cream with black interior, it is now Carmen Red with the same colour interior. The original number plate was JAG 21E, I purchased it as as APT 579F. I contacted the DVLA to enquire about the original number plate and it's location. They had no record of it.

I set about looking into the history of the car as on investigation a doubt was raised whether the suffix was an E or an F but I drew several blanks. According to the Kithead Trust all registration records for Ayr were destroyed, as were those from many other counties during the creation of the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency). Obviously the DVLA had no record of the vehicle either with an E or F suffix.
I next tried the original company which owned the vehicle, which still survives today, however, my luck ran out when I was informed the original family had sold up some years previous and that the son of the owner (whose car it was) had died some while after his father.
My investigations were cut short following an email from the DVLA informing me that the registration JAG 21E would be in a public auction in three weeks time. This is not a coincidence, if the DVLA receive any enquiries regarding undesignated number plates they put them up for auction knowing that there is at least one potential customer. This was an unwelcome, unforeseen consequence of my enquiry and I was now faced with the dilemma that the ?original? number plate might be lost for all time to some other car, added to this the prefix JAG made this an attractive registration for the many companies who deal with cherished number plates in the UK.
From 1964 to 1975 Ayrshire?s (Scotland) designated letters were AG, the letter placed in front of these was called the serial letter and formed a group of three letters e.g. GAG, HAG & JAG, (IAG was not used as the I could be confused with 1). Regarding the suffix, E was used for the first 7 months of 1967 and F for the remaining 5 months, the number 21 was sequential.
Having been forced into premature action by the DVLA?s auction and paying about double the amount I had intended, which represents about 15% of the value of the car, I now have a number plate that reads JAG for Jaguar, the E as in E Type and 21 which is the age I would have been before June 1967 and a lingering doubt about the cars history.

What would you have done?

John

[ChrisC]

Probably the same thing John.

As you say the plate would have probably gone to an 'undeserving' Jaguar.

[MarkE]

I would definately have done the same thing John.

Just pretend it never happened and be happy that you have a really nice, and the original, rego for your car. Once the DVLA have made their mind up about something, you can never win.