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A pair of 1963 Washington, D.C. license plates, which were on the limousine carrying John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie on the fateful day of his assassination on November 22, 1963, were sold at a recent week. The asking price was $40,000, but the final sale price was $100,000, sold to an anonymous Kennedy memorabilia collector. $80,000 went to the seller, Jane Walker, and $20,000 went to Heritage Auctions of Dallas, Texas as their auction fee.
The plates had been discarded when the Kennedy limousine was shipped back to Hess & Eisenhardt in Ohio to be refurbished, painted, and bullet-proofed. The bright yellow D.C. plates, stamped GG-300, were retrieved from the trash by the limo company owner, Mr. Ackerman, with the permission of the FBI agent in charge. They were then kept on Ackerman’s book shelf until the year 2000, when he gave them to his daughter Jane Walker just before he died.
The 72-year old Jane Walker relegated the plates to her kitchen junk drawer, taking them out every now and then to show friends and relatives. She finally decided to sell them on November 7th of this year to coincide with the November 8th anniversary of JFK’s election as President of the United States.
Some Ticos may remember John F. Kennedy’s historic visit to Costa Rica on March 18-20, 1963. He attended the Conference of Presidents of the Central American Republics, which was held at our lovely National Theater in San Jose. Costa Rican school children lined both sides of Paseo Colón to watch the Kennedy cavalcade pass by. The unfortunate eruption of the Irazu Volcano coincided with Kennedy’s visit, some eight months before his tragic death.
Although GG-300 seems to be the sequence of a vanity plate in the United States, a showplate in the United Kingdom, or a placa alfanumérica in Costa Rica, there is no indication of this being the case. Our friends at GB Showplates, one of the leading manufacturers of showplates in the British Isles, tell us about a license plate that fetched an even greater auction price than the JFK plate:
On 28 November 2014, Ferrari trader John Collins paid £518,480 for personalised number plate ’25 O’ at the DVLA auction in Cardiff. The ’25 O’ plate is perfect for some of the most highly valued classic cars around and therefore it was no surprise to see businessmen, enthusiasts and collectors battle it out at auction. Bidding began at £50,000 and it wasn’t long before bids were exceeding £250,000 and then £300,000.
Finally the hammer was hit down at £400,000. With the addition of VAT and buyer’s premium, the total cost for the sought after plate was a staggering £518,480. The same buyer, John Collins, also bought the ‘250 L’ plate for £130,000. This was no doubt purchased with his 1964 Ferrari 250 Lusso in mind, which he is currently selling for £2.25 million.
In Costa Rica, a set of personalized placas alfanuméricas, if available, costs about $40.
About the Author
Carol Blair Vaughn holds a Master’s Degree in Performing Arts and is a retired college professor from Washington, D.C. She inherited her love for Latin America from her father, the former U.S. Ambassador
to Colombia, Panama, and Director of the Peace Corps, Jack Vaughn. Carol writes for the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR) and for an English language club in the southern region of Costa Rica. In the past, Carol served as Editor in Chief of What’s on Tap magazine.
