Your Old Vehicle Tax Discs Could be Worth a Small Fortune
A little piece of the UK’s motoring heritage came to an end in October 2014 with the abolition of the paper car tax disc after 93 years. Vehicle Excise Duty system has been streamlined and is now tracked electronically. However, if you kept some or all of your old tax discs, they could be worth a small fortune as they increasingly become rare collectors’ items.
Tax disc collectors are known as velologists, which comes from the initials of Vehicle Excise Licence. As the number of velologists has grown over the last few years, rare tax discs are becoming more sought after and harder to find. If you’ve hoarded your tax discs, now might be the time to cash in.
A Hundred Years of Car Tax Heritage
A tax on motor vehicles was first introduced in the Budget of 1888. But it was the introduction of the Roads Act 1920 which required all drivers to display a tax disc in their car’s windscreen from January 1921. The paper discs became a common sight and around 1.7 billion were issued during their 93 years of existence.
The tax discs were proof that you’d paid your car tax and failure to display a valid disc was an offence that could bring you a heavy fine. Information on the disc included the vehicle make and registration number, the price paid, the tax expiry date, and the stamp of the issuing office.
Each year, as motorists renewed their car tax, the majority of expired discs were discarded. But some drivers, for whatever reason, kept their old discs. Those in good condition can now be worth a fair bit of money.
Collectible Car Tax Discs
Car tax discs dating from the 1920s often sell for hundreds of pounds, while some of the rarest examples can fetch over £1,000. Last year, a 1921 tax disc put up for sale on an online auction was bought for an incredible £1,225 after 16 bidders vied for the rare first-year issue.
Discs in the best condition are worth the most. Early discs had no perforations and drivers had to cut out the discs. Those that were carefully cut out tend to be worth more than careless examples. Also, discs that are complete with the surrounding paper are more collectible than those that were cut or torn out.
Other rarities include tax discs from World War II vehicles that have “War Service” marked on them. Complete sets of discs from the same vehicle are also collectible. As the tax discs were phased out in 2014, the DVLA issued the final few discs on plain paper instead of with perforations giving them instant rarity value.
Tax Discs with Personalised Number Plates
If you have kept tax discs showing your personalised registration number, you might be able to get a good price for them, or just hang on to them as a future investment as they become more collectible. If you want to sell your personalised number plates, find out what they’re worth with the CarReg number plate valuation service.
