A Spanish collectors’s Facebook post for Northwest Territory (NWT) licence plates has resulted in a slick swap between one Yellowknife resident and one collector.
Tomas Notovny, a resident of Gibraltar (a British Overseas territory in southern Spain), sent out his request for the unique NWT plates on Jan. 26. The request asked residents of the North if they had any plates that they could send his way to compliment his collection.
“To be honest, NWT plates have one of my favourite designs,” said Notovny in his post. “I would absolutely love to have some.”
Jesse Wheeler was one of many who responded to Notovny’s call through the NWT Rants and Raves Facebook page.
“He just said he was looking for NWT license plates, which is not out of the ordinary,” he said “When I lived South, I always had my polar bear plate on my car, and especially in Vancouver where there’s so many tourists.”
“If I was parking at Stanley Park or something like that, there would also be people gathered around it,” he continued. “There’s always an interest in this plate, because I think, I may be mistaken, but I think it’s the only shaped official license plate in the world.”
The first usage of the plate was during the commemoration of the NWT’s centennial in 1970, according to Spectacular NWT, having been officially designed by NWT Commissioner Stuart Hodgson
“It is a collectors’ item for so many people,” said Wheeler. “So I just messaged (Notovny) up to say; ‘Listen, I got one if you want it.’ Like these things will sell for 50 bucks on eBay. Like that’s how popular they are.”
“Then he offered one up,” he said. “I was like, Okay, we’ll do an exchange, I’ll take one from Spain, you take one from here.”
With the assistance of Wheeler and others, Notovny will be walking away with plenty of polar bear plates that are now a part of his collection.