TTT777 went for €11,000 at the Road Transport Department's auction for the TTT series. It is the second-highest price ever paid for a plate in the triple-letter series. The record still belongs to PPP777, which went for €15,000.
Cyprus plates use a twelve-letter alphabet, so only twelve series can repeat one letter three times. Four of them have gone through the auction so far: MMM, NNN, PPP and now TTT. Put three matching digits after them and the plate repeats all the way across, which is why these four series are where the biggest bids land. Below is how they compare, using the final prices the department publishes for every series.
Four series side by side
| Series | Plates with bids | Auction total | Plates over €1,000 | Top plate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMM | 84 | €28,464 | 6 | MMM001 — €3,100 |
| NNN | 94 | €29,986 | 5 | NNN001 — €4,285 |
| PPP | 106 | €64,795 | 11 | PPP777 — €15,000 |
| TTT | 144 | €56,214 | 10 | TTT777 — €11,000 |
The auction total is the sum of the final prices of plates that drew at least one bid. Plates nobody bid on are sold afterwards at a flat €100 and are not included.
PPP remains the peak by every measure that counts money: the largest total, the most plates over €1,000, and it is the only series with two five-figure plates: PPP777 and PPP111 at €10,000. TTT drew the widest interest, with 144 plates attracting a bid against 84 in MMM, but the very top of it did not reach PPP's level.
The same number, four series
| Number | MMM | NNN | PPP | TTT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 777 | €1,152 | €3,500 | €15,000 | €11,000 |
| 111 | €1,550 | €2,001 | €10,000 | €5,061 |
| 888 | €2,000 | €2,950 | €2,105 | €3,300 |
| 999 | €1,500 | €751 | €3,600 | €2,500 |
| 222 | €500 | €550 | €1,000 | €2,750 |
| 333 | €450 | €1,010 | €1,200 | €1,350 |
| 001 | €3,100 | €4,285 | €1,200 | €1,300 |
| 555 | €850 | €500 | €5,000 | €1,100 |
| 005 | €2,150 | €150 | €500 | €1,101 |
| 444 | €1,000 | €356 | €4,000 | €1,050 |
The highest price for each number is in bold. Two shifts stand out. In the first two series the most expensive plate was 001, at €3,100 and €4,285. From PPP onwards 777 took over, and by a wide margin. And TTT set new highs for three numbers: 888 at €3,300, 222 at €2,750 and 333 at €1,350.
What most plates actually cost
Of the 996 numbers in each series, only 84 to 144 drew a bid at all. Many of those drew a single bid at around €100, the same price unbid plates sell for after the auction. The premium sits in a handful of numbers; for almost everything else a bid of a few hundred euros wins, and plates nobody bids on are sold at a flat €100 thirty minutes after the auction closes. There was no 666 in any of them: it is one of three numbers the department never auctions, alongside 13 and 69.
How the bidding works, screen by screen, is in our guide to the Cyprus plate auction. If you would rather we bid for you, see our bespoke plates service.
Figures are the final prices published by the Road Transport Department for the MMM, NNN, PPP and TTT series.
