License Plates

I recently found this post lost in the vaults of my drafts, so here it is, a bit late!

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My brother recently asked me to send him a picture of an Omani license plate. I felt a bit like a private investigator doing so, but I did. Omani license plates are very much a status symbol. In Muhammad’s bus on our way to the AMIDEAST center, it is not uncommon for us to be in the middle of a conversation and have someone yell out, “4444!” Because us YES Abroad-ers aren’t particularly fond of math, these numbers tend to refer to license plates rather than anything else.

As I said earlier, license plates are a status symbol. The “good” numbers (with either few numbers or repeated numbers) can be extremely expensive. Omanis will even pay up to 10,000 OMR for a “good” plate number, which converts to roughly $25,000. Numbers such as “1” are often the mark of governmental vehicles. We often joke when we see a 1, “Oh, there goes the Sultan on a little drive.” And who knows? Maybe we’re right.

When it comes to license plates in Omani, the “better” the plate, the fewer the numbers. So in actuality, Omanis who pay incredible sums of money for “good” plates are paying to have fewer numbers on that plate. The normal run-of-the-mill plate will have either four or five digits, as well as a few letters. As the plates get better and better, and the price tag gets bigger and bigger, the number of letters and numbers reduce.