Lawyer hopes vanity license plate will add $2M to his bank account

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Personal Lives Lawyer hopes vanity license plate will add $2M to his bank account

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 23, 2023, 8:46 am CST

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A retired California lawyer hopes to cash in by selling his vanity “CASH” license plate for $2 million.

The former patent lawyer, 83-year-old Claude Arthur Stuart Hamrick, has had the license plate for more than 50 years, according to the Mercury News and Business Insider.

Now, he hopes to sell the plate, taking advantage of a state option for plate owners to release their interest in their plates to new owners.

According to the Mercury News, Hamrick’s “CASH” license plate represented his initials and “a testament to his flashy lifestyle.” He “helped Silicon Valley rake in money during the heyday of a tech boom” and “hobnobbed with Apple co-creator Steve Wozniak,” the publication says. He currently lives in North Carolina, where he is closer to his grandchildren.

Hamrick hopes to make the sale with the help of a plate broker who has spent tens of thousands of dollars obtaining the rights to vanity plates. Hamrick’s plate is listed on the broker’s website along with others.

Delaware also allows sales of vanity license plate rights, which has led to license plate exchanges there. And Texas has online auctions for vanity license plates. The plate “12THMAN,” a reference to student fans of Texas A&M University football, was bought by Houston personal injury lawyer Tony Buzbee for $115,000 in 2013, according to ESPN.

Buzbee gave the plate to an A&M University alumnus who was a decorated war veteran, according to Texas A&M Today.

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