Collection of over 5,000 TAX DISCS are tipped to sell for £10,000 at auction
Collection of over 5,000 TAX DISCS which includes one from every year they were issued from 1921 to 2014 is tipped to sell for £10,000 at auction
- Richard Hughes, 62, has spent over 30 years accumulating 5,000 car tax discs
- Collection includes one disc for every year they were issued from 1921 to 2014
- They are tipped to sell for £10,000 at Wokingham Auctions, Berkshire, tomorrow
One man’s collection of over 5,000 car tax discs are tipped to sell for £10,000 at auction.
Richard Hughes, 62, from Berkshire, has spent over 30 years accumulating the colourful paper discs from scrap yards and autojumbles where he and other collectors would swap them like football stickers.
His collection includes one disc for every year they were issued from 1921 to 2014, there is also a disc for every month from 1990 to 2015.
Richard has decided to sell them now in what would have been the centenary year of the tax disc had they not been abolished seven years ago.
Richard Hughes, 62, from Berkshire, has spent over 30 years accumulating the car tax discs
His collection includes one disc for every year they were issued from 1921 to 2014, there is also a disc for every month from 1990 to 2015. Pictured: 1951 – 1960 (left); 1961 – 1975 (right)
The retired estate manager plans to buy a classic car, potentially an MGB Roadster or a Triumph Stag with the proceeds of the sale.
He said: ‘I’ve always been a car buff and had many classic cars over the years, especially from the 1960s and ’70s.
‘Back in the 1980s I bought a Ford Escort and when I was emptying out the tax disc holder there were 20 discs in there.
‘They have so much information on them I decided to keep hold of them and bought them into work one day to put on my desk.
Pride of place: The 1921 tax disc on display at Richard Hughes home
Richard decided to sell them now in what would have been the centenary year of the tax disc had they not been abolished seven years ago. Pictured: 1921 – 1926 (left), 1927 – 1932 (right)
Mr Hughes plans to buy an MGB Roadster or Triumph Stag with the money he makes from the sale. Pictured: 1933 – 1938 (left); 1939 – 1944 (right)
Many of Mr Hughes’ collection was picked up at scrapyards. Pictured: 1945 – 1950
‘The next day, a woman there brought in 15 to 20 of her old discs and gave them to me as she thought I collected them.
Tax disc collector Richard Hughes served with the military between 1975 and 2000
‘It started from there. Family and friends would give me their discs to help me with my weird hobby.
‘I then began visiting scrapyards and the dealers would let me take old discs from the vehicles as they were just old bits of paper.
‘I would also visit autojumbles to swap discs I didn’t have with other collectors and over the years my collection grew and grew to 5,000 discs.
‘But now they have stopped issuing them I feel it is the right time to sell them and spend the money towards a new classic car, perhaps an MGB Roadster or Triumph Stag.’
Pascal McNamara, of Wokingham Auctions, Berks, which is selling them, said: ‘He realised it could be an interesting hobby and over the last five or ten years he had the ambition of making a complete set.
‘He now feels that it is 100 years since the first tax disc was issued and that now is the right time to sell his collection.
‘It is being sold as a whole collection. It is a very niche market but you would think a motor museum would be interested in buying them.
Paper tax discs were introduced in 1921. Drivers had to display a coloured disc in their windscreen as proof they had paid road tax. Pictured: 1976 – 1989 (left); 1991 – 1992 (right)
Discs were abolished in October 2014 by David Cameron’s government. Pictured: 2000 – 2001
‘They are all in albums and are in good condition.
‘Some of the rarer discs are obviously some of the early ones.’
Paper tax discs were introduced in 1921. Drivers had to display a coloured disc in their windscreen as proof they had paid road tax, known as Vehicle Excise Duty.
The disc displayed an expiry date and let policemen and traffic wardens easily identify unlicensed vehicles.
Discs were abolished in October 2014 by David Cameron’s government.
The Department for Transport said £10million a year could be saved from no longer producing and posting the discs. Officials said police could tell the tax status by checking a DVLA database.
The timed sale ends tomorrow.
