Is it the appeal of the X factor, a salute to Canberra's once-thriving adult industry, or simply just a passing kiss?
These interpretations and more are readily available as one of the rarest vehicle registration plates issued in the ACT has hit the auction market.
The X plate is one of 26 single-letter plates issued 29 years ago by the ACT government and now that the original Canberra owner has moved interstate, he has decided to put it on the market for the first time.
Fyshwick auction house AllBids is putting the unusual plate under the hammer.
The ACT-issued X plate could fetch around $40,000 when the hammer finally drops on December 21.
Market value has been hard to ascertain because of the blue and white ACT plate's rarity. Single and double plate numbers are like hen's teeth on the open market while three-digit ACT plates bob up occasionally, with the most recent - 805 - fetching $31,000.
Plates such as these are highly sought after by collectors and the group general manager at AllBids, Ben Hastings, says the ACT government hasn't been as shrewd as other jurisdictions in managing plate releases to cash in on their collector value.
"The Victorian government jumped on holding back some of their rare combination plates years ago, as they have in Tasmania," he said.
"So what we've seen here in Canberra is that people are grabbing the four- and five-digit ACT plates for pretty much bargain prices compared to what they would fetch elsewhere."
But there's a catch: physical ownership of a rare number plate doesn't guarantee it's yours forever.
Any ACT owners of these rare plates - single letters, double digits or triple digits - that don't have them on a currently registered vehicle could find that they lose the entitlement to them - unless they officially "store" them with Access Canberra.
And be warned: there are "plate watchers" out there ready to grab any rarities which suddenly become available.
"This happened to a lady who came in with a triple-digit plate recently," Mr Hastings said.
"She came into our showroom with the physical plates that she thought she owned but as it turned out, because she hadn't stored them or put them on a registered vehicle, that combination had been reissued by Access Canberra to someone else."
Canberra's four-digit numbers have almost run out, and Mr Hastings said that more careful management of these issuances by Access Canberra could yield a tidy windfall for the government coffers..
"In other states the motor registries reserve a small number of sought-after combination plate numbers and then have a public auction, which always attracts a lot of interest from plate collectors," he said.
"But for some reason, the ACT government hasn't cottoned on to this commercial opportunity yet."
For instance, the number eight is considered in China to be the luckiest number because the Cantonese word for eight, which is pronounced "ba", sounds similar to the word which means "prosper" or "wealth". Any plate combination involving eight has a high potential market value.
While the X plate was part of an original ACT custom plate auction in 1993, only a few people realised at the time that the single digits were available. A few high profile Canberrans jumped in quickly and secured digits such as P for their Porsche or R for their Rolls Royce but X sat available for a while until the owner's wife snapped it up as a birthday present.
"Best birthday gift ever!" he declared.
But the owner also issued a warning: "You will be asked by strangers what it means or what it's worth, so if you're a shy retiring type, then it might not be for you."
