Tajik authorities have begun selling vanity license plates - or admitting they are - to raise money for the country's Rogun hydropower project, Ferghana.ru reports. 

The first auction in Tajikistan, selling "cool" license plates for cars, set the record: according to State Traffic Patrol Department Interior Ministry of Tajikistan, "0100" was sold for 40 000 somoni or $9100 ($1=4.36 somoni). "0707" was sold for 6500 somoni, while "0202" and "0808" were sold for 3600 somoni each.

Numbers are important in Tajikistan, where the right one can earn you a salute - rather than a phony infraction - from the country's covetous traffic cops.

I hear 7777 and 8888 were already taken.