BARNSTABLE — Wendy Northcross hopes that a new Cape & Islands license plate auction will bring in plenty of money for economic development, travel and tourism investments in the region.

Northcross is the chairwoman of the Cape & Islands License Plate Marketing Committee. The committee announced an online auction for low-numbered plates in its new Cape Plates series on Sept. 12. The plates have the letters CP followed by numbers, the lowest of which is scheduled to be auctioned off beginning Oct. 22.

Minimum bids are required for CP plates with numbers 1 through 999. CP 1 has a minimum bid of $10,000. Other plate bid minimums range from $150 to $5,000.

The Cape Cod Blue Economy Foundation, a nonprofit, charitable organization, will manage and distribute money raised from sales of the plates. Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties; the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce; and the Lower Cape Community Development Partnership are the five beneficiaries of the funds, Northcross said. There is a distribution formula for the beneficiaries, based on the number of cars on the roads.

“It’s not a straight five-way split, but we all get a percentage,” Northcross said.

Northcross said that in its 26-year history, the license plate funds have always been used for job creation, business support, travel and tourism, housing or beautification. Funds were used to launch the Blue Economy Project, a regional initiative meant to support and sustain the maritime-focused economy on the Cape, Islands and southern Plymouth County.

In the past, money has been used for beach maintenance and downtown beautification efforts. Efforts on the Lower Cape have focused on housing and small-business loans. County offices have offered grants related to economic development or tourism promotion. The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce uses its funds to promote tourism for the entire region.

The Chamber’s sister corporation, Coastal Community Capital, uses some of the license plate funds to give small-business loans.

About 35,000 active Cape & Islands specialty plates are currently on the road. Since 1996, sales of the Cape & Islands plate have raised $25 million, more than any other specialty plate in the state, according to a marketing committee statement. Nearly 550 different local organizations have benefited from the funds raised.

New plates with same images

This is the third edition of the specialty plates. The first Cape & Islands plate was introduced in 1996 with the letters CI for Cape and Islands. The plate features Nauset Lighthouse, the cliffs of Siasconset in Nantucket and Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard. The second edition featured the letters IC for Islands and Cape but retained the same images. The third edition will keep the same images as well.

The first time a bid was held on the CI plates, more than $1 million was raised, according to Northcross. The bid on the CI 1 plate was about $100,000. The second bid auction brought in just less than $1 million.

The live online auction will run from Oct. 22 at 6 a.m. through Oct. 26 at 5 p.m. The auction website can be found at CILicensePlate.GiveSmart.com.

Interested buyers are encouraged to register to receive updates once the auction goes live. Interested bidders can also register by texting CILicensePlate to 76278. Once the auction is live, participants can bid in real time from desktop, mobile and tablet.

Contact Denise Coffey at dcoffey@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @DeniseCoffeyCCT.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape and Island specialty license plate auction to start Oct. 22