DALLAS, TX.- The license plates used on the Presidential limousine carrying President John F. Kennedy when he was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas — saved from the trash 52 years ago by Willard C. Hess, the owner of Hess & Eisenhardt, the company that retrofitted presidential limousines — will be offered for the first time at auction on Nov. 7, 2015. The opening bid is $40,000.

The plates have been consigned by Jane Walker, Hess's, who has kept the license plates for the last half century in a drawer in her Ohio kitchen. While her father was alive, said Walker, he kept them between a pair of books on his bookshelf.

"I was very aware of their significance," said Walker. "My boys and husband thought I should keep them in a safety deposit box, but most people wouldn't know have known where they came from or their significance. On occasion, I would take them out and show them to friends."

"This is such an evocative and important piece of Kennedy material," said Don Ackerman, Consignment Director at Heritage Auctions. "It's hard to overstate it. There are very few pieces of this caliber, that were so close to the assassination on the fateful day, and that could potentially mean as much to collectors."

The Presidential limousine was ordered from Ford's Advance Vehicle Group and outfitted by Hess & Eisenhardt of Cincinnati. Known within Secret Service circles as SS-100-X, it was placed in service in March 1961. After the assassination, it was sent back to Hess & Eisenhardt for upgrades (additional armor plating and a bullet-proof roof), painted black and used by President Johnson until 1967. It now resides in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

"During the refitting process, after Kennedy's death, a package arrived containing a new set of plates," added Ackerman. "The agent took off the old plates, discarded them, and installed the new set. Mr. Hess, thinking quickly, retrieved the old plates from the trash, retaining them as a souvenir and salvaging an important piece of history in the process."