Last updated: September 2026

What currency did Ireland use before the euro?

Ireland used the Irish pound, widely called the punt, from 1928 until euro cash replaced it in 2002. Note issue began with a Currency Commission rather than a central bank, and the Central Bank of Ireland took the role over in 1943. The Central Bank counts three legal tender series before the euro, labeled Series A, B and C.

The legal groundwork came first. A Banking Commission appointed in 1926 under Professor Henry Parker-Willis of Columbia University, previously Director of Research at the US Federal Reserve Board, recommended an independent note-issuing body, and the Currency Act 1927 created both a new unit of value called the Saorstát pound and the Currency Commission to issue it. After the 1937 Constitution came into force the currency was known simply as the Irish pound (John Kelly, The Irish Pound: From Origins to EMU, Central Bank of Ireland Quarterly Bulletin, Spring 2003).

A central bank followed much later. The Central Bank Act 1942 came into effect on 1 February 1943, and that handover is visible on the notes themselves: identical Lady Lavery designs exist with the Irish-language imprint of the Currency Commission, Coimisiún Airgid Reatha, and with that of the Central Bank, Banc Ceannais na hÉireann. Reading those two imprints is one of the first skills an Irish collector picks up.

What are the Lady Lavery banknotes?

The Lady Lavery notes are Series A, Ireland's first legal tender banknotes, issued from 1928. A committee appointed to advise on the design chose an emblematic female figure as their principal feature, and the sitter was Lady Hazel Lavery. Every reverse carries one of the river masks that decorate the facade of the Dublin Custom House, and every note is watermarked with the head of Erin.

The Central Bank of Ireland publishes the full technical record for the series, and it is unusually precise. All seven denominations, from 10 shillings up to £100, carry a first date of 10 September 1928 (Central Bank of Ireland, Series A). The last dates are spread across nearly a decade: 6 June 1968 for the 10 shilling note, 5 September 1975 for the £5, 24 March 1976 for the £20, 30 September 1976 for the £1, 2 December 1976 for the £10, and 4 April 1977 for both the £50 and the £100.

Two design variants matter most to collectors. The catalog splits the earliest notes by serial number style, with a fractional prefix on the notes of 1928 and a linear prefix on the printings that followed, and the two are priced very differently (PMG World Paper Money Price Guide, read September 2026). The other variant is a security feature: the Central Bank records a metal security thread added to the £5 in January 1971, the £10 in May 1971 and the £1 in July 1971.

What were the Consolidated Bank Notes?

The Consolidated Bank Notes are a parallel family issued under the Currency Commission by Ireland's associated banks rather than by the state. They circulated alongside Series A, and the Central Bank of Ireland is explicit that, unlike Series A, B and C, they did not hold the status of legal tender (Central Bank of Ireland).

Catalog listings show how the arrangement worked in practice. Each Consolidated note carries two signatures: J. Brennan for the Currency Commission on every one of them, paired with an officer of whichever bank issued that particular note, which is why the catalog runs the same designs through several blocks of Pick numbers. Issue dates begin on 6 May 1929 and run into 1940, in denominations of £1, £5, £10, £20, £50 and £100, with the three top values known mainly as specimens (PMG World Paper Money Price Guide).

Because a single design exists under several different bank names, a complete set is a long-term project rather than a weekend purchase. The reverses are architectural rather than allegorical: a government building on the £1, a bridge with a town behind it on the £5 and an ornate building entrance on the £10. The same pattern of private bank issue and later consolidation runs through our Great Britain banknotes hub.

What is the Series B Irish banknote series?

Series B is the family the Central Bank of Ireland introduced in 1976 to replace the Lady Lavery notes. Each denomination showcases a different figure from Irish history, weighted toward writers, artists and philosophers, and each reverse pairs that figure with a manuscript, a map or a carving connected to them.

The lineup reads like a syllabus. The £1 carries Queen Medb, or Maeve, with an extract from Lebor na hUidre on the back. The £5 carries the philosopher and theologian Johannes Scotus Erigena, with an extract from the Book of Kells. The £10 carries Jonathan Swift, backed by a detail of a 1756 Dublin street map. The £20 carries William Butler Yeats with a map of the Blasket Islands, and the £50 carries the harper Turlough O'Carolan with the wood carvings from the organ loft of St Michan's Church (Central Bank of Ireland, Series B).

There is a sixth denomination that almost nobody has held. A £100 note featuring Grace O'Malley, with a genealogical map of Ireland on the reverse, was prepared for the series but never put into circulation. The Central Bank still publishes its technical details, which makes it one of the best documented unissued notes in Europe. Our page on specimen notes explains how unissued and specimen material reaches collectors at all.

What is the Series C Irish banknote series?

Series C is the final Irish pound series, introduced in 1992 and featuring famous figures from Irish history. The notes are smaller than Series B, carry a latent image and micro lettering, and add optically variable ink on the two highest values. They were the notes in Irish wallets when the euro arrived.

The reason the series appeared when it did is worth knowing. The Central Bank of Ireland says it was prompted to bring its plans forward because of widespread counterfeiting of the Series B £20 note, and that the £20 was therefore the first denomination of the new series to be launched, in November 1992. The £10 followed in September 1993, the £5 in April 1994, the £50 in November 1995, and in September 1996 a £100 note appeared for the first time since 1977 (Central Bank of Ireland, Series C).

The artist Robert Ballagh designed the series to a brief that asked him to celebrate key Irish modernizers of the previous century, and the result put Catherine McAuley on the £5, James Joyce on the £10, Daniel O'Connell on the £20, Douglas Hyde on the £50 and Charles Stewart Parnell on the £100. Every one of those portraits is confirmed by the European Central Bank's own record of the pre-euro Irish notes (European Central Bank).

Irish banknote series at a glance

The table sets the three legal tender series and the Consolidated notes side by side. Dates are the first and last note dates recorded by the Central Bank of Ireland for each family.

Series data from the Central Bank of Ireland's historical banknote pages, which list color, size, security features and the first and last dates for every denomination in each series.

What happened to the Irish pound at the euro changeover?

The Irish pound ceased to be legal tender on 9 February 2002, six weeks after euro cash entered circulation on 1 January 2002. Ireland had been using the euro since 1999 as an accounting currency (European Central Bank), and the Cash Changeover Plan published on 19 April 2000 deliberately set a short dual circulation period rather than a long one.

Ireland had committed to the single currency years earlier, and the sterling link had already been broken long before that. Ireland joined the European Monetary System at its inception in March 1979 while sterling stayed outside, and the one-for-one link with the pound sterling, which had survived since well before independence, broke within a couple of months (John Kelly, Central Bank of Ireland Quarterly Bulletin, Spring 2003).

What matters most to a collector is what the Central Bank says now. Old Irish pound banknotes can still be exchanged, and the European Central Bank records that there is no time limit for exchanging Irish pound banknotes for euro, with the earlier Series A and Series B notes remaining exchangeable as well as Series C (European Central Bank; Central Bank of Ireland). That open-ended arrangement is why crisp Irish notes are still surfacing from drawers two decades later, and it is the opposite of the deadline model you see on our currencies that no longer exist page. The euro side of the story is covered in our history of the euro banknotes.

What are old Irish banknotes worth?

Condition and series decide almost everything. The table below gives catalog values in US dollars from the PMG World Paper Money Price Guide, read in September 2026, with the £100 Lady Lavery and the Series B £20 pages linked as samples. The older notes are cataloged at Good 4, Fine 12 and Extremely Fine 40, and the later ones at Very Good 8, Very Fine 20 and Uncirculated 60, so each row names the grades it uses.

Read the table for the pattern. A Series B £20 in uncirculated condition is a modest purchase, but the replacement printing with an EEE prefix is several times dearer, the pattern our page on star notes and replacement notes follows everywhere. The catalog numbers are Pick numbers, explained in our guide to Pick numbers, and what determines banknote value covers the rest. Catalog values are a reference point, not a quote.

How do you start collecting Irish banknotes?

Pick one series, learn its signature pairs, then decide how much condition matters to you. Irish paper money is compact and documented by the issuing bank itself, so a beginner can finish a real set instead of collecting fragments.

Three routes work well. Series C is the easiest: five denominations, one designer, a defined run from 1992 to 2000, and enough uncirculated survivors that a complete set in high grade is realistic. Series B is the connoisseur's set, because the signature pairs listed by the catalog give you a second dimension to chase and because the unissued Grace O'Malley £100 sits at the end of it. Series A is the historical lane, and there the honest advice is to buy one good note rather than several tired ones.

Learn the grading ladder before you spend. Grades run from Uncirculated down through AU, XF, VF, F, VG and G, and the certified market uses a 1 to 70 scale: our banknote grading guide explains it, and graded versus raw banknotes covers when third-party certification earns its cost. The banknote glossary defines prefixes and replacements, and how to store banknotes matters more than usual for large-format Series A paper.

Where can you buy Irish banknotes?

Buy from an established dealer that authenticates every note, documents where it came from, and stands behind it in writing. Prices far below every other seller, vague sourcing and no returns are the signals to walk away from.

Planet Banknote sources notes direct from mints, central banks and authorized distributors rather than reselling anonymous lots. Browse the current selection through the banknotes by country directory, where availability changes with what has been sourced, and see third-party certified pieces in the graded banknotes selection. Our guide to buying world banknotes safely and how to collect world banknotes cover the rest.

Planet Banknote is a family-owned dealership in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 2021. Every note is sourced direct from mints, central banks, and authorized distributors, inspected through our Planet Banknote Verified process, and ships with a free Certificate of Authenticity. US orders ship free via USPS Priority, and every order includes a free bonus gift.