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Legal Tender Notes, Series A
'Lady Lavery' Irish 20 Pound Notes

Currency Commission Ireland, Central Bank of Ireland, 1928 - 1976

Central Bank of Ireland 20 pound note Currency Commission Ireland 20 pounds

A Modern Irish 20 Pound Note

Irish 20 Pound Legal Tender Notes 1928

The new Series A Irish Legal Tender Notes was introduced on 10 September 1928. Twenty Pound notes entered circulation in small quantities.

Currency Commission Irish Free State Twenty Pounds

Central Bank of Ireland 20 Pounds Specimen

The Lady Lavery Irish 20 pound note was in circulation for 52 years, from 1928 to 1980. The last date was 24.3.76. In 1980 the new design Series B Irish 20 Pound note replaced the Series A Lavery 20 Pound note.

The average usage rate of the Lavery 20 pound notes was approximately 3,000 notes per year [CBIAR]. It is interesting that the amount in circulation of Irish 20 Pound notes of the Consolidated Bank Note issue is sizable compared to that of the Legal Tender Lavery 20 pound notes during the Currency Commission era of 1928 to 1942, which was not the case for lower denominations.

Printage numbers per date of the Legal Tender Irish 20 Pound notes varied. 47,000 Currency Commission Irish 20 pound notes were printed, all dated 10.9.28. The next printing was the first issue of the Central Bank of Ireland 20 pound notes, with a printage of 33,000 notes spread across 11 dates giving 3,000 notes per date.

A printage of 3,000 notes per date continued for Lavery 20 pound notes with dates from 1945 to 1948. All these notes are scarce and seldom offered. From 1949 onwards printage was in the region of 10,000 notes per date or more.

Some dates among these have much lower printages. The rarest years for the Irish 20 pound notes are 1944 and 1945.

Printage quantities per date for Central Bank of Ireland 20 pound notes were much higher from 1954 onwards.

The highest price ever paid for a Lavery 20 pound note in auction was £10,304 including fees for a 23.12.43 war code 20 Pound note in VF grade with a small ink mark on the reverse [noonans.co.uk, September 2019]. War code 20 pound notes in the VF grade range continually fetch similar prices. Irish 20 pound notes with the war code are uncommonly offered and highly sought-after.

Irish Lady Lavery 20 Pound Note Design

The larger version of the portrait of Lady Lavery was used on the Irish 20 Pound note. On the 20 Pounds, the portrait is 66 mm high.

Dimensions of the Irish 20 pound Note are approximately 203 x 114 mm. This was measured on two sample notes, dated 10.9.28 and 28.8.47. Dimensions on different notes can vary by a couple of millimetres.

Red 20 Irish Pound Notes

Irish Legal Tender Lavery 20 pound notes are printed in strong red ink with an underprint of brown and yellow. The red colour of Irish 20 pound notes became noticeably brighter when De La Rue took over the printing from Waterlow in the 1970s.

Lady Lavery 20 Pound note Reverse Design River Mask

Each of the new Lavery design Legal Tender notes featured a 'River mask' taken from the facade of the Custom House in Dublin for the centrepiece of the reverse.

For the Lavery Irish 20 Pound note, the mask representing the River Boyne in Co. Meath was used. It is notable that while the original mask on the Custom House appears with the date 1690 on its turban, commemorative of the Battle of the Boyne, this date is omitted on the banknote version. [1. Moynihan 1975, p. 127].

River Blackwater river mask on 10 shilling note

Left, the engraving of the Boyne river mask used on the 'Lady Lavery' Series A Irish 20 Pound note, taken from the original (right) which is on the facade above one of the windows on the Custom House in Dublin. [2. Image at right ©Karl Whitney]

Design Variations of the Lavery 20 Pound Note

Twenty pound notes were issued under all of the signature variations for the Series A Legal Tender Irish banknotes up to 1976. A significant omission from the Irish 20 pound note issues was Type 2, Currency Commission Irish Free State with linear prefix, which was not issued for the £20 and £50 denominations.

Irish Free State 20 Pounds

Central Bank of Ireland Twenty Pounds war code A. 1943

Central Bank of Ireland 20 Pounds 1945

Ireland Twenty Pounds 1975. Whitaker, Murray

World War 2 Irish 20 Pound Notes, War Code A

One of the main variations in design was the incorporation of a Special Identification Marking (SIM) 'War Code' into the design of the Irish 20 Pound note during the World War 2 Emergency period. The War code, sometimes referred to as an Emergency Tracer Overprint (ETO) code, is not actually an overprint, but an underprint printed before the other layers of printing.

Irish 20 pound notes bearing the SIM war code were issued only under the Central Bank of Ireland, Type 5 (1943-1944). They were the first Irish 20 Pound notes to be issued after the first date of issue in 1928

Central Bank of Ireland 20 Pounds Specimen 1943 war code

One letter was used on a single print run of war code 20 Pound notes. The printage is relatively small. The war code 20 Pound notes are the rarest Type for Irish Lavery 20 Pound notes

The war code letter A in blue was used on Irish 20 pound notes with dates in 1943 and 1944.

Sterling Promise on Irish 20 Pound Notes

The bilingual text, in English on the left and in Irish on the right at the bottom of each note indicates the link at parity with Sterling.
'Twenty Pounds Sterling payable to bearer on demand in London'
'Tá Fiche Punt Sterling iníoctha as an nóta so le n-a shealbhóir ar n-a éilamh san do i Lundain'

Sterling Promise in the bottom panel of every Lady Lavery banknote

1928–1957 Sterling Promise in the bottom panel of every Lady Lavery Irish 20 Pound note

The sterling promise text was removed from the design on all notes printed from 1961 onwards.

Bottom panel of Lavery 10 Shilling note

1962–1976 Sterling promise on Irish 20 pound notes replaced by denomination 'TWENTY POUNDS' 'FICHE PUNT' in words

Watermarks on the Lady Lavery Irish 20 Pound Note

All Legal Tender Notes were printed on watermarked paper. The watermark consisted of the Head of Eirin on the bottom right of each note on all denominations, with additional watermarks in the centre of each denomination.

The centre watermarks varied on the lower denominations up to £10 and included the denomination in numerals. On higher denomination notes just the letters LTN were in the centre. These centre watermarks can sometimes be difficult to see.

On the illustration below of a Lavery 20 Pound note the watermarks of the letters LTN can be seen in the upper centre of the note, along with the much clearer watermark of the head or Eirin in the field on the lower right.

Lavery Ten Shilling note Watermark

The watermarks can be seen on this picture of a 1928 Irish 20 Pound note, the letters 'LTN' in the centre of the note and the Head of Eirin on the lower right

Lavery Irish 10 shilling note watermark

An illustration of the location of watermarks on the Lady Lavery design Irish 20 Pound Legal Tender Note

Security Features on Irish 20 Pound Notes

Each of the Series A Legal tender note denominations incorporated several minute security features in the design on the face of every banknote, which were printed as little symbols and variations in the design.

The Lavery 20 Pound notes contained four of these security marks, which are illustrated following.

Plate Letters on Lavery 20 Pound Notes
As well as the security marks a tiny Plate Tracer (PT) code, or plate letter, was printed on the face and reverse of all of the Lavery series Irish 20 Pound notes printed by Waterlow and Sons Ltd. These letters marked the position on the sheet of each banknote.

These PT codes were discontinued from the banknote design when De La Rue took over the printing. The last usage of the PT code letters was on Lavery 20 pound notes dated in 1957. The location of the PT codes is illustrated below.

Security Features on Irish Ten Shilling Notes

Dates on Series A Irish 20 Pound Notes

There are 96 dates for the Irish 20 Pound note, from 10.9.28 to 24.3.76. The range of dates includes 11 with war codes, ten dates in 1943 and one in 1944.

There are many rare dates for the Irish 20 pound notes. Generally, all pre-1949 dates are scarce and seldom offered. Some later dates are also rare because of low printages.

War code 20 pound notes are generally scarce, with a printage of 3,000 notes per date on each of the 11 dates. The war code 20 Pound note is by far the rarest of the war code denominations, and war code 20 pound notes are seldom offered. 1944 (one date) and 1945 (three dates) are the rarest years for the Lavery 20 pound note.

Irish 20 pounds 1945

Low Numbers of Irish Twenty Pound Notes

Very few examples of low-numbered Lavery 20 Pound notes have been recorded. Below illustrated is Irish 20 Pound note 25X 000027, saved from circulation in the 1990s. Other random prefix low number Irish 20 Pound notes may also have been saved. No examples of 1928 £20 notes with low numbers have been recorded.

References

CBIAR. Central Bank of Ireland Archive is the source for all information on printage and usage quantities.
1. Moynihan, Dr. M. 'Currency and Central Banking in Ireland 1922–1960', Gill & Macmillan and The Central Bank of Ireland, 1975.
2. Image ©Karl Whitney. Riverine keystone head at the Custom House, Dublin, rendered in Portland stone by Edward Smyth, portraying one of the rivers of Ireland - in this case, the Blackwater. (Identified by Harold Leask). https://source.southdublinlibraries.ie/handle/10599/5553/simple-search?filterquery=Custom+House&filtername=subject&filtertype=equals [Last accessed 31.10.23]