The First World War brought about increased economic activity in Ireland and with it increased money supply, mainly in the form of One Pound notes. After decades of little change, a transition of Irish Currency to more modern formats began in 1918. Irish banks began to modernise and alter the designs of their notes, initially by reducing the size of £1 notes. Bank of Ireland was the first bank to produce a new series of reduced size notes.
Bank of Ireland began to make alterations to its banknote issues by introducing modern style heavy bleed serial numbers with leading zeros, in place of old style script numerals with a double tilde in place of leading zeros. This change to the modern style serial numbers is a defining characteristic of Series F.
At the same time, the bank reduced the size of its £1 notes from approximately 220 x 110 mm to 150 x 100 mm, a reduction in area of slightly over 50%. £1 notes made up the vast bulk of the bank’s note production, so this size reduction represented a considerable saving in resources. Smaller notes meant that more notes per plate area could be printed. They were also likely to have been a bit more durable in circulation.
Prefixes on £1 notes were reset to start anew from A/10. The numbering box used to set the prefix and serial numbers was also reduced in size on £1 notes, making the prefix on the notes quite small. Other denomination notes remained large size and had their serial number styles modernised.
Bank of Ireland Series F was destined to be a short-lived series, with the removal of the branches from the design on notes during 1920, producing Series G.
On £5 notes the branch listings, date and serial numbers were printed in green ink, a change from the red previously used on all denominations. £10 notes and £20 notes printed in 1919 were unchanged from earlier issues, other than in the modernisation of their serial number styles.
There are two Types by signature variation for Series F banknotes: Type A: W. H. Baskin (1918-1919); Type B: A. G. Fleming (1919-1920). These two Types divide into several variations of £1 notes and £5 notes, two for each Type.
£1 notes are quite common, with at least 83 dates for Baskin signature, and 14 dates with Fleming signature. One unknown date, with prefix A93, could be for either of these signatures.
£5 notes are very rare, with just three notes known, and two known dates. £5, 27 Jan 1919, Baskin; £5, 13 Dec 1919, Flemming. At least one additional date was printed, with prefix T30. This date could be for either of these signatures.
£10 and £20 notes are rare.
Type A, Baskin signature
Type B, Fleming signature
There are 143 dates for the reduced size £1 note, spread across the two signature varieties of Series F and two signature varieties of Series G. An example of each date, where available, is presented in the Bank of Ireland reduced size £1 date listing. Ultimately, the aim is to record an image of every date.
The watermark on the large sized notes is similar to the water marks found on Series E banknotes. An enhanced image shows the watermark on the small size Bank of Ireland One Pound notes. The text "BANK OF IRELAND" in two lines, and the number "ONE" on each side near the location of the serial numbers.
Bank of Ireland, One Pound, 1918-1921, watermarks
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