Banknote issues of the Ulster Bank differ from those of the other Irish banks of the 1918-1920 period during the transition of Irish Currency to more modern designs, in that the bank appears to not have carried out any development of small size banknotes with branch listings. There were no further issues after the last Series B large size multibranch notes in 1919 until the appearance of small size £1 notes with branches omitted in 1921, Series C.
Large size £5 notes dated 1924 were issued with bank branches omitted. These notes are rare, with serial numbers traced to 107625. Three examples are recorded.
Removal of branches was as a result of the Banknotes (Ireland) Act 1920 which removed the requirement of banks to make payment on their notes at the branch of issue, stated on the note, as well as at the head office.
There are proofs and specimens of these £1 notes recorded with dates as early as 1 June 1920, and the earliest known issued note is a £1 note dated 1 Dec 1921. Undated proofs of Series C £1, £5, £10, £20, £50, and £100 notes are known, though only £1 notes and £5 notes have been seen in issued form. All the denominations of this banknote design were later used after the partition of Irish currency for the 1929 in Northern Ireland Issue, with the addition of ‘Northern Ireland Issue’ being the only design alteration.
There are two Types of Series C banknotes, Type A (1921–1925), with Belfast and Dublin in the bottom panel, and Type B (1926–1928) with just Belfast.
All the banknotes of Series C bear hand-set signatures.
The Ulster Bank followed the general trend set by the other banks and made its new £1 note issue small size, very similar in dimensions to the small £1 notes of the other issuers. The printed area of £1 notes is 144 x 78 mm, with the note dimensions approximately 156 x 88 mm, depending on the cut. Larges size notes had a printed area of 190 x 110 mm.
Type A
Type B
An image of every date of each denomination of Series C is in Ulster Bank Series C 1921-1928 Date Listings: £1 Notes, 15 dates; £5 Notes, 2 dates.
A range of pre-production proof and specimen notes are illustrated in Ulster Bank Series C 1920 Specimens and Proofs.
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