1 Pound National Bank

National Bank Limited operated as one of Ireland's principal commercial banks before the partition of the island, and its 1920 series straddles an acutely unstable moment — the War of Independence was well underway, and the political and monetary arrangements that would split Irish banking between two jurisdictions were still two years off. Notes issued in this window circulated across what would soon become a hard border, accepted without question in the south and north alike.

Pick 222B denotes a specific signature variety within the broader 1 Pound series. Condition problems on surviving examples tend to concentrate along horizontal fold lines, a consequence of how these notes were carried in pocket wallets of the period.