10 Pounds

The "Lady Lavery" series — of which this is the high-denomination note — ran longer than any comparable European issue of its type, a product of political inertia rather than design satisfaction. The portrait of Hazel Lavery as Éire had been on Irish notes since the Currency Commission era of the 1920s, chosen partly because her husband Sir John Lavery had donated the design, and the Free State got a national symbol at no cost.

The addition of a security thread partway through the series, visible in dates from 1971 onward, creates a meaningful collecting distinction within P#66 — thread and non-thread examples carry different scarcity profiles, particularly at the top end of the circulated grade range.