10 Pounds National Bank

The Currency Commission was established under the Currency Act of 1927 to manage the Irish Free State's currency following independence, with the pound pegged at exact parity to sterling — a decision that would hold, without serious challenge, until 1979. These Ploughman notes, as the series became universally known, were printed by De La Rue in London throughout the run, a pragmatic arrangement that sat uneasily with the nationalist politics of the period but reflected the limited domestic printing infrastructure available at the time.

The £10 denomination was a high-value instrument by the standards of the 1930s Irish economy, and surviving circulated examples are correspondingly uncommon. The series was withdrawn following the Currency Commission's absorption into the newly established Central Bank of Ireland in 1943.