10 Pounds Provincial Bank of Ireland

The Provincial Bank of Ireland was a creature of London finance — chartered in 1825 and headquartered in London throughout its existence, despite operating exclusively through Irish branches. It occupied an odd constitutional position: a British-chartered joint-stock bank issuing its own notes in Ireland at a time when the Free State and later Éire were actively consolidating the domestic currency framework under the Currency Commission, then its successor the Central Bank of Ireland established in 1943.

Private bank noteissuing rights were being progressively curtailed during this period, and the window 1938–1946 catches the Provincial Bank navigating those restrictions. The Central Bank Act of 1942 effectively set the clock running on legal private issue. Notes from the latter part of this date range would have had very limited circulation life before redemption obligations tightened.