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20 Pounds
| Issuer | Currency Commission Irish Free State |
|---|---|
| Year | 1928 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 203 × 114 mm |
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| Obverse description | Printed in red-brown on cream paper, the obverse carries at left an oval intaglio vignette of Lady Hazel Lavery, veiled and seated with a Celtic harp, set against a landscape background. The bilingual issuer title appears in a decorative Celtic-knotwork panel across the top, with the denomination numeral '20' repeated in the four corners within guilloche rosettes. To the right of the central vignette, two manuscript signatures appear above their respective bilingual title inscriptions, with the '£20' denomination in a scalloped cartouche at upper right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse, printed in the same red-brown palette, presents a central intaglio vignette of a bearded river-god head — representing the spirit of the River Boyne — within a shield-shaped cartouche surrounded by elaborate guilloche lacework. The denomination numerals '20' flank the central vignette at either side, and the entire composition is enclosed within a continuous Celtic-interlace decorative border with trefoil corner ornaments. |
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| Comments |
The Currency Commission was established by the Currency Act of 1927, and this note — along with the rest of the Ploughman series — entered circulation in 1928 as the Irish Free State's first fully sovereign issue. The designs were the work of Sir John Lavery, the Belfast-born portrait painter better known for his society canvases than for banknote commissions, though his wife Hazel had already appeared on earlier Currency Commission notes as a model for the allegorical figure of Éire.
The £20 denomination was always the scarcest in everyday use, given the purchasing power involved. Surviving examples that passed through genuine commercial circulation are considerably rarer than the lower denominations.