Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Pounds
| Issuer | Currency Commission of the Irish Free State |
|---|---|
| Year | 1928 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Pound (1826-1971) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central oval vignette at left contains a portrait of Lady Hazel Lavery, draped in a blue shawl, rendered in intaglio against a landscape background. The denomination £50 appears in large numerals at centre, flanked by intricate guilloche underprint work in blue-green tones, with bilingual text in English and Irish across the upper field and at the lower border. Side panels carry the denomination in words — FIFTY POUNDS vertically on the left and CAOGA PUNT on the right — within ornate letterpress borders. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Centre of the note is occupied by a large intaglio vignette of a bearded male head wearing a wreath of foliage and surmounted by a trident, representing the spirit of the River Shannon, set within an elaborate shield-like cartouche. The surrounding field is filled with finely engraved guilloche lacework in violet and pale green, with corner rosette ornaments and a £50 denomination panel at the lower centre. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Currency Commission was established by the Currency Act of 1927, and this 50 Pound note — one of the highest denominations in the inaugural "Ploughman" series — entered circulation in 1928 alongside Irish Free State independence from the British banking system in all but monetary policy. The Irish pound was pegged at exact parity with sterling, a political choice that would hold until 1979. At face value equivalent to fifty pounds sterling, these notes were instruments of commerce for large transactions, not everyday currency, and circulated in very small numbers.
Waterlow & Sons produced the entire series under tight specification. Known to collectors as among the rarest of the Ploughman issues, surviving examples at any grade are genuinely difficult to locate.