50 Pounds

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.