Lady Lavery Irish Warcodes Banknotes

In 1928 the Irish Government launched a well-regarded series of coins and banknotes for the newly established Irish Free State. The well-known painter Sir John Lavery used a portrait of wife Lady Hazel Lavery to represent an Irish maiden and the result was a magnificent set of seven banknotes from ten shillings up to £100. These became an iconic representation of the newly emergent Ireland and were issued from 1928 up to 1977.

They were printed by the Royal Mint in the Tower of London, but in 1940 as WWII raged, the Central Bank of Ireland were concerned that some of their banknotes might go astray. They decided that each batch of notes should carry a code letter alongside the serial number and date. Therefore, if a batch went missing, they could easily declare that any Irish £5 notes or £1s with the “B” or “P” letter for example, were now demonetised and worthless.  This practice continued through to 1944 and examples with a Warcode as they are called, are eagerly sought out by collectors. Prices depend on the condition and the date/denomination/ Warcode. There are a hundred of these rare Warcode notes at the O’Reilly’s September 23^rd auction with prices from €50/€100 each up to the €1,000 for the extremely rare 1943 £20 note with the “A” Warcode.

It is unusual to see so many of these on offer at the same time, so this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity!