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| Irish Banknotes |
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| Irish Twenty Pound £20 Bank Note |
Ireland 20 Pound Note 1976 Lady Lavery
Central Bank of Ireland - Banc Ceannais na hÉireann
Obverse: Portrait of Lady Hazel Lavery in Irish national costume with chin resting on her hand and leaning on an Irish harp, Lakes and mountains in background.
Reverse: River Boyne water spirit.
The 'Lavery' £20 note had, like all the banknotes at the time, the portrait of Lady Hazel Lavery in Irish national costume with chin resting on her hand and leaning on an Irish harp, Lakes and mountains in background. Lady Lavery was the wife of a famous banker and politician and was reputed also to be a secret lover of Michael Collins. Lady Lavery was a renowned beauty of her time.
The notes were designed by 'Mr John Harrison', a portrait engraver. All 'Lavery' notes depected a river mask on the reverse of the note. The 'River God Masks' were copies of the masks adorning the Customs House in Dublin.
The twenty pound 'River Mask' is one of the River Boyne. All 'Lavery' notes were bi-lingual, English to the left and Irish (Gaelic) to the right. There were 10,610,000 of these notes issued, most were exchanged for the 'William Butler Yeats' £20 note which replaced the 'Lavery' note in 1977. Most of the remaining £5 'Lavery' notes were exchanged during the Euro changeover in 2001.
Banknotes of the Republic of Ireland: Series A Banknotes
The Series A Banknotes were introduced by the Irish Free State in 1928 and were the first banknotes created by and for the state; the series continued to b
e issued when the Free State became Ireland. The notes served from 1928 to 1977 and were replaced by Series B notes.