Irish pound

Categories: Coinage of the Republic of Ireland | Economy of Ireland | Currencies replaced by the Euro | Republic of Ireland

The Irish pound (Irish: punt) was the currency unit of the Republic of Ireland until 1999. The Irish pound first came to be as the currency of the Irish Free State in 1928, but was directly linked to Sterling until 1979. The Irish pound was superseded by the euro on 1 January, 1999.

The Irish pound's ISO 4217 code was IEP, and the usual notation was the prefix £, or where confusion might have arisen with Sterling IR£ was used.

History

A distinct Irish pound existed before throughout the island of Ireland the Act of Union 1801, but this act led to the disappearence of the currency in 1826 and it would not appear again until 1928, just over one hundred years later. The Irish pound that appeared in 1928 was originally called the 'Saorstát pound' ("Free State pound") and was pegged to the Pound sterling; the currency was referred to as the 'Irish pound' from 1938 after the Constitution of Ireland changed the state's name. In the mid 1960s it was decided to proceed with decimalisation and to this effect the number of pennies in an Irish pound was redefined from 240 to 100 pence - the pound itself was not revalued by this act.

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism broke the final one-for-one link with the Pound Sterling and the Irish pound in March 1979. Until this time, all Irish Coins had been the same shape and size as their UK counterparts. After this, all new coins introduced were of different sizes to Uk coinage. The new 20p and £1 were completely different in size, shape and colour to the previously introduced UK versions. When the UK 5p and 10p were reduced in size the Irish followed suit, with the new Irish 10p becoming smaller than the new UK version and the new Irish 5p slightly bigger than the UK version. The Irish 50p was never reduced in size as it had been in the UK and this was presumably due to forthcoming replacement of the Irish Pound by the Euro.

Legal Tender Note

The Saorstát pound first appeared as a banknote and was printed by the Currency Commission in 1928; the term "Pound" and "Punt" were used on the banknotes. This banknote, part of the so called "Series A", contained the portait of an Irish woman, believed to be Lady Lavery, the wife of John Lavery. The head on the back was taken from the Custom House, Dublin and is now believed to represent the River Lee as it was unnamed at the time of commission. A faint watermark of the "Head of Erin" also appears on the rear right. The note is 84mm x 151mm and is predominately green, the first date on the notes was 10 September 1928 and the last date was 30 September 1976. The change of the states name from Irish Free State to Ireland in 1938 corresponded to a number of related changes in wording. The creation of the Central Bank of Ireland in 1943 required the substitution of "Currency Commission" with that of "Central Bank of Ireland". In the early 1960s the phrase "Payable in London" was removed from the notes.

The Series A note was withdrawn in the late 1970s and a replacement "Series B" note issued. The front of this note featured the bust of Medb Queen of Connacht and an early Irish geometric design; the rear of the note contains a extract from Lebor na hUidre a manuscript of the Tain. The note was predominately green and red with the first issue dated 10 June 1977 and the final dated 13 September 1989. The note measured 148mm x 78mm and was withdrawn in 1990 in favour of the new coin as paper was becoming too expensive to print on for such a low value.

See main article Series B Banknotes of the Republic of Ireland

A final series of banknotes was issued in the early 1990s, called "Series C" but without a Irish pound note, these were; £5 brown featuring Catherine McAuley, £10 green featuring James Joyce, £20 - purple featuring Daniel O'Connell, £50 - blue featuring Douglas Hyde, £100 - red featuring Charles Stewart Parnell.

The coin

On June 20 1990 the Irish pound coin was introduced using the design of a red deer, by the Irish artist Tom Ryan. The 2000 Millennium was used to issue a commemorative coin, the design was based on the "Broighter Boat" in the National Museum of Ireland; the coins design was by Alan Ardiff and Garrett Stokes and were issued on November 29 1999. The coin featured a milled edge - unique in Irish coinage.

The Irish pound coin, which was introduced in 1990, remains the largest Irish coin introduced since decimalisation at 3.11 centimetres diameter and was 10 grams weight. The coin was almost identical in dimensions to the old penny coin that circulated before 1971, and was quite similar in diameter to, but thinner, than the half-crown coin.

During the early circulation of the coin, many payphone and vending machines which had been changed to accept the pound coin also accepted the old penny because of the similar size, the latter coin which was no longer legal tender and had little value to collectors. As a result losses accrued to vending machine operators due to the substitution of the penny coin and further costs were associated with updating the machines so they would no longer accept the penny.

Withdrawal

Although the euro became the currency of the Republic on 1 January, 1999, it wasn't until 1 January, 2002 that the state began to withdraw Irish pound coins and notes, replacing them with euro. Old pound notes lost their legal tender status on 9 February, 2002, although they will be exchangeable indefinitely for euro at the Central Bank.

On 31 December, 2001, the total value of Irish banknotes in circulation was €4,343.8 million, and the total value of Irish coins was €387.9 million. The Irish cash changeover was the fastest in the Eurozone, with some shops illegally ceasing to accept pounds after the first week or two. With a conversion factor of 0.787564 Irish pounds to the euro¹, fifty-six per cent of the value of Irish banknotes was withdrawn from circulation within two weeks of the introduction of euro banknotes and coins, and 83.4 per cent by the time they ceased to have legal tender status on 9 February.

Withdrawal of coinage was slower, having a lower priority, with only 45 per cent of coins withdrawn by 9 February. This figure is somewhat misleading, as at that point, almost all coinage in circulation had indeed been withdrawn – the remainder being kept as souvenirs, or in hoards. One year after the changeover, €456 million of Irish pound banknotes remained unaccounted for, including one-third of all the £5 notes which, being the smallest denomination, were likely retained as souvenirs.

Notes

• Note 1: Of the 15 national currencies originally tied to the Euro (also including the currencies of Andorra, Monaco and San Marino), the Irish pound is the only one whose conversion factor is less than 1, i.e. the unit of the national currency was worth more than one Euro.

See also

• Currency Centre (printer of notes and minter of coins for Ireland)

External links

• Overview of Irish pound from the BBC
• The Irish Pound: From Origins to EMU (734K PDF file, from Central Bank website).