Issued Twenty Pound notes

[Mac]

Twenty Pounds was a lot of money during the era of the Old Note issues.
The notes are rare, and seldom offered.
When I started collecting these around 20 years ago, few notes of this denomination had been recorded, other than specimens and proofs.

They do turn up though, and several collections have been sold over the past decade which had £20 notes in them.

So far, £20 notes of the following banks have been seen:
Bank of Ireland
National
Ulster
Belfast Banking Company
Provincial Bank

I have not yet seen any issued £20 of the Northern Bank.

Pictures to follow.

[Mac]

Bank of Ireland 20 Pound Note, 1915.

Other Bank of Ireland Old Notes are in the Bank of Ireland section on the web site.

[DOC]

Paper Money of Ireland documents an example of an issued Northern Bank £20 dated 1 Feb 1918 (Type NR 41). This type of note appears to be very rare. Curiously, old £50 and £100 notes of the Northern Bank overprinted and issued in 1929 are more often seen.

[Mac]

Must get a scan of that Northern £20.

I believe that £20 notes have been seen for every bank.
Here's a National, rather the worse for wear, recently sold by Spink in London.

National_20_1915.jpg (32.25 KiB) Viewed 1007 times

[Mac]

Here's a Provincial Bank of Ireland 20 from 1904.

provincial_bank20_1904.jpg (28.55 KiB) Viewed 998 times

[Mac]

And an Ulster 20.

ub20y1914.jpg (27.99 KiB) Viewed 998 times

[Mac]

And a Belfast Bank 20.

bbc20y1916b.jpg (25.37 KiB) Viewed 998 times

[Mac]

Finally, Northern £20 1918.

northernbank20_1918.jpg (40.18 KiB) Viewed 992 times

[Mac]

Here is a much earlier £20 note from Bank of Ireland.
Admittedly, it is a Post Bill, but the design is very similar to the bank's banknotes of the era.


Bank of Ireland Twenty Pounds 1800, Post Bill.