100 pound note: Really in widespread use until 1996?

[Series B notes]

THe Lady Lavery 100 pound note was the only 100 pound note at the time of Series B, and even a bit of Series C, so was it used activley during that time? DId banks actively issue them? Were they treated as only being worth face value?

[Mac]

Lavery £100 notes were current until the C Series £100 note was introduced.
You could order Lavery £100 notes through your bank until then.

However, £100 notes were seldom seen in circulation.
Even the C Series £100 were uncommon. That's why there is a high premium on an UNC C Series £100.

[ThePloughman]

You could order Lavery £100 notes through your bank until then.

Sounds like a cool way to find notes for your collection

[Vellakare]

100 Pound notes were practically unheard of in the 1980's and 1990's. The Parnell 100 was scarce enough and rarely seen. I had the use of one twice in my life.

[DOC]

Yes, in my memory the £100 was always a scarce denomination and seldom encountered. I recall getting a Parnell £100 note once from an ATM ! Lavery £100 notes were rarely seen and only used for significant transactions such as paying the deposit for a house or buying a car. When the first Lavery £100 notes were issued in 1928, they must have been worth the equivalent of a small fortune.

[Mac]

You'd see the occasional Parnell £100 note in circulation at coin fairs!
I don't remember seeing then elsewhere though.

Getting one out of a cash machine was unusual!

[ThePloughman]

100 Pounds was the only denomination I couldn't get from the banking system in the US, I had to buy one from a dealer!

[JohnnyQ]

I work in a bank and the C series £100 was about as common as a €100 is today. You got maybe 5 to 10 per week and then every few weeks you would get maybe £5,000 worth from one customer. Who had sold a car or something. They were very boring only having one date and as far as I remember two first prefix letters and very few replacements. The £50 was the same. Very few circulated until mid to late 2000. At that stage the central bank decided it wanted the retail banks to issue €50 notes from ATMs and so got the banks to load ATMs with £50 notes to get the public used to a larger denomination then then the circulation of them took off.

[DOC]

Interesting to hear those insights. Do you remember if Lady Lavery £100 notes were ever submitted to the bank in the 1990's?

[JohnnyQ]

I joined the bank in 1996 so the C series £100 had just come in. I’d say I only saw one or possibly two A series £100 notes brought in by customers. The C £50 had come in the year before and you also saw very little B series £50s floating after that. I also used to do the rounds of the banks in Limerick once a month. I got to know some of the cashiers and they would let me go through their soiled notes to look for interesting stuff and there was rarely an A series £100 in there.