Irish Euro Notes - Europa Series

[JohnnyQ]

News confirmed now that The Central Bank of Ireland will stop printing notes for good by June.

[DOC]

Disappointing and significant news indeed. Surprising how this has happened under the radar.

[leonard]

Recently released €20 note with code T006. Collectors should try to source €20 notes in UNC. as there may be many codes to collect.

Central Bank of Ireland have announced that they will cease bank note production this month (April 2019).

[DOC]

Interesting point Leonard. There could be some scarce codes to collect as The Central Bank of Ireland winds down production. Two new plate codes have recently been observed, T001 and T006, to add to the original issue of T002 and T005. The updated table for Irish Europa Series notes is attached.

[DOC]

Radar serial numbers are those where the number reads the same forwards as it does backwards. As euro notes have 11 digits (Series 1) or 10 digits (Series 2) in the serial number, true radars are rare. The chances of finding one are less than 1 in a 100,000 and given restrictions regarding the serial numbers of euro notes, the odds in practice of finding one are even lower than this.

I have only seen 1 Irish euro note with a radar serial, photo attached. If you see one in change, keep it. It is likely to be worth considerably more than face value

[Mac]

Interesting to get a radar Euro note, and an Irish one at that!

[DOC]

A solid serial number is one where every digit is the same. Notes with solid serials are sought after by collectors. Given the number of digits on euro notes and the rules surrounding acceptable numbers, solid serial euro notes are mega rare.

I have seen only one example of a solid serial number on a euro note. The example attached is a 5 euro note printed in Italy with serial number SE1111111111. If you see a solid serial number, keep it. Needless to say, it would be worth more than face value

[Mac]

That's a very nice find!

[DOC]

For the Europa Series notes issued by The Central Bank of Ireland, the following solid serial numbers are allowed and within the serial number range actually printed: TA2222222222 (10 euro) and TC2222222222 (5 euro). The odds on finding one are extremely low but worth keeping a look out for

[DOC]

I recently came across an unusual 10 euro note in change with prefix FA (example attached). On checking it out, I found that the F prefix is for Printer Oberthur Fiduciaire AD (Bulgaria). This illustrates the peculiar logic of the Europa Series. Euro notes of this Series are printed for the ECB rather than for any particular country. So the FA 10 euro note circulating in Ireland is a note printed in Bulgaria, a non-Eurozone country, for the ECB !

[leonard]

Irish E20 note H004 is currently, at least, very scarce. For the record, I have saved one note serial no.: T32309729754

Irish Europa E20 note with code T010 has been released. Has anyone seen codes T003, T004, T007, T008, T009?

Future of Euro notes; with the decision of the Central Bank of Ireland to cease banknote production, I presume the T prefix will disappear from circulation.
Next year we will see a new signature on notes, that of Christine Lagarde. It will be interesting to see if "E.S.B." will be added to the bank listings on the E5, E10 and E20 as is currently on Europa E50, E100 and E200 since they were introduced.

Further on - will we see Polymer notes?
Upgrades of the lower denominations can't be many years away.

[DOC]

Irish 20 euro notes with H004 plate code could be considered rare with only a small number in collectors hands.

Interesting to hear about a T010 20 euro note. I have not seen any T003, T004, T007, T008, T009 codes yet. We should not expect to see any more Irish euro notes when current stocks run out as The Central Bank of Ireland have ceased production.

[JohnnyQ]

You are correct in your logic with the F €10 note above. The country who commissions the note is no longer the letter on the series number. For example in the first series ireland commissioned notes from De La Rue, €20 notes with T prefix and H print code and notes from Austria, ie the €500 note with a T prefix and N printing code. That no longer holds true. German notes are no longer X prefix and then the printers code but all the series numbers are the printing works. There is also something called the Joint European Tender where countries order notes from a printer collectively to their countries and the note packaging reflects this. I’ll try to attach pics of this to illustrate. On another point I got some new series €200 notes today and in the middle, like happened with the €20 note there was an NZ prefix. Completely out of sequence. I’m wondering if these notes are test runs to check quality.

[DOC]

That is a very interesting observation. I wonder if the printer is using the NZ notes as replacements?

[JohnnyQ]

I doubt it. Very few printers use replacements anymore. They are printed, numbered and cut and it’s at packaging stage they are inspected electronically and bundles. The error notes are removed at this stage. That’s why euro notes don’t run in sequence when bundled.

[billyf1]

I was of the opinion that Euro notes dont go in xxxx1,xxxx2,xxxx3,xxxx4,xxxx5 order, rather they go in a fashion whereby the next serial conforms to
some kind of checksum?

I'm open to being enlightened on this...

[JohnnyQ]

The last number on the serial number goes backwards and the second last goes forward. For example 00019, 00028, 00037, 00046 etc. They are also packaged with huge variations in the numbers in the block of 1000 notes. Traditionally the block would run from 1 to 1000 but now there can be two or more letter prefixes in one block or even in one bundle of 100 new notes.

[DOC]

Yes, the rules regarding the numbering of euro notes means that consecutive notes should differ by 9. The serial number cannot end in a zero so there is a jump of 18 in this case. It would be interesting to check the number sequence before and after prefix changes to see if there is a pattern.

[JohnnyQ]

I’ve attached a pic of the packaging of a block of 1000 €50 notes printed in Portugal. You can see from the first and last note in the block the huge range included. Not all printers include this information on the packaging. Also included on the individual wrappers is the date they were wrapped. In this case 11-04-2016.

[Mac]

...the date they were wrapped. In this case 11-04-2016.

When was the pic taken? It would give an indication of how long the notes hang around before being issued.