Bank of Ireland records indicate that 16,950 £10 Consolidated notes were issued into circulation.
The same records show that banknote number 01BT 026000 was issued and redeemed.
The question that has always remained is which of the Bank of Ireland notes were issued, and why?
9,050 unissued notes is quite a lot.
Based on information in the Central Bank of Ireland Archives, from the Currency Commission £10 Consolidated Bank Notes Numerical Record (pictured below), and on the knowledge from £10 notes actually recorded in PSS, we can take a guess at the number brackets of Bank of Ireland £10 notes which were not issued.
Taking the notes in batches of 1,000, as listed in the Numerical Record, £10 notes from the following number groups in red have not been seen. £10 notes from number groups in black have been recorded in the Ploughman survey.
Thousand notes commencing from:
000001–001000
001001–002000
002001–003000 — delivered on 24.4.29
003001–004000
004001–005000
005001–006000 — delivered on 6.5.29
006001–007000
007001–008000 — delivered on 7.5.29
008001–009000 — delivered on 10.5.29
009001–010000 — delivered on 27.5.29
010001–011000
011001–012000 — delivered on 6.6.29
012001–013000 — delivered on 19.3.30
013001–014000 — delivered on 27.4.31
014001–015000 — delivered on 27.4.31
015001–016050— delivered on 23.9.32
016051–017000
017001–018000
018001–019000 — delivered on 15.10.42
019001–020000
020001–021000
021001–022000 — delivered on 12.11.42
022001–023000
023001–024000
024001–025000 — delivered on 17.11.42
025001–026000 — delivered on 23.12.42
026001–028000 – delivered 21.10.43, and returned on 6.5.46.
Possibly, the bank did not require the quantity of notes that was being delivered, and opened packets of notes taken from the top of the pile as the were needed, allowing a disproportionate quantity of earlier-numbered notes to accumulate unissued. As no notes from them have been seen, some deliveries may not even have been opened at all.
Based on these figures, and on the structure of the delivery batches, I would make a guess that the following notes were most likely amongst the 9,050 notes not issued:
01BT 006001–009000, and 013001–015000 [5,000 notes] Pretty definitely not issued.
01BT 0110001–013000 and 01BT 016001–018000 [4,000] Most likely among those that were not issued.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the Central Bank of Ireland Archives
