Series B Banknotes

The Series B Banknotes (Irish: Nótaí bainc sraith B) of Ireland replaced the Series A Banknotes. The banknotes were issued between 1976 and 1982 by the Central Bank of Ireland, the series was replaced in 1993 by Series C Banknotes.

The Central Bank announced its intention for the new banknotes in December 1971 and Servicon, an Irish design company, was employed to design the notes of the denominations; £1, £5, £10, £20, £50 and £100. The £100 note was never issued or circulated; this remains somewhat of an idiosyncrasy in the issue of Irish banknotes as this is the only series without a note of this denomination.

The theme chosen for these notes was history of Ireland, and each note featured the portrait of a person with this theme in mind from a particular era from historic to modern and complementing visual elements. The female head painted by Sir John Lavery was retained from Series A; contained in the unprinted space. Each banknote has the signature of the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland and the Secretary of the Department of Finance.

During much of the period of circulation of this series, foreign exchange controls prohibited the export of any notes larger than £20 from the Republic.

The green one pound note had a portrait of Medb, the legendary Queen of Connacht in Irish mythology. Also a pre-Christian geometric design based on those found on bone slips is used in on the note, the background is an excerpt from the Táin.

The reverse had a decorated excerpt from Lebor na hUidre, the oldest surviving Irish manuscript, with some red in addition to the dominant green.

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