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Extremely rare Irish £10 note sells for £22k at auction
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Extremely rare Irish £10 note sells for £22k at auction

AN Irish £10 banknote from the iconic Ploughman series has sold for £22,320 at auction.

The lot was sold by Dix Noonan Webb in their auction of British, Irish and World Banknotes on Wednesday,  held in Mayfair, London on February 24.

The extremely rare Northern Bank Ltd note, dated from May 6, 1929, was described by the auction house as “a very fine specimen” and had great historical value.

The Ploughman series notes were issued as part of an arrangement to get Ireland’s banks to withdraw their previous individual banknote issues.

This Northern Bank £10 note sold for more than £22,000 at auction

The notes were referred to as the Ploughman series because of the pastoral image of a horse drawn plough — intended as to have a resonance with Ireland’s rural economy.

The last issue was in 1941 and they were finally withdrawn on 31 December 1953.

The banknote was offered by a private collector and was bought by a private collector of Irish notes using the auctioneer’s online bidding facility.

Other Irish notes that sold well included the only known example of a £50 note from the Belfast Banking Company Limited, dating from December 7, 1917.

This is the only £50 note known to exist from the Belfast Banking Company Limited

This sold for £12,400 against an estimate of £8,000-10,000.

After fierce competition between two long-term private collectors, it went to a European bidder.

The same bidder purchased an extremely rare £1 note from the Bank of Ireland (Dublin and Westport) dating from 1838, which sold for £11,780.

The bidder also bought a £20 note printed in blue, from the Provincial Bank of Ireland Ltd, dating from October 20 1904 — it fetched £9,300 at the auction against an estimate of £5,000-6,000.

This note, paying tribute to Irish football legend George Best, sold for £360

An extremely rare and early £1 Bank of Ireland note more than 200 years old, dating from September 7, 1819, sold for £5,952 against an estimate of £3,000-4,000.

At the other end of the scale an Ulster Bank Limited £5 note featuring George Best sold for £360.