PREVIEW: BRITISH AND IRISH BANKNOTES: 25 JUNE

A gap of 15 years would pass before the second printing of the Irish Free State, £50, the first printing being limited to 10,000 notes, all dated 10 September 1928.

It is known as the Lady Lavery note as it depicted the American-born wife of the artist Sir John Lavery on the front with a harp. Lavery had painted the figure as a depiction of Kathleen Ni Houlihan, the mythical figure from Ireland’s past.

Considerably rarer than the £100 note from the series, it is much sought after nearly a century later. An example in this sale, with the serial number Y/01 009433, and the Brennan and McElligott signatures, shows only light handling and one central fold. Printed on nice original paper with visible embossing in many places, it is an extremely fine and superb example of this note and carries an estimate of £14,000-16,000.

Other highlights include an almost complete set of specimen Treasury Bills for a range of denominations, under two different Heads of the Treasury. They comprise the T. Burns, £5,000, £10,000, £25,000, £50,000, £100,000, £250,000, £500,000, £1,000,000, £5,000,000 and £10,000,000 notes, all printed around 1996, as well as the Andrew Turnbull, £5,000, £10,000, £50,000, £100,000 and £1,000,000, printed around 1998-2002, all with a variety of prefixes and 000000 serial numbers, and all with a variety of SPECIMEN overprints and cancellation holes.

They carry very beautiful and intricate watermarks for each type, printed with a crown and specimen number on reverse; all are uncirculated and excessively rare, with only two sets believed to be in the public domain. This set misses the Turnbull £25,000 only (15 notes). The price is £8,000-10,000.

A £5,000,000 Treasury Bill, dated 8 September 2003, and with the serial number U007792 – is the first bill of this value Noonans has seen on the market. Printed on fully watermarked paper, it carries the signature of Andrew Turnbull, and the CANCELLED handstamp at lower left, with red numeral stamped on the reverse. Showing minor handling, but otherwise uncirculated, it is very rare and is priced at £6,000-8,000.

Of historic interest is a selection of Irish internment camp tokens linked to the war of independence.

The British military interned known Irish nationalists at Ballykinlar, co. Down. At its peak the internment camp was home to about 5,000 internees who used a variety of tokens and cards as currency; the one pound, printed by O’Loughlin, Murphy & Boland Ltd, Upper Dorset street, Dublin, was the highest denomination issued.

This sale includes a Ballykinlar Internment Camp, £1, ND (circa 1921), printed on circular card, the obverse in yellow and black print, with denomination and camp details in Gaelic, the reverse red and yellow, with details of printers. These notes are said to have been printed in protest to official issues. Very fine, extremely rare and interesting, the estimate is £500-700. Six others, for 1d, 3d, 6d, one shilling, five shillings and ten shillings, are expected to fetch £400-600 each.

A Peveril Internment Camp, 1 Penny canteen token from the Second World War, ND (1940), carries the serial number B1424 on orange card, and the Kneen signature. This camp, in Peel on the Isle of Man, was used for housing 'enemy aliens' from 1940-41. The estimate is £260-360.