Irish Banknotes. Irish Banknotes can be traced from the sixteen hundreds, but effectively there is extremely little available before the 1790's and even these examples are very rare. Examples of the early private banks are available from around 1810-1830's are available, some like ffrenchs are "relatively" common, some of the provincial examples are extremely rare with only one or two examples seen in over 30 years. There is also a lack of information available about these issues, although this may be addressed by the long promised publication of a book this year. The most popular series with collectors remain the "Ploughman" series from 1929 to 1940, and the "A" or "Lady Lavery" series, which stretched from 1928 to 1977. The more recent "B" and "C" series are becoming popular, particularly in high grade, which is actually quite difficult to obtain for most dates.