Obtaining Northern Irish banknotes

rbethea

If anyone has been to the Emerald Isle, does anyone know how one might go about obtaining UNC banknotes from the 4 commercial banks that issue notes? My understanding is that the banks don't have a supply on hand, such as at the HQ and that it's very difficult (I can assure you that Scotland was very difficult). Any suggestions or dealers in either Rep. of Ireland or Northern Ireland? I'll be around Dublin and Belfast in a couple of weeks and want to take advantage of the visit (and the cheap pound!).

Thanks in advance!

Jim61

Hey Robert, Sorry I can't help you with this, but I would expect you would get a better response on the IBNS forum. Try there as well.

Dennis88

It's difficult, and virtually impossible to do if you do not have contacts within the bank. I talked to Pam West about this subject recently and she said she is lucky that she has one contact who is able to get some new issues, but even then sporadically.

Jim61

Originally posted by: Dennis88

It's difficult, and virtually impossible to do if you do not have contacts within the bank. I talked to Pam West about this subject recently and she said she is lucky that she has one contact who is able to get some new issues, but even then sporadically.

And usually they ask if you have an account from what I have heard.

ProofArtworkonCircs

Local ATM's might be a source.

rbethea

Thank you for the responses. Scotland was damn near impossible on-site and I've heard Northern Ireland is substantially more difficult. In Edinburgh they asked every time if I had a bank account. 9 times out of 10 they would check anyway, as long as they didn't have one of those automatic tills (we don't really have these in the US but they're all over Europe), which in that case they need to do a transaction for it to spit any money out. Unfortunately it seems my fears are accurate or even understated. I'll have to look into dealers up there. I'm just excited about not having a language barrier!

That's interesting what Pam had to say. If anyone would know it would be her. Rats! There was a post on the IBNS forum about a year and a half ago from a friend in Sweden who tried and he had a similarly difficult time with this too. I may reach out to a couple of the members in Dublin/Belfast to see if they have any inside scoop on this.

Thanks for all your feedback!

Jim61

Another possible option might be the larger currency exchange places at the airport(s). Good luck and enjoy your trip.

3stars

If you are going to be in Belfast on July 11/12, expect a wild ride! Not as bad as people make it out to be, but some areas are best to avoid.

SaorAlba

Back in the 1980s I was ordering sets of uncirculated notes from each of the four banks when they came out with new issues. I remember having to pay by wire transfer which at the time pretty much significantly increased the cost of the sets.

Stu73

They are tough to find , I see Northern Irish and Scottish AUNC nearly every week , UNC a lot less but today I had a few UNC Scottish 2007 The three Bridges series notes. I wasn't aware they were not as well covered by dealers as other world currencies.

rbethea

Went up to Belfast for a day. Incidentally, didn't realize the commemoration around the 12th - on the train ride back to Dublin I was discussing it with a nice older lady and she said the same thing so I'm glad to avoid the issues that might arise. seeing the Sinn Fein HQ was pretty interesting though and foot traffic in the Falls Rd area was very, VERY light when I went up a couple days ago.

Getting nice banknotes was IMPOSSIBLE. Getting high denomination was IMPOSSIBLE. The only notes I kept were some XFs I found on the First Trust Bank (10 and 20 pounds). I actually have a complete set of BoI that I forgot about (with the Bushmill's distillery on the back) so I asked about obsolete 100 pound notes in their branch in Donnegall Sq. to no avail. The cashier at the Ulster Bank didn't even know they had 50 and 100 pound notes.

Getting them to deal with me without an account was challenging (I knew this was going to be an issue from my experiences in Scotland), although the bright spot was Danske Bank who had no problem changing the ratty NI notes for BoE notes when I left. Next time I come back I'm going to stop straight there and ask them about the higher denoms. What the First Trust cashier said is that they never get new notes in anymore, that they only handle currency as it's brought in so they rarely see notes in nice condition. I think a better investigation with the banks' administration staffs would need to happen to understand the supply chain of Northern Ireland banknotes. I e-mailed several dealers and all of them (including some prominent Irish dealers) simply said, "Good Luck!" and based on this experience I can understand why.

Oh well. It was worth a try and this unique city was a really beautiful day trip. Would love to go back soon.

Jim61

Robert, sorry to hear you had the same results of many others getting UNC notes.



At least you appeared to enjoy your travels.