Adieu to the punt, a currency that hit the right note

While the punt is as Irish as poit∅n, it was actually the English who adopted it as a name for the Irish currency when it was introduced in 1928.

Having learnt the Irish word for pound, waggish stockbrokers in London were heard liking the fledgling currency to a flat-bottomed boat that had a tendency to capsize. And so the punt - more correctly known as the Irish pound - was born.

Never having capsized in quite the manner the brokers jokingly predicted, the currency will not be afloat for much longer. According to coin dealers, the imminent demise of the pound has provoked considerable financial nostalgia.

The Central Bank may be preparing to turn Robert Ballagh's beautifully designed fivers and tenners into landfill but people are clamouring to collect complete sets of notes and coins since 1971 when decimalisation was introduced.

It has neither the imperialistic status of sterling or the historical importance of the Deutschmark so crucial in the recovery of the German state. Yet 30 years of Irish money is evidently regarded as a worthy legacy for children and grandchildren who will never know anything but the euro and the cent.

That legacy began with the Currency Commission, the body set up five years after the formation of the State to deal with the challenge of creating a new Irish currency to replace sterling.

According to Ian Whyte of Whyte's Auctioneers in Dublin, which has handled the sale of some of the rarest Irish notes and coins, the commission was interested in creating a currency that was pleasing to the eye.

While the coins were festooned with animals, including the pig, the hound and the woodcock, the very first paper money, featuring a portrait of Lady Lavery as a seductive-eyed Irish colleen, was produced in 1928. Her husband Sir John Lavery had been commissioned to come up with an image of a colleen and his wife, to her delight, was chosen as the subject.

The choice of Chicago-born Hazel Lavery, sitting poised in a shawl with her arm resting on a large Irish harp, was to cause brief controversy. In time, however, the instantly recognisable motif became the most enduring one of all the notes and coins, appearing as a watermark in even the soon to be defunct designs by artist Robert Ballagh.

The first notes had other novel features apart from the portrait of Lady Lavery. It was the first example of Irish legal tender which was bilingual, with English on the left and Irish on the right.

However, the words "One Pound sterling payable to bearer on demand in London" somewhat diluted the impact of a new nation making its mark. It wasn't until the 1960s that this was deleted from Irish notes.

However it was not until 1979, when the link with sterling was broken, that the Irish currency became a genuinely independent entity, trading at a different value to the pound sterling. Three years ago this short period of independence ended when the pound was linked irrevocably to the euro.

Meanwhile, reaction to the new starter euro packs suggests that for a while at least the familiarity of old money will be missed. "People who have seen the new money are very disappointed," says Mr Whyte. "The notes don't feel real but people will get used to them. They could be considered bland. They are a certainly a big contrast to the imaginative way the commission went about designing the original Irish pound notes".

Artist Robert Ballagh agrees. The designer of the current range of notes believes that the cultural impact of the impending changeover is being overlooked. "Much of the debate has surrounded the economic impact of the euro but the cultural impact on Irish people will be quite dramatic," he says.

"The reality is that my notes would have come to an end anyway," he explains. "But I think a lot of people thought the euro was going to have an Irish feature and they are disappointed when they find out that while the coin will feature a harp on the back, the note will bear nothing of any national significance."

Whatever the economists might tell us, Ballagh maintains, we will be culturally poorer for their passing.