Almost a year after the euro's introduction, the €50 note has replaced the £20 note as the most widely used banknote in circulation, write Arthur Beesley
The €50 note is worth the equivalent of £39.38, almost twice the value of the £20 note, and its popularity suggests that the Irish are walking around with more money in their pockets than ever before.
Some might attribute this to the inflation rate, but the Central Bank says a more plausible explanation is high usage of the note in bank machines.
While some €5.1 billion in notes and coins is now in circulation, the latest figures suggest that old Irish notes bearing the faces of such icons as James Joyce and Charles Stewart Parnell are not yet extinct. Some €440 million in old money was still in circulation last Friday, just over €112 for every individual in the State.
Confirming the erstwhile popularity of the £20, the note bearing the face of Daniel O'Connell remains by far the biggest denomination still in circulation. Some €131.5 million worth of the note is either stashed away or lost.
While new Central Bank figures reveal that old coins worth €135.2 million are still circulating, they also show that €45.6 million worth of £50 notes and €8.6 million in £100 notes have not yet been exchanged.
The bulk of the euro changeover was achieved in the first two weeks of the year, but the Central Bank says about 200 people are still turning up every weekday to exchange punts for euro.
The penchant for high-value notes does not end with the €50 note.
The Bank said €500 notes worth €31.5 million are circulating in the Republic.
Is this the end of the small-value note? Maybe - for a certain casualty in the new currency is the €5 note.
The £5 note was always popular when a fiver was a fiver, but use of the denomination in the new money has decreased significantly since its introduction.
The Central Bank said there were 55 per cent fewer of them in circulation now than when the new money was introduced. Conversely, use of the €50 note has increased by 322 per cent since the start of the year.
