The Central Bank has exchanged almost €1.5 million worth of old pound notes and coins over the past three years which people had stored since the introduction of the euro.
Figures from the bank show that €1.15 million worth of notes and €341,000 worth of coins were rooted out from under mattresses, coin jars, safes, and coffers since the beginning of 2022.
It’s been more than twenty years since the euro was introduced in Ireland, but the Central Bank still offers an exchange at the fixed rate of €1.27 for each old pound.
A log of the twenty highest transactions shows that individuals swapped out punts that were worth between €9,313 and just over €25,000.
The single biggest exchange was the €25,204 – or IR£19,850 in old money – that one person received after a profitable trip to the Central Bank.
There was also a swap of IR£19,000 and four further transactions that were worth more than IR£15,000 in value.