5 Pounds Postal Order

Irish postal orders were issued by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs until An Post was established as a semi-state body in 1984, so this 1981 piece falls squarely under the older departmental authority. The £5 denomination was the ceiling value for Irish postal orders at the time — a deliberate limit tied to regulatory concerns about postal orders being used as informal currency substitutes rather than simple payment instruments.

Collectors sometimes overlook postal orders entirely, but the Irish series has a narrower survival rate than comparable British issues: most were cashed and destroyed by the issuing post office, with uncashed examples surviving largely by accident.