Sir, - Why are our stamps and currency notes so garish and trite? Every schoolchild knows the £20 note's depiction of Daniel O'Connell and the £10 note's picture of Joyce borders on the libellous. But at least the £20 note celebrates somebody who has some claim to be one of the greatest Irishmen ever to have lived.
Our stamps, which once paid beautiful tribute to deserving people and places, are now a mess of colour and poorly executed artistry. The recent issue of four stamps portraying 1970s style musicians playing the fiddle and other instruments to celebrate Comhaltas Ceoltoiri ╔ireann or the Valentine's Day stamps showing a psychedelic goldfish jumping through a love heart are only the most recent examples of a long standing decline in quality.
The introduction of the euro next year will thankfully make the current series of currency notes redundant although the replacements don't exactly make the heart beat faster. Perhaps we could get the European equivalent of An Post to issue some European stamps as well so we don't have to blush every time we send letters abroad? - Yours, etc.,
Thomas Molloy, Vergemount Park, Dublin 6.