British Ceylon
Colombo - One Rix Dollar - 1814-1816

One Rix Dollar Currency Note with engraving of Britannia by Silvester, issued by Government Treasury in Colombo issued in 1814. This format of note was issued from at least 1814 to at least 1816, but probably to 1820. Regulation 3 of 1820, required the value of the note to be added by means of a "dry stamp". By Regulation 5 of 1823 the notes of the value of RD 1 was demonetized as from 1823 August 31. By Regulation ? of 1830 the notes of the value of RD 2 were demonetized as from 1830 September 1.

Denomination : 1 RD English : One Rix Dollar Sinhala : පතාග එකයි Thamil : இறையால ஒருறு Size : 193 x 112 mm Date : 1th September 1814 Status : Signed
Click to see 1816 dated image.	KM-lk# Unlisted

Front : Upper-left: Britannia with Laural wreath seated facing right, Shield with Union jack on side, Trident tilted back in right hand, Olive Branch in left hand, all within wreath with flowers. Below in small text in upward Arc Engraver Silvester sc. 27, Strand London.
To right No #### Colombo 1 September 1814.
The Government of Ceylon promise to pay
to the Bearer on demand the Sum of ONE Rix Dollar in Copper Money at the Exchange of Forty Eight Stivers for the Rix Dollar on presenting this at the General Treasury


RIX DOLLAR	ONE
	COLOMBO	DD Month 18YY No ####

Ex^d & Ent^d One handsigned and one handstamped signature.
Sinhala Text: Top left Horizontal  පතාග එකයි
and Upper left Vertical  ලන්කවේ(sic) ආන්ඩුව
Tamil Text: Top right Horizontal  இறையால ஒருறு
and Upper right Vertical  இலங்கை அரசாட்சியின்
Back : Blank
WaterMark : Need to Findout
Printed : Silvester sc. 27, Strand, London.
Size : Estimated on the assumption that the size of Brittania logo is same as that measured on the 1820 2 Rix Dollar note from Colombo National Museum collection, which was scanned by me at 300 dpi.

The Olive Branch stretched forward signifies Peace Friendship and Goodwill. The Trident represents British Naval Power inspired from Poseidon and Neptune, Greek and Roman deities of the sea. Note also the Sailing ship on horizon at right.

The wrongly written Sinhala script  ලන්කවේ(sic) was corrected to  ලංකවේ by 1820 note.

Note that all of "dot"s above the Thamil characters are missing from the crudely handstamped old Text. The two word Thamil text on upper righthand corner is barely visible in this low resolution scan of this 1814 note needs to be checked as it may not be written exactly the same as the first two words on the higher resolution 1820 note.

Text from
* Ceylon Coins and Currency By H. W. Codrington. Colombo 1924
  Chapter XI British - Page 151-152


The 2011 Spink Auction of 19th Century Ceylon Notes listed this signed Rix Dollar currency Note as Lot 1441 - 1 RD Image estimated at 65 dpi displayed at 50 dpi. I thanks Godfrey Perera for the higher resolution color photocopy of note he had got from a dealer in Australia which was scanned and photo-edited.

Please contact kavan @ gmail.com if I have made errors in encoding the Thamil in Unicode.