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CBSL Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe was appointed on 2022-04-07 by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who appointed his new Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe as Finance Minister on 2022-05-25. The appointment of Nandalal Weerasinghe was renewed on 2022-07-04 which is the date put on the note. Ranil Wickramasinghe became President on 2022-07-21, and retained the position of Finance Minister like 3 of 5 presidents have done before him over last 3 decades.
Ordering of notes of all 6 denominations from Rs20 to Rs5000 with new signatures and date was confirmed in reply to CBSL RTI 0162/2023 dated 2023-07-25. Between 2023 October and 2024 Aprii (CBSL) issued into circulation with no press announcements, currency notes in the "Development, Prosperity and Sri Lanka Dancers" theme dated 2022-07-04 with signatures of Finance Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and CBSL Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe.
According to CBSL Road Map 2021 and beyond A new currency note for Rs. 2,000 will be introduced in 2021, as part of the existing 11th note series with improved security features. This issue delayed by COVID-19, the project was discontinued in 2022 A New Series in 2021 was mentioned in 2019 Roadmap was scrapped. According to same reply RTI 0162/2023 there will be No Rs2000 Note which was proposed in 2021 and No New Series as proposed in 2019.
When CBSL releases new signatures to circulation there should be a Press Release from CBSL to inform public of any change to the currency in circulation. This was not done previously in 2014 when the thickness of the New 2010 notes was increased for the Rs 20,50,and 100 denominations using the same date, nor when the signatures were changed in 2015-02-04, 2016-07-04, 2017-05-22 & 2019-01-28, 2019-12-24 & 2020-08-12, and 2021-09-15 issues.
CBSL does not make available to collectors mint notes in folders like the 2010 issue which in 2023 August were sold out in the CBSL currency Museum. There is no mention of new signature in CBSL Museum which should have the responsibility to give the latest information to the public and collectors on coin and currency issue of Sri Lanka.
The Notes issued in reply to CBSL RTI 115/2023 dated 2023-04-20, and RTI 162/2023 dated 2023-07-25 stated that all denominations have been ordered to be printed with 2022-07-04 date.
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Date | Denomination | First Serial | Last seen | Last Serial | Ordered 2023 | SNIM rejection |
2022-07-04 | Rs 20 | W/725 000K | W/732 | W/788 450K | 60M | 5.8% |
2022-07-04 | Rs 50 | V/371 000K | V/379 | V/407 990K | 35M | 5.7% |
2022-07-04 | Rs 100 | U/913 000K | U/920 | U/981 895K | 65M | 6.0% |
2022-07-04 | Rs 500 | T/367 000K | T/380 | T/398 836K | 30M | 6.1% |
2022-07-04 | Rs1000 | S/511 000K | S/513 | S/521 800K | 10M | 8.0% |
2022-07-04 | Rs5000 | R/318 000K | R/320 | R/355 280K | 35M | 6.5% |
Total | 235M | 6.1% |
The number ordered of 2022-07-04 notes ordered as of 2023-10-31 was given in reply to my RTI CBSL 0228/2023 which also said that the Total Number that would be ordered with that date cannot be determined as there could be future orders for notes bearing the same date and signatures. The information above is for the first order.
Reply to RTI 122/2024 stated that a second order of 45, 30, 55, 30, 60, and 30 Million notes have been ordered of denominations of Rupees 20 50 100, 500, 1,000, and 5,000 has been placed with DeLaRue in 2024.
Unlike before CBSL has decided to start a new prefix for the new
signature pair so that their will be no case as before of two different dates
with the same prefix. This was given in answer to my CBSL RTI
0001/2024 replied on 2024 April 8th, around the same time that they
released the last denomination the Rs5000 into circulation.
Please Help Track Prefix+Serial when Date on Banknote change.
Thanks.
Shown on right the 2022-07-04 date Sinhala signatures of President Ranil Wickremesinghe as Finance Minister and CBSL Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe.
The Rs 20 dated 2022-07-04 recieved from circulation on 2023-10-25
The Rs 50 dated 2022-07-04 reported by K.W.M. Samarasinghe of BoC on 2023-11-02
The Rs 100 dated 2022-07-04 reported on 2024-02-27 from circulation by Priyadharshan
The Rs 500 dated 2022-07-04 reported on 2024-01-03 by Milinda Samarasekera
The Rs1000 dated 2022-07-04 reported by K.W.M. Samarasinghe of BoC on 2023-12-21
The Rs5000 dated 2022-07-04 reported by K.W.M. Samarasinghe of BoC on 2024-04-11
Date | Denomi nation | 2023 Order Last Serial | 2024 Order | Estimate Last Prefix | First Reported |
2022-07-04 | Rs 20 | W/788 450K | 45M | W/837 | T/798 2025-04-22 Tilan Samith |
2022-07-04 | Rs 50 | V/407 990K | 30M | V/440 | |
2022-07-04 | Rs 100 | U/981 895K | ~17M | U/999 | U/999 2025-04-05 Milinda Ihalagamage |
2022-07-04 | Rs 100 | M/1 000K | ~38M | M/041 | M/1 2025-04-28 Dr Abd Al Hakam |
2022-07-04 | Rs 500 | T/398 836K | 30M | T/431 | T/399 2024-12-23 Tilan Samith |
2022-07-04 | Rs1000 | S/521 800K | 60M | S/586 | S/530 2024-10-06 Tilan Samith |
2022-07-04 | Rs5000 | R/355 280K | 30M | R/388 | R/363 2025-04-20 Tilan Samith |
For the 2024 order I am not sure if they will skip to start of next
prefix as they did for the first time in the 2023 order.
The end prefix has not yet been obtained from CBSL via RTI.
It was estimated assuming average 8% damage rate.
RTI 167/2024 also confirmed that was NO difference between the security features of the first and second orders dates 2022-07-04, and that CBSL is not designing a new series for 2025.
The order of 55M of Rs 100 would have given a 4-digit number in prefix over 1000 so CBSL has decided according to RTI 167/2024 to use a new alpha Prefix M for the first time in this Series.
Since 1951, each prefix had a million notes except for the Rs50 and
Rs100, which had only a lakh notes per prefix.
All the notes got a million notes per prefix from 1979.
The U/199 continued with M/1 with the same date with two different
alpha prefixes other than replacements is the first since 1963-06-05
after the digits under the Prefix was incrased from 2 to 3 digits
introduced in the Rs2 issue of 1964-4-11.
When Rs 100 reached 999 under the prefix for 2022-07-04, CBSL switched
the prefix U to M to prevent using 4 digits.
All such cases since 1951 are listed below.
1958-04-09 Rs 1 A/ B/ Stanley de Zoysa & A. G. Ranasinha 1960-08-18 Rs 10 L/ M/ Felix R. Dias Bandaranaike & W. Rajapatirana 1963-06-05 Rs 1 B/ C/ T. B. Illangaratne & W. Rajapatirana 1963-06-05 Rs 50 R/ S/ T. B. Illangaratne & W. Rajapatirana 2022-07-04 Rs100 U/ M/ Ranil Wickremesinghe & Nandalal Weerasinghe
CBSL does not do any Press releases, even for a new signature pair. A day after I had just returned after a month in Mumbai, when this Rs20 W/728 pair was sent to me on 2023-10-25 evening as part of a Rs92 online order refund from Rathmalana Keels SuperMarket. Later that evening W/731 was reported bY Kanishka Teshan Sandamal also from a Nawala Keels SuperMarket. That Supermarket chain must have collected a big stock of new Rs20 notes. This was before any of this new signature pair, was reported in circulation to me by anyone, including Bank contacts. The last denomination to be issued was the Rs 5000 while I am traveling in USA and a scan delayed a month to be posted after I returned to Sri Lanka.
CBSL should make available new uncirculated notes to collectors from the museum.