Central Bank of Ceylon
Armorial Ensign of Sri Lanka - 1977

High Denomination Currency Notes issued in 1977 by the Central Bank of Ceylon with Armorial Ensign of the Socilist Republic Sri Lanka, adopted in 1972. Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike PM of the SLFP lost the Election on 1977 July 23rd to J. R. Jayawardena of UNP.

images/ste/aelk/1977_08_26_aelk_50r_uvf.jpg images/ste/197x_50r_uvb.jpg
Denomination: 50 Rupees Base Color: Blue
Under-print: Purple and multicolor English : Fifty Rupees
Sinhala :  රුපියල් පනහයි Thamil : ஐம்பது ரூபாய்
Size : 151 x 79 mm SCWPM-lk:  81
Back Pictorial : Hills covered with Tea Plantation, eight Tea plucker on left, roads and a Tea Factory at bottom.
Deno. Date on Note Minister of Finance Governor CBC 1st Serial #000 Pcs
Rs.50 1977-08-26 Ronnie de Mel Herbert Tennekoon N/131 00001 6,000
images/ste/aelk/1977_08_26_aelk_100r_uvf.jpg images/ste/197x_100r_uvb.jpg
Denomination: 100 Rupees Base Color: Brown
Under-print: Purple, Green & Orange English : One Hundred Rupees
Sinhala :  රුපියල් සියයයි Thamil : நூறு ரூபாய்
Size : 162 x 86 mm SCWPM-lk:  82
Back Pictorial :  Moonstone, Guard Stones and ornate stone stairway to Vatadage in medieval City of Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.
Deno. Date on Note Minister of Finance Governor CBC 1st Serial #000 Pcs
Rs.100 1977-08-26 Ronnie de Mel Herbert Tennekoon W/129 72001 8,000

Front: Armorial Ensign of the Socilist Republic Sri Lanka, on right. Blank space for water-mark on the left. ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව in Sinhala,
on top with இலங்கை மத்திய வங்கி in Thamil and CENTRAL BANK OF CEYLON in English belowith decreasing font size.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාණ්ඩුව වෙනුවෙන් නිකුත් කරන ලද මේ
මුදල් නෝට්ටුව ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඇතුළත ඕනෑම මුදල් ගණනක්
ගෙවිම සඳහා නිතියෙන් වලංගුය
in three lines. The Value in Sinhala සියයයි in two lines. The Numeric date as Year-Month-Day. Facsimile Sinhala signatures above මුදල් ඈමති, on left and මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපති below centered. Value in Thamil ரூபாய் and below value in English RUPEES at bottom center in decorative panel. Serial No twice on lower left and upper right. All within a rectangular decorated border with Numeric Value in all four corners. The lion facing left with sword in right paw to right of Numeric on upper left
Lotus Flowers in bloom, in lower left in background.
Back: Numeric Value in all four corners. Centered in upper border ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව in Sinhala Text, below within border இலங்கை மத்திய வங்கி in Thamil on right and CENTRAL BANK OF CEYLON in English to left.
Value in Sinhala රුපියල් at lower right within border. On bottom border Value in Thamil ரூபாய் and value in English RUPEES on right.
Ceylon Pictorial centered on micro under-print with colored shading.
At bottom centered just below horizontal decorate in small script
BRADBURY WILKINSON & CO LD NEW MALDEN. SURREY, ENGLAND.
Watermark: Lion standing on hind legs facing left with bent whip in right paw, Lion Lighter with outline including whip darker than paper.
Security: Metal strip same width of 1 mm for all denominations.
Micro-printing repeated in a range of varing small sizes in Sinhala, ශ්‍රීලංකාමහබැංකුව covering blank space on the back, upper border only(Rs50) and all over(Rs100).
UV Printing: In front In Orange 3 pairs each of denomination and Flag Lion with sword on left. Also on right (Rs100), no Flag Lions on Right but six 50 (Rs50). UV printing on Signature, Date and Serial Numbers

Minister of FinanceGovernor
Central Bank of Ceylon
1977-08-26
Ronnie de Mel Herbert Tennekoon

The two high denominations of this type represented above, was issued with same signature pair and date.

Note that the Upper-right Serial of the 1977 Rs 50 shows a slightly higher digit 6 and a lower digit 2 and may be another example of a LetterPress printed Serial like note

The note was scanned at 300 dpi and displayed at 50 dpi.

 

 
images/lion_1972.jpg
Click to see original drawing
The Lion in the Sri Lanka Flag of probably Dutch origin is emasculated. Careful inspection of the Lion in the Logo in currency note displayed at right shows that it has been Masculinized.
Before the new constitution was adopted on 1972 May 22, the national logo was Designed by Mapalagama Wipulasara Maha Thera. under the guidance of Nissanka Wijeyeratne, Chairman of the National Emblem and Flag Design Committee.
Dr Roland Silva, former director General of Archaeology told that, on May 12th while taking the new design to Prime Minister Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike for approval, he had noticed that the lion in the logo had been masculinized, and they didn't have time to remove the addition. So they explained the issue to Sirimavo, who saw no problem and approved the logo as drawn. I have inspected the original copy in National Archives and found it to be the case. As the addition was not publicised, it is often absent or lost in the resolution. This was presented by me at a lecture I gave at the National Archives on 2016 January 28th, Titled "The Logo for Lanka from Ancient to Modern". The original document was on public display at 2023 75th Anniversary of Independence exhibition by National Archives at Colombo National Museum 2023 February 4th to 19th.