1979 - Sri Lanka - Flora and Fauna
2 Rupee Pattern

The Central Bank of Ceylon (CBSL) issued, for circulation, in 1979-03-26 dated a series of currency Notes based on the paintings by Laki Senanayake on the theme Endemic Flora and Fauna of Sri Lanka dated 1979-03-26,
Predominant Color :Front - Pink
:Back - Pink with grey-blue.
Size: 108 x 60 mm
See issued note for a detailed description.
Front: Landscape
Bottom, left of center Horizontal Date 1979-01-01
Horizontal Serial number on top left oc senter.
Back: Portrait

Denom.Date on
BankNote   		Finance MinisterCBSL GovernorPattern #Mintage
Rs.2 1979-01-01 Ronnie de Mel Herbert Tennakoon A/1 000000 ??

The 2015 September 29th Spink Auction 175 which mentionsed an unrecorded 2 Rupee Pattern dated 1 January 1979, listed without an image.

In the 2025 CBSL Sinhala publication නොසැලෙන පහන් ටැඹ for the 75th Anniversary Commemorative of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on page 93 errornously stated that the Rs2 note was issued with the signature of Governor Herbert Tennakoon and shows an image of an Pattern on the previous page dated 1979-01-01 with signatures of Herbert Tennakoon as CBSL governor and Ronnie de Mel as Minister of Finance. The Author seems to have got confused by the signatures on the Pattern and assumed that all the 1979 Rs2 notes had been issued with those signatures.

Mr. Herbert E. Tennekoon was the sixth CBSL Governor, and assumed duties in 1971 July. He died in service on 1979 January 22 while in Singapore attending a SEACEN Governors' Conference, before the Notes were approved for printing. The signature got replaced with Dr. Warnasena Rasaputram who assumed duties in 1979 February, and the notes were issued with date 1979-03-26.

On 2025-12-24 I submitted to CBSL an RTI 0218/2025 requesting a scan of that Pattern note. It was rejected - Appealed - Ack - Rejection as displayed on right.
So silly that I thought it was a waste to appeal to RTI Commission. Security on an essay of a currency note denomination that has not circulated for over 40 years. This is why all these old notes that DON'T circulate should be demonetised and taken out of the CBSL inventory and archived.

I thank Ravi Ratnapala for pointing out this error in the Sinhala Text of the book.
The note image was scanned from book at 300 dpi with descreen and displayed at 50 dpi. CBSL corrected the mistake I had pointed out in in the CBSL 75th anniversary book with an error sheet that had a better printed image of this Essay and was scanned and displayed above in 2026 October,