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Front : The portrait of His Majesty King George VI on the left,
a circular water-mark panel on the right, the words ONE THOUSAND RUPEES
in the center.
The value 1000 in figures on the top two corners on
either side of THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON in 2 lines.
Just below the words in 3 lines
PROMISES TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND THE SUM OF
with the value Rupiyal dahaya in Sinhala Text on left and
serial number on right.
The number 1000 also appears in the bottom center with Serial
Number on left and the value in Tamil Text on right.
The date 1st July 1938 appears above dummy Signatures as
S.Ignature S.I.Gnature instead of those of the
Commissioners of Currency.
Reverse : Pictorial of COASTAL SCENE of a Ceylon catamaran off a beach
with the slender palm trees leaning over the white sand, the
warm sun sparkling on the waves as they break on the inshore reef,
the outrigger fishing boats drawn up high on the beach.
(Ref.)
a circular water-mark panel on the left,
The value 1000 in figures on the top two corners.
Centered just below GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON in an arch with value
1000 on either end.
Below pictorial 1000 in center with value Rupiyal dahaya
in Sinhala Text on left and value in Tamil Text on right.
The Board of Commissioners of Currency commenced getting its supply of currency notes printed in India, from the commencement of World War II Notes of all denominations followed a general layout. they were printed by lithography process and had a rainbow tint on the reverse. Water-marked paper manufactured by Messrs Portals Ltd., was used throughout. The security design back with a repeated banner GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON seems to be different on each denomination.
This is an Essay since this type with this legality statement was not issued. When this note design was actually issued the legend had changed on the Notes of all denominations to words in 2 lines THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR THE PAYMENT OF ANY AMOUNT as shown in the specimen dated 1st September 1941 also illustrated in Pick Catalog published by Krause. That image has SPECIMEN written on it.
A Rs1000 Banknote with the SPECIMEN logo of Currency Note Press
(CNP) a division of the India Security Press, Nasik, and
dated 1ST FEBRUARY 1941 and same legality
PROMISE TO PAY BEARER ON DEMAND THE SUM OF in an three lines,
was published by CBSL in 2001 in the book History of Coins and
Currency in Sri Lanka by G. P. S. H. de Silva. Fig 178 P.128
bottom, and since 2013 displayed at the CBSL Economic History Museum.
This faded Note was photographed through reflective glass in 2024
August and shown on right. It has actual Signatures of the
commissioners of currency.
The two dummy S.Ignatures in the 1938 essay as noted below in comments is like that on other known Indian Essays. The dummy date 1st July 1938 was not used on any currency note issued in Ceylon. The Reserve Bank of India issued the first Five Rupee pictorial note bearing the portrait of King George VI in January 1938.
I have posted images of two different design pattern notes of the 14th July 1942 issue of the Government of Ceylon 25 cent. They both have 0/00 000000 serial number, actual signatures of the time and date used in the final issue. They too don't have SPECIMEN printed on them.
I suspect the essay shown above was sent by the Press in India to tender for the actual contract and they did not have the specimen signatures to put on them. It will be interesting to find out from the records in the Central Bank when the pictorial designs were first considered.
The pictorial Rs 1000/- note was first issued on 1st September 1941. 57K was printed with this date and another 51K with date 12th July 1944. All but 12 of the 72,077 of Rs 1000/- notes in circulation were returned to the Central Bank when demonetised by proclamation on 15th November 1945, and ceased to be legal tender as from 31st January 1946.
Given below are the serial numbers of actual Rs 1000/- pictorial
issue from Sri Lanka Currency of Recent Times 1938-1985
by T. M. U. Sallay,
published by Central Bank of Sri Lanka in 1986.
| M/1 00,001 | - M/1 57,000 | 1st September 1941 |
| M/1 57,001 | - M/1 100,000 | 12th July 1944 |
| M/2 00,001 | - M/2 08,000 | 12th July 1944 |
Older Colonial Type Rs 1000/- notes; 110K of 1st issue dated 1st August 1899 to 1st June 1926 and 200K of smaller 2nd issue dated 1st July 1929 to 2nd July 1934 had previously been printed. After the Rs 1,000 denomination was demonetized in 1946, this denomination was next issued only 35 years later on 1981-01-01
One of the great pleasures I have got in developing my Numismatic web-site on Lankan coins are the rare serendipitous E-mails I have got with interesting information like posted on this page.
Comments
On 2004 Jan 29th Azim Rauff who sent me these images from Lanka said
I got this note checked out at the Central bank as well as the National Museum and they certified it as the genuine one. They told me that only two were made and the other note is generally kept for the records of the minister at that time.
The unfortunate part is the person who had this had found it in his grandfathers' diary 20 years ago and was carrying it in his wallet folded up until a few months before I met him.
Most specimen notes remain preserved in uncirculated state. The Numismatic ignorance of those how might inherit rare items of value should be a warning to all of us who may have unique items in our custody.
On 2004 February 3rd Joe Cribb, Keeper of Coins and Medals for British Museum wrote:
I suspect that the specimen note you have could be of two kinds. Either it is a printer's reference specimen, stored for future reference at the printers to resolve issues of authentity or to aid future production, or it is a salesman's advertising specimen.
The big bank-note printers would send salesmen around the world to get more buisness and they would carry an album of examples of their work, unsigned and undated examples of the notes that they had produced for other clients, glued into the album. These albums often get broken up and the notes sold individually. Several big printer's reference archives, such as the American Banknote Company, De La Rue, have been broken up in recent decades.
On 2004 February 4th Tuan Sallay, Author of the 1986 book on Sri Lanka Currency for the Central Bank wrote:
It is quite interesting to see a specimen of the Rs:1000/- note bearing the date 1st July 1938. This note has all the features of the first note issued bearing the date 01.09.1941.
As far I'm aware the Currency Board had no idea of going to the India Security Press our Currency note around 1938 as Indian Press had no facility for plate printing as done by Thomas De La Rue & Co and lithography process was cheap but easy to counterfeit.
A letter dated 6th November 1970 sent to me by the late Mr. C. S. Kreltszheim who was the Secretary Board of Commissioners of Currency, seconded for service at the bank in the insception, and later continued to work for the bank till retirement towards the end of 1950. He was the only authority on our currency and served as head of the Cash and Currency Department of the Central Bank. I quote "next will you please check up the date of the Gazette demonetization notice regarding de La Rue's note that went up in flames when their factory was bombed. I cannot believe that the loss at sea of two consignments of currency notes towards the end of 1939 sent me scurrying to India in May 1940. I am almost certain that we began to think seriously of getting our notes in India towards thr end of 1939 and that was due to the damage to their factory in London"
i.e., with world war two and the bombing of Thomas De La Rue & Co in London and the sinking of a consignment of Rupee one and Rupees ten bearing the date 02.10.1939 the Board had to rush to India Press for its requirement of Currency note.
The first batch of notes of the denotation of Rupees ten, five, two and one with the date 01.02.1941 followed with Rupees one thousand, one hundred and fifty with the date 01.09.1941 with this commence the printing of a pictorial design on the reverse of the note.
If ever a note was printed with the date 01.07.1938 it should have carried the signatures of C. H. Collins and M. M. Worsley who's signatures in facsimile appeared on all note bearing the date between 24.07.1937 to 19.11.1938. The earlier note bore the signatures of H. J. Huxham and M. M. Weddeburn and the date 18.06.1936.
I'm afraid going to the Central Bank for information on notes issued by the Commissioners of Currency will be of little help for there the majority of the present staff even know existence of the Currency Board before the establishment of the Central Bank and the other for certain most of the records of the Commissioners of Currency which stored in the basement would have been destroyed in the bomb blast in January 1996.
On 2004 February 4rd Shailendra Bhandare of University of Oxford, Curator of Ashmolean collection, in reply to my posting on SACG wrote:
I read the comments posted on your link with interest and can answer one question with certainty - this 1000 Rs. pattern is most definitely printed in the Currency Note Press (CNP) a division of the India Security Press, Nasik. This is borne out by the serial number, which has a peculiar font that was unique to the CNP.
I have seen other notes with this S.Ignature dummy - one that I readily recall is a colour trial for a George V 10 rupees note (1921-25 issue), which was the first and last pictorial note of India printed in England. So the form of the dummy seems to have been in use at least a couple of decades before the Ceylon note was contemplated.
How, why and when the liaison between the Ceylon Currency Board and CNP took place is worth asking and although the records in Sri Lanka are unfortunately destroyed, I am sure the answers could be found in the archives of the CNP.
My own attempts to get access to these have been ruthlessly thwarted in the past. I went there the first time on my own accord, second time with a letter of introduction from the IIRNS in Nasik and a third time with testimonials from the British Museum - all three times I was most ungraciously kicked out!
The General Manager of CNP, one Mr. Gangaprakash, seemed rather strangely suspicious of my motives. The reason of his behaviour became evident late last year - a huge scam of forging security documents like stamp papers was unearthed with Mr. Gangaprakash emerging as one of it's visible movers and shakers. Much to my happiness, he now spends time in the jail! So may be there is still hope, although technically so, because I would imagine the CNP will have shut all doors and windows till the inquiry into the scam is in place - which, for all I know, could be ad infinitum....
This note is most certainly NOT anything which Gangaprakash would have been involved with - I agree specimens and patterns are valuable but these guys were busy making far more in their scams than what these notes would have brought them!
Currency Note Press at Nasik was establishment in 1928, and an increasing fraction of currency was printed in India. By 1932 the Nasik Press was printing the entire spectrum of India currency notes. The improved security features were changed watermarks, intricate portrait designs and multicoloured printing.
On 2004 February 8th, Asian Banknotes replied on SACG:
The 1st Feb 1941 and 1st July 1938 are trials and extremely rare. I've come across a trial of a Ceylon 100 Rupees, 1st July 1938. S.Ignature dummy exists in banknotes of Thailand and those of other Asian countries as well. Never seen any of these in auctions. As mentioned, specimens are printed at various stages, so you get various types of specimens, trials... Collecting specimen is pretty interesting but quiet risky, as law in various countries differ. So collectors have to check the respective law of each country before collecting.
If the order went to India only after WWII loss of DeLaRue and a
consignment in 1939 notes what is this 1938 pattern with dummy
Signatures.
From Sallay's and Shailen's explanation this lithograph note must have
been printed in India and not by DeLaRue who anyway would have had the
signatures,
As Currency Note Press (CNP) of India Security Press (ISP) printed it why
would they use a 1938 date, unless it was to canvas orders from the Ceylon
Currency Board in 1938,
which only accepted the proposal because of WWII.
Since the form of S.Ignature and the date 1st July 1938 is seen on
other pattern notes it is
unlikely an unsigned and undated example from 1941 which has been
subsequently overprinted with dummy signature and predated.
Above webpage written in 2004 long before even thinking of website
notes.lakdiva.org.lk was slightly updated in 2019 July to make it a part
of the Ceylon Banknote Essay collection.
If you have any other denomination of this essay please contribute to
kavanr @ gmail.com
Epilogue Spink Auctions of this essay
2008 June 19 Spink Auction 8008 lot 167
with estimate £6,000-£7,500 sold for ~£8,000+20%BP
2011 September 27 Spink Auction 11019 lot 516
with estimate £9,500-£11,500 sold for £10,000+20%BP
2012 October 2nd Spink Auction 12023 lot 214
with estimate £13,000-£14,000 remained UnSold.