The Government of Ceylon
Specimens 1885-1926

The Ceylon Board of Commissioners of Currency issued Uniface currency notes of Two, Five, Ten, Fifty, Hundred, Five Hundred, and Thousand Rupee denominations dated from 1885 to 1926 with legal statement Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand the Sum of ... RUPEES.
Some circulated Currency notes have been Stamped with SPECIMEN on middle top and bottom in Black or Red and taken out of Circulation as examples of the currency note.
According to Late Mr Tuan Sallay they overprinted SPECIMEN either in RED or BLACK. RED OVERPRINTS were given officially and the BLACK overprints was sent to all the Central Banks to be displayed in their archives (known as the ARCHIVAL SPECIMENS)

See also Regular Uniface Specimen S-Notes with 00000 Zero Serial.

ccgc/1917-03-01_tgoc_2r_A18-15004_sf.jpg Red & Green
127x76 mm - Rs 2 note
Click on front to see
Red SPECIMEN Overprint
1917-1922 Colonial Type Black & Green Uniface Rs 2
Specimen Images not found online,
Please contribute if you have one.
Black & Green
127x76 mm - Rs 2 note
ccgc/1924-10-01_tgoc_5r_B36-60876_sf.jpg&ccgc/1909-11-01_tgoc_5r_A56-58310_sf.jpg Black & Green
165x127 mm - Rs 5 note
Click on front to see
Red SPECIMEN Overprint
Black & Green
203x127 mm - Rs 10 note
ccgc/1919-12-08_tgoc_50r_C4-95102_sf.jpg ccgc/1919-12-08_tgoc_50r_C4-95102_sb.jpg Black & Green
216x120 mm - Rs 50 note
Click image to see 1919
Black SPECIMEN Overprint
Black & Green
216x146 mm - Rs 100 note
Black & Green
254x165 mm - Rs 500 note
Black & Green
229x152 mm - Rs 1000 note

Stamped at Top and Bottom middle in Black SPECIMEN on 1925 Rs5 and Rs 10; 1894 Rs50; and 1917 Rs1000.
or in Red SPECIMEN on 1909 and 1924 Rs 5 on the Specimen notes available with images.
Need to find similar Uniface Specimen images of Colonial Type Black & Green Rs2.

The 1894 Rs50 is interesting as it has a 1939 May 16th postmark from Eheliyagoda. Even the 1917 Rs1000 has hand written 1939 July 18th. Why were they made SPECIMENs after 45 and 22 years of Circulation and just before issue of a new series in 1941?

I thank the owner for the contribution of images of the rare 1924 Rs 5; 1894 Rs50; 1926 Rs100; 1917 Rs1000; Specimens which he had obtained by private sale. I thank Owen Linzmayer, for the both Red Rs2, 1919 Rs50 and 1926 Rs500.
Including Specimen notes from Auctions and Numismatic Archives they are displayed at 25 dpi.


See other Specimen S-Notes in notes.lakdiva.org.lk a website for
Banknotes of Ceylon and Sri Lanka since 1785.