Found Some Old Ceylon Coins (1943-1978)

Today, I got a break from all my studies and other academic works. So I re-arranged an old cupboard and found a box of old coins inside the cupboard. Let me share these old, Ceylon coins. These coins were collected by the father and his father. Sri Lanka was a colony of Britain till 1948. My father was born in 1963 and this collection has coins older than him.

First of all I washed them well and dried them and stored them again in the container. Then I tried to read the symbols and marks written on these coins. It wasn't easy for some coins. So I traced them a paper using a colored pencil.

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According to History of Currency in Sri Lanka by Central Bank, the coins issued by the British were used until 1963. The central bank established on 28th August 1950, so the first Sri Lankan coin series was introduced on 1963.

First, let me show some coins belong to the period before 1963 from the collection.

King George VI series : 1948 - 1951 - Ceylon

_{This is 10 Cents, made of nickel-brass.It is shaped like a flower, with eight scallops.}

_{This is 5 Cents, also made of nickel-brass. Shape is square with rounded corners. The diameter is about 18.5 mm.}

_{This is again 10 Cent}

Queen Elizabeth II series

Portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, can be found in coins released from 1952 to 1954. Later it was limited to 2 cents coins that circulate in 1955 and 1957.

_{This is a 2 Cents coin, made with Nickel-Brass, with 8 scallops.}

Later on, the obverse view changed to the emblem of Ceylon and the coins with British empires were went out from the usage. Later coins were made using aluminum, again using nickel and copper.

The following are some old Cents coins which are not in use now. Currently, we use only Rupees (1Rs, 2Rs, 5Rs and 10Rs coins, 20Rs, 50Rs, 100Rs, 500Rs, 1000Rs, 2000Rs and 5000Rs notes).