Catalog
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| Issuer | Government of Ceylon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1885-1925 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON / Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand the Sum of / TEN RUPEES / FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON / Commissioners of Currency / Colombo |
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| Signature(s) | 01.04.1914, 01.04.1915, 15.05.1919, 08.12.1919, 01.10.1921, 01.09.1922, 01.09.1923, 01.10.1924, 01.10.1925 ( - Clementi & Woods) & 01.10.1925 (signatures: Clementi & Alexander) |
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| Comments |
The Government of Ceylon issued these notes directly under Crown authority rather than through a chartered bank — an arrangement that persisted well into the interwar period and reflected London's reluctance to grant Ceylon a central bank of its own. The long signature run across Pick 12 spans a critical stretch: wartime inflation, the 1920 commodity crash that devastated Ceylon's rubber and coconut sectors, and the slow fiscal recovery that followed.
The Clementi named in the signatures is Cecil Clementi Smith's successor line of colonial administrators — the pairing with Alexander on the final 1925 date likely marks a transitional appointment rather than a formal change in monetary authority.