100 Rupees

The Government of Ceylon — rather than a central bank — remained the direct currency issuer well into the colonial period, a structural holdover that distinguished Ceylon from many contemporaries where banking institutions had already assumed that role. These high-denomination notes circulated in a colonial economy dominated by tea and rubber export revenues, where a 100-rupee note represented serious transactional weight for most of the population.

De La Rue's London production for this series relied on watermarked paper as the primary security feature, modest by later standards but consistent with the printer's output for British colonial territories through this period. The long issue window — over a decade — means date variants within P#27 carry meaningfully different scarcity profiles.