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1000 Rupees
| Issuer | Government of Ceylon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1929 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | De La Rue (Thomas de la Rue; Thomas De La Rue & Co.; TDLR), London, United Kingdom (1821-date) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON Promises to pay the Bearer on Demand the Sum of ONE THOUSAND RUPEES Colombo, 1st. July 1929. FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON |
| Reverse description | Printed in brown on an uncoloured ground. The central vignette, set within an elaborate ornamental cartouche with scrollwork borders, presents an elephant standing beneath tall palm trees, a classical colonial motif rendered in fine intaglio line engraving. The surrounding field carries a light wavy-line guilloche pattern visible across the note. |
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| Comments |
The Government of Ceylon's 1000 Rupee note of 1929 sits at the top of a series that predates the establishment of the Central Bank of Ceylon by over two decades — currency authority remained with the colonial government until 1950. At this denomination, the note would have been used almost exclusively for inter-bank settlements and large mercantile transactions; ordinary circulation was never a realistic prospect. De La Rue's London work on this series is characteristically fine, though the real scarcity here is structural rather than accidental.
Surviving examples are exceptionally rare. High-denomination colonial issues were routinely recalled and destroyed once redeemed, and the low print runs for 1000 Rupee notes meant little redundancy in the first place.