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5 Cents Ragama store
| Issuer | Ceylon Ice & Cold Storage Co. Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Year | 1901 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress on salmon-pink underprint with a palm tree vignette watermark-style background. The British Royal coat of arms appears at upper centre, flanked by the place and date inscription. At left, a circular company seal reads "Ceylon Ice & Cold Storage Co. Ltd." enclosing "Value 5 cts."; denomination "FIVE CENTS." is printed in bold at centre, with the Prisoners-of-War usage clause below. "Series B." appears at lower left. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Reverse is blank, without any printed design or lettering. |
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| Comments |
The Ceylon Ice & Cold Storage Co. Ltd. operated cold storage and ice manufacturing facilities in Ceylon under British colonial administration, and like many large plantation-era enterprises, it issued its own token currency for use within its controlled commercial sphere — in this case, the Ragama store. These merchant scrip notes functioned as a closed-loop currency, redeemable only at the issuing establishment, effectively tying workers and local traders to a single vendor.
Ragama, a town north of Colombo on the main rail line, made it a logical hub for cold storage distribution. Company scrip from Ceylon at this period is genuinely rare in any form — most was redeemed, destroyed, or simply discarded when the issuing business folded or converted to cash wages under colonial labor reforms in the early twentieth century.