5 Cents Ragama store

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.