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5 Pounds
| Issuer | Government of Ceylon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1827-1856 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of Britannia seated with lion and shield, elephant and palm trees in the background. Issued at Colombo, printed by Perkins, Bacon & Petch. Date rendered as 18xx within the 1827–1856 issue period. |
|---|---|
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| Variants | P#5r - Unsigned remainder P#5s - Overprint: SPECIMEN. |
| Comments |
Perkins, Bacon & Petch was among the earliest firms to apply steel-engraved intaglio printing to banknotes at commercial scale — a technique Jacob Perkins had migrated from American banknote work, specifically to combat forgery. Ceylon's colonial administration adopted this printer precisely for that security advantage at a time when the island's currency arrangements were still being consolidated under British governance following the 1815 Kandyan Convention.
The long date range reflects a slow-moving colonial issuing cycle rather than continuous production runs. Individual notes within this series were hand-dated at issue, so examples at either end of the bracket can look nearly identical in format despite being decades apart.