5 Rupees

Bradbury Wilkinson handled Ceylon's banknote printing through most of the postwar independence period, and this series sits in a politically compressed window — Ceylon was navigating significant constitutional turbulence through the late 1960s, with the 1970 election bringing Sirimavo Bandaranaike back to power and setting the country on a path toward the republican transition that would produce the rupee-denominated notes of Sri Lanka by 1972. This issue was effectively among the last to carry the Ceylon designation before that rupture.

The P#73 series is relatively short-lived by circulation standards, making mid-grade survivors more collectible than the face value suggests.