1 Pound

Perkins, Bacon & Petch — operating under that name from 1840, before which they were Perkins & Heath — produced this note using the steel-plate engraving technique Jacob Perkins had developed specifically to defeat counterfeiters. Ceylon's colonial treasury was an early adopter; the quality of intaglio printing available in London far exceeded anything achievable locally at the time.

The issue spans nearly three decades, which almost certainly means multiple print runs with subtle plate differences. Distinguishing these by date is the obvious starting point, but paper quality and ink tone vary enough across the range to suggest the notes were not all produced in a single batch.