Catalog
1 Rixdollar
| Issuer | Government of Ceylon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1814 |
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| Reference(s) | P#1 |
| Obverse description | Black letterpress on white paper. Seated Britannia vignette within laurel wreath at upper left, flanked by trilingual text in Sinhala and Tamil scripts. Central body carries the promise-to-pay legend in copperplate-style script, with oval cartouche bearing 'RIX DOLLAR. ONE.' at lower left. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Blank. |
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| Comments |
Ceylon's first government-issued paper money, produced in London while the island was under British colonial administration following the 1815 Kandyan Convention — though this note predates that final annexation, issued during the period when British control was still consolidating after the Dutch handover of 1796. The Rixdollar itself was inherited Dutch currency, retained by the British as the practical unit of account for an economy not yet ready for conversion to sterling.
Silvester & Company handled very few colonial currency commissions; their involvement here is unusual and poorly documented. Only a handful of surviving examples are known.