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1 Rixdollar - George III Trial Strike
| Issuer | Ceylon (1597-1972) |
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| Year | 1815 |
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| Reference(s) | KM#Pn7, Pr#81 |
| Obverse description | Central design features a standing elephant facing left, depicted in naturalistic style within an open wreath of laurel or palm branches tied at the base, the wreath framing the lower portion of the field. Above the elephant, the legend is arranged in three lines across the upper field. The date 1815 appears in the exergue below the wreath. The overall composition is emblematic of Ceylon's colonial identity under British administration. |
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| Reverse description | Unadorned laureate bust of King George III facing right, rendered in high relief with fine portrait detail typical of early nineteenth-century British coinage. The king's neck is bare and the laurel wreath crowns his head in classical fashion. The legend encircles the bust along the periphery of the coin, reading from the lower left around the upper field to the lower right. The portrait is executed in the neoclassical style associated with the Royal Mint engravers of the period. |
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| Additional information |
1815 marks the year Britain formally annexed the Kandyan Kingdom following the Kandyan Convention — ending over two centuries of indigenous rule in the island's interior and bringing Ceylon wholly under the Crown. This trial strike was produced in that immediate administrative aftermath, as London worked to establish a unified coinage for the newly consolidated colony. The Dutch rixdollar had circulated in coastal Ceylon since VOC control, and the British inherited both the denomination and its practical necessity.
Proof trials of this type were struck at the Royal Mint for approval purposes and never entered circulation.