1 Rupee

J.R. Jayewardene signed this note as Minister of Finance — the same man who would later serve as Sri Lanka's first executive president from 1978 to 1989. His signature appearing on a Ceylon rupee note is one of those small ironies of numismatic history: the country whose currency he helped manage would cease to exist under that name in 1972, when Ceylon became Sri Lanka and the central bank was reconstituted accordingly.

Bradbury, Wilkinson produced the series during a period when Ceylon maintained close institutional ties with British financial infrastructure despite having achieved independence in 1948.