1 Rupee Army's 50th Anniversary

Sri Lanka's army was formally constituted on October 10, 1949, making this 1999 issue a golden jubilee commemoration. The Sri Lanka Army had by that point spent the better part of two decades engaged in the civil conflict against the LTTE, and the jubilee fell during one of the bloodiest phases of that war — the years immediately surrounding the catastrophic 1999 Elephant Pass offensive. Issuing a celebratory coin in that climate was a deliberate act of institutional morale-building.