10 Cents - George V

Ceylon's 10-cent silver coinage of this period was produced at the Royal Mint in London, its fineness reduced from the earlier .800 standard as a direct response to the metal economics following the First World War. The .550 fineness adopted here was a compromise that kept the coin visually indistinguishable from its predecessor while quietly devaluing its intrinsic content.

The reduction went largely unnoticed in daily commerce on the island, where the rupee system had long since displaced any public habit of assessing silver by weight.