Catalog
2 Pounds
| Issuer | General Treasury, Ceylon |
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| Year | 1827 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress print on plain paper. A classical vignette at upper centre shows Britannia seated, holding a spear and shield, with an elephant in the background. Text is arranged in manuscript-style typography with denomination in words and handwritten date and authorization entries. |
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| Obverse lettering | COLOMBO 18__ The Bearer is entitled to receive TWO POUNDS on demand at the General Treasury in the Currency of the Island. Two Pounds COLOMBO Exd & Entd |
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| Comments |
Ceylon's General Treasury issued its own notes in the early nineteenth century because no chartered bank existed on the island until the establishment of the Colombo branch of the Union Bank of Calcutta in 1841. The Treasury filled that gap directly, a colonial administrative arrangement unusual enough that surviving examples from this period are genuinely rare in any form.
Silvester & Company handled a range of government and commercial printing work out of London during the 1820s, though they left little mark on the numismatic record compared to contemporaries like Perkins or Bradbury. The 2 Pound denomination is the higher end of what a colonial treasury of this size would have circulated with confidence.