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2 Pounds
| Issuer | Government of Ceylon |
|---|---|
| Year | 1827-1856 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2 Pounds |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on plain paper. Central vignette of Britannia seated, holding spear and shield, with a lion at left and cornucopia at right; elephant and sailing vessels in the background. Trilingual text in English, Sinhala, and Tamil frames the denomination panel. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Uniface; the reverse is blank, showing only the plain paper stock with faint show-through of the obverse intaglio impression. |
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| Comments |
Ceylon's government-issued pound notes occupied an unusual administrative position: Ceylon used a hybrid currency system through much of the nineteenth century, with the rixdollar remaining in use alongside sterling-denominated instruments until the rixdollar was finally demonetized in 1828. This 2 Pound note therefore belongs to the very early period of sterling normalization on the island.
Perkins, Bacon & Petch were among the first printers to industrialize steel-plate intaglio engraving for security documents, a technique Jacob Perkins had brought from the United States. Their anti-counterfeiting geometry work was considered state-of-the-art for the period.
The thirty-year date span on this issue — 1827 to 1856 — suggests a single plate run with manuscript date completion at the Colonial Treasury in Colombo.