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25 Cents Ragama store
| Issuer | Ceylon Ice & Cold Storage Co. Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Year | 1901 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress on orange underprint with a tropical landscape vignette. The British coat of arms appears at upper centre, flanked by the issuing location at upper right. A circular company seal at left bears the denomination "Value 25 cts." with decorative bordering, and two manuscript signatures appear at lower centre and right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | RAGAMA, COLOMBO CEYLON AUGUST 1ST, 1901. TWENTY FIVE CENTS. Good for supplies to Prisoners-of-War only at the Company's Store, RAGAMA CEYLON ICE & COLD STORAGE Co. Ltd. Value 25 cts. Series B. Agents & Secretaries. Manager |
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| Comments |
Private trade tokens denominated in coin values were a practical workaround in colonial Ceylon, where small change was chronically scarce in rural and semi-rural commercial settings. The Ceylon Ice & Cold Storage Co. operated cold storage and provisioning facilities serving both local and European trade, and their Ragama branch — a railway junction town north of Colombo — issued these notes almost certainly for use within their own supply chain and employee wage settlements rather than open retail circulation.
The Cambridge reference places this among a narrow band of documented Ceylon commercial paper, most of which survived only in single or very small numbers.