| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Denomination | 18¾ cents |
| Alloy | Brass |
| Diameter | 29.2 mm |
| Thickness | 1.2 mm |
| Weight | 5.63 gms |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Plain |
| DieAxis | 180° |
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| Lowsley #19 Pridmore #86 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Obverse : | S. & CO. | (Sabonadière & Co.) | between ornamental scrolls within beaded circle inside raised rim. |
| Revverse : | AMBEWATTE MILLS 1877. | within beaded circle inside raised rim. |
See also webpage for the Maddema Mills token of same year and similer design issued by the same firm.
As the manager of the great Delta Coffee property of Baron Dalmer in
the ``forties'' and ``fifties'', and subsequently an estate proprietor
and head of a mercantile house, Sabonadière has been for a
period of over half-a-century connected with the Coffee Industry. The
collapse of coffee brought misfortune to him as to so many others, and
amidst trying physical suffering, the closing years of his life were
devoted to the task to enable him to say ``I owe no man anything'.''
Such was the remarks of the Ceylon Observer in 1891 when reporting the
death at Colombo of F. R. Sabonadière who took over as many of
the Agencies that could be saved from Dickson Tatham & Co. together
with the lease of Ambawatte House and Mills, when this firm went into
liquidation in 1866
Francis Richard Sabonadière founded the firm of
Sabonadière & Co. in 1869. He was the son of a Pastor of the
Reformed Church of France and arrived in Ceylon in 1839. He devoted
his time to planting activities for over 17 years, until he was
relieved by his brother William Augustus Sabonadière. As a
practical planter he obtained the agency of a large number of estates,
so much so, that in 1883, the firm headed the list of Estate Agencies,
dealing with the produce of 117 estates. It may be mentioned that his
brother W. A. Sabonadière was the author of a manual on coffee
planting which was the accepted handbook in its day for the industry.
This book was dedicated to F.R.S. and was published in 1886 in
Guernsey, their family home. Sabonadière & Co. employed over
690 hands at each of their Mills at Ambawatte and Maddema situated at
Slave Island, Colombo.
All went well with the firm till the gradual decay of the coffee
industry through disease hemileia vastatrix. With the consequent
failure of the Oriental Bank Corporation, the firm bad to suspend
payment on 4 Sept. 1884. It was succeeded immediately by
Messrs. Cumberbatch & Co.
Reference
* Coins and Tokens
of Ceylon, Lieut. Col B. Lowsley, Num. Chron. Sr III Vol. XV, 1895.
* The Coins of British Commonwealth of Nations to the end of the
reign of George VI 1952
Part 2 - Asian Territories by F. Pridmore Spink & Son Ltd., 1965.
Tokens
The nicely toned VF grade token was scanned at 300 dpi and the images are displayed at 200 dpi. It was purchased in 2003 April from NY-USA dealer.