| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Denomination | pence |
| Alloy | Brass |
| Diameter | 24 mm |
| Thickness | mm |
| Weight | 5.52 gms |
| Shape | round |
| Edge | Milled |
| DieAxis | O° |
| Issue | |
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| Lowsley #Unlisted Pridmore #93 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Lowsley #Unlisted Pridmore #93 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Obverse : | -.-*-.- C.H.deS. -.-*-.- | (C. H. de Soysa) within beaded circle inside raised rim. |
| Reverse : | blank | within a beaded circle within a plain cricle inside raised rim. |
C. H. de SOYSA Charles Henry de
Soysa, who was a posthumous knight. He was a great benefactor and
philanthropist and his statue was erected in the Cinnamon Gardens,
Colombo.
He was the son of Jeronis de Soysa of Moratuwa, who, whilst trading in
Kandy, purchased from the Government the King's Gardens at
Hanguranketa. The gardens were planted with coffee and brought him his
great wealth, which his son, Charles Henry, distributed
philanthropically for the benefit of Ceylon in later years. Charles
Henry was a very successful business man and owned very many valuable
properties all over the island. Before the news reached Ceylon of the
bestowal of a Knighthood he died and his wife was given authority to
be called Lady Soysa until her death.
Reference
* 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 token was scanned at 300 dpi and the images are displayed at 250 dpi. I thank Dr Srilal Fernando in Australia, for the scans of this token from his father Late C. S. G. Fernando's collection.
The second token I obtained from a collector in Lanka. It is lot worn and 20% lighter. Someone may have tried to polish the token which brightened the high points. But how it wore down as it has with the outline of letters high is unexpected. Could it be a different variety.