The collection is illustrated and published by Codrington.
The 1914 catalog lists 255 Types of Muhammadan and European (exclusive
of Roman) with an additional 127 coins of different variety and/or
years. 47 of the coins are illustrated on 4 plates.
The 1924 standard reference illustrates 181 coins on 7 plates most
of which are from the museum collection.
I visited the National Museum numismatic display in 1998 July and saw
it as I could remember it from many years previously. An extensive
collection, nicely labeled and displayed in large tall antique cases.
I was given a very interesting guide through the collection by one of
the curators. The coins represented an impressive record of over
2300 years of our nations history. It motivated me to make this
Internet web-site for coins that circulated in Lanka.
In 2008 a new coins and currency gallery was opened as part of the HSBC refurbishment of the Museum. Unfortunately the panels written in three languages had factual and grammatical errors in English, and I was told by a Professor from Jaffna in Tamil, and even in sinhala according to a scholar. One display had some modern lead fantasy which had been gifted to museum. Some of them had even been included in the some of the back illuminated panels. Some of the textual errors were corrected and the fantasy labeled as Replica at my insistence.
On the night of 2012 March 19th the Coin Gallery was burguled as part of a larger robbery of the museum. Most of the gold coins in were stolen includig the rare and priceless ada kahavanu. None of the rare coins were recovered, claimed sadly to have been melted. In 2012 April I was appointed to write a report on the Museum coin collection as requested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The report submited in 2012 June, has hardly had any of the recomendations implimented even after more than 4 years.
The Department of National Museum Annual Performance Report for 2012 hides the fact that they lost the rare and priceless ada kahavanu, or even mention the fact that 3 reports were requested by the CID and submitted to the Director on the Museum collection of Swords by an Officer in the Dept of Archaeology, Jewellery by Prof Nimal De Silva and Coins and Currency by Dr Kavan Ratnatunga.
The Coin and Currency gallery closed in 2014 August for major renovations with rest of the original 1877 building. It has reopened in 2016 February without the currency display. There are also some coins on display in other galleries of Museum.
Museums of Archaeology Department.
It's strength is in recent issue of coin and currency notes. It is the only place which has on display the off metal Gold and Silver strikes of the one rupee presidential coins. The collection older than 50 years is not as good as could be expected. I remember seeing it first in the early 1980's when it was in the old central Bank building. It was moved after CBSL HQ building was Bombed by Terrorists in 1996 January. I saw the collection again at the current site in 1998 June. When I visited Last 2001 December some slight improvements had been made. A few older coins added to the collection mostly from gifts. I saw photographs of some of the gifted coins which didn't look too real. They have also got a nice gift of 75 items from Rajah Wickremesinhe's Collection from Ruhuna which is yet not on display even 6-years later when I visited in 2006 December. Noticed that the two 1947 Rs10000/- specimens have been glued on to the poster and had faded. The two 1942 25 cent patterns were in very poor condition.
A new Currency Museum was planned on the ground floor of the rebuilt Central Bank Building in Fort. The major exhibit which was planed in consultation with Rajah Wickremesinhe on the ground floor of the rebuilt Central Bank Building in Fort has now been abandoned.
In 2006 December the CBSL Museum is in charge of Mr K Ratnasekara Tele: 94-11-2477809, and under Mr Dammika Gunarathna who is the Deputy Superintendent of Currency, Central Bank of Sri Lanka Colombo, Sri Lanka (Tele: 94-11-2477355 FAX: 94-11-2477726). Note: The CBSL Museum website has very many mistakes such as wrong image labels, and has not been corrected despite informing them of the errors few years ago.