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Ordinances Nos,
32 of 1884, 12 of 1886, 13 of 1901, 6 of 1903, 11 of 1909, 33 of 1914, 1 of 1917. | AN ORDINANCE TO PROVIDE FOR THE ISSUE OF GOVERNMENT PAPER CURRENCY. [17th December, 1884.] | ||||||||
| Short title. | 1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Paper Currency Ordinance, and it shall extend to the whole of the Island of Ceylon. | ||||||||
| Commissioners of Currency. | 2. A board of Commissioners of Currency for the Island shall be established for the purposes of this Ordinance, and shall consist of the Financial Secretary, the Deputy Chief Secretary, and the Commissioner of Stamps. | ||||||||
| Board of Commissioners created a corporation under the style of The Ceylon Currency Commissioners. | 3. (1) The Board of Commissioners of Currency established under
section 2 shall, from and after the first day of November eighteen
hundred and eighty-six, be and become a corporation with continuance
for ever, under the name and style of "The Ceylon Currency
Commissioners," with full power and authority to have and to use a
common seal, and change and alter the same at their will and
pleasure, and shall and may perform each and every of the duties and
exercise each and every of the powers imposed on and vested in them by
this Ordinance; and all acts, matters or things which are authorised
by this Ordinance to be done by them or in their names shall and may
be lawfully done by them or in their name and style as a corporation:
Provided, however, that the seal of the said corporation shall not be fixed to any instrument except in the presence of at least one of the Commissioners, who shall sign his name to the instrument in token of his presence, and such signing shall be independent of the signing of any person who may sign the instrument as a witness. | ||||||||
| Corporation may appoint officers or agents. | (2) The said corporation, with the sanction of the Governor, may from time to time under their common seal appoint such officer or officers, agent or agents, as they may consider necessary for recovering all dividends, interest, or other revenue to be derived from all lawful investments already made, or which may hereafter be made by them, or for otherwise carrying out the provisions of this Ordinance; and all persons so appointed shall hold office during the pleasure of the said corporation. | ||||||||
| Commissioners may issue Government notes. | 4. There shall be transferred to the Commissioners coin legally
current, or coin and securities as hereafter provided, and thereupon
it shall be lawful for the Commissioners from time to time to provide,
issue, and re-issue promissory notes of the Government of Ceylon
payable to bearer on demand equal to the whole amount of coin and
securities in the hands of the Commissioners. Such notes shall be for
the respective sums following, namely :
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| Notes to be signed by two Commissioners. | 5. Every such note shall bear the signatures or facsimiles of the signatures of any two of the Commissioners holding office at the date borne on the note. | ||||||||
| Notes to be called "currency notes," and holders may demand coin for them. | 6. . Such notes shall be called "currency notes", and shall be payable only at the office of the Commissioners in Colombo. The holders of currency notes shall be entitled to obtain on demand at the said office in exchange for such notes coin which may at the option of the Commissioners be either silver rupees of India or gold coin which is legal tender in Ceylon under any Order of His Majesty the King in Council, but no other coin. | ||||||||
| Currency notes to be legal tender for any amount. | 7. Every currency note shall be legal tender in Ceylon for the payment of any amount. | ||||||||
| Issue of currency notes. | 8. (1) The Commissioners shall, on the demand of any person,
issue currency notes in exchange for the amount thereof in silver
rupees of India.
(2) The Commissioners may also issue such notes in exchange for the amount thereof in gold coin which is legal tender in Ceylon under any Order of His Majesty the King in Council; but the Commissioners may decline to do so whenever it is inexpedient in their judgment to increase the amount of gold coin held as reserve under this Ordinance: | ||||||||
| Power to treat credit at Bank of England as equivalent to a deposit of gold. | Provided that until such date as shall be notified by order of the Governor in the Government Gazette, it shall be lawful, and shall be deemed to have been lawful, for the Commissioners, with the approval of the Secretary of State, to treat an acceptance of a credit at the Bank of England to an amount so approved as equivalent to a deposit of such gold coin as aforesaid in accordance with this subsection, and in any such case the amount of such credit shall be deemed to be such gold coin as aforesaid for all the purposes of this Ordinance, except for the purposes of section 6. | ||||||||
| Commissioners to retain a reserve of one. half in silver or gold coin of the notes in circulation. | 9. The Commissioners shall retain a reserve in silver coin or in gold coin which is legal tender in this Island under any Order of His Majesty the King in Council, of one-half at the least of the amount of currency notes in circulation. The said reserve shall be from time to time, at such times as the Governor shall appoint, verified by a board of survey. | ||||||||
| Governor to direct investment of one-half of the value of notes in circulation. | 10. The Governor,-shall also cause a sum, not exceeding the value
of one-half of the currency notes in circulation, to be invested in
Indian Government securities and such securities of the Government of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or of the
Government of any British colony other than Ceylon, as may from time
to time be approved of by the Secretary of State for the Colonies:
Provided that not more than one-half of such sum shall be invested in Indian Government securities, except by the express sanction of the Secretary of State. | ||||||||
| Reserve to be set apart to satisfy notes. | 11. The said reserve in coin and securities shall be appropriated and set apart to provide for the satisfaction and discharge of the said currency notes; and the said currency notes shall be held to have been issued on the security of the said coin and securities as well as on the general credit of the Government of Ceylon. | ||||||||
| How investments to be made. | 12. All such investments shall, if made in England, be made in the joint names of the Crown Agents for the Colonies and of such other officers or persons as His Majesty's Secretary of State aforesaid shall appoint as trustees on behalf of the Commissioners. Investments made in India in Indian Government securities shall be made in the names of the Commissioners. | ||||||||
| Investments may be sold or varied if directed by the Governor. | 13. Any portion of the aforesaid investments may, if directed by the Governor, be sold by the persons in whose names they have been made, and the proceeds of such sale applied to keep up the aforesaid reserve of coin, or in the purchase of other securities authorised by this Ordinance. | ||||||||
| When Commissioners will be authorised to sell out securities. | 14. If at any time the specie held by the Commissioners as
mentioned in section 9 should be reduced below one half of the notes
in circulation, it shall not be necessary for the Commissioners
(except by the special directions of the Governor) to sell and realize
any of the said securities, unless and until the amount of specie in
their hands shall be less than one-third of the notes in circulation
at the time:
Provided that no further investment in the said securities shall be made until the reserve mentioned in section 9 shall amount to one-half at the least of the amount of currency notes in circulation; | ||||||||
| Suspension of operation of proviso to this section. | Provided further that the operation of the above proviso shall be
suspended, and shall be deemed to have been suspended, as from the
thirtieth day of December, nineteen hundred and sixteen, until such date
as shall be notified by order of the Governor in the Government
Gazette;
Provided further that during the said suspension the limit of the proportion of the value of currency notes in circulation which may be invested in securities under section 10 shall also be suspended, and be deemed to have been suspended, as from the said date. | ||||||||
| Revenue from investments. | 15. All dividends, interest, or other revenue to be derived from the
said investments shall be paid to such person as shall be nominated in
that behalf, and the said dividends, interest, or revenue shall form part
of the ordinary revenues of the Island, excepting the sum of one per
centum which shall be appropriated annually on the whole amount of
such investments, and shall be paid to the trustees referred to in section
12, to be by them invested in such manner as the Governor, with the
sanction of the Secretary of State, shall approve:
Provided always that the Governor may, with the sanction of the said Secretary of State, direct that the annual appropriations of one per centum aforesaid shall be wholly or partially discontinued at any time, or so long as it shall appear that-the reason for such annual appropriation no longer exists. Investments made in pursuance of this section shall be deemed to form part of the reserve mentioned in section 11, and shall be held and dealt with in the manner prescribed by sections 12, 13, and 14 of this Ordinance. | ||||||||
| Accounts showing expenses to be published annually in Government Gazette. | 16. An account showing the amount of the profits of the note circulation and of the charges and expenses incidental thereto shall be made and published annually in the Government Gazette. | ||||||||
| Accounts showing amount of notes in circulation, &c.. to be published monthly in the Government Gazette. | 17. An abstract of the accounts of the Commissioners
showing
(a) the whole amount of currency notes in circulation; (b) the amount of silver and gold coin reserved; and (c) the nominal value as well as the latest known market price
of, and the price paid for, the Government securities held by
the Commissioners, shall be made up on the tenth day of each
month by the Commissioners, and published as soon as may be in
the Government Gazette.
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| Penalty for counterfeiting notes. | 18. Whosoever shall forge or counterfeit or alter, or shall offer, utter, dispose of, or put off, knowing the same to be forged or counterfeited or altered, any currency note or any word, figure, mark, sign, signature, or facsimile upon or attached to any such note, shall be held guilty of an offence, and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for any period not exceeding twenty years, anything in the Penal Code to the contrary notwithstanding. | ||||||||
| Penalty for possession of incomplete notes. | 19. Whosoever without lawful authority or excuse (the proof whereof shall lie on the person accused) shall have in his possession any such forged, counterfeited, or altered note, or any unfinished or incomplete note purporting to be issued by the Commissioners, shall be guilty of an offence, and be liable to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for any period not exceeding five years, anything in the Penal Code to the contrary notwithstanding. | ||||||||
| Penalty for possession of paper for notes. | 20. Whosoever without lawful authority or excuse (the proof whereof shall lie on the person accused) shall make, use, or knowingly have in his possession, any paper with any word, figure, device, or distinction peculiar to and appearing in the substance of the paper used for currency notes, or any frame, mould, or instrument for making such paper, or any material upon which the whole or any part of any note purporting to resemble a currency note shall have been engraved or made, or any facsimile of the signature of any of the Commissioners, shall be guilty of an offence, and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for any period not exceeding five years, anything in the Penal Code to the contrary notwithstanding. | ||||||||
| Certificate under the hand .of the Deputy Financial Secretary to be conclusive evidence as to the spuriousness of certain .currency notes. | 21. (I) In any proceedings in which the genuineness of any
currency note} shall be in question, a certificate under the hand of
the Deputy Financial Secretary to the effect that such note is
spurious, on the ground that it does not contain the secret features
characteristic of a genuine note of corresponding denomination,
number, and date shall be received in all courts of law as conclusive
evidence of the spuriousness of such note.
(2) The Deputy Financial Secretary shall not be examined or cross- examined with respect to any such certificate. (3) The certificate shall be in the form following: This to certify that I have personally examined
the document shown to me, and marked, purporting to be a currency note of
the following denomination, number, and date, namely
Denomination :___________ Number :___________ Date :___________ and that the said note is spurious on the ground that it does not contain the secret features characteristic of a genuine note of corresponding denomination, number, and date. | ||||||||
| interpretation. | 22. The expressions "Financial Secretary," "Deputy Chief Secretary," "Deputy Financial Secretary" and "Commissioner of Stamps" means the persons for the time being lawfully discharging the functions of such officers, and the expression "the Commissioners" means the Commissioners of Currency by this Ordinance. |
(Chapter 291, Legislative Enactments of Ceylon, 1938.)
Ceylon Currency British Period 1796-1936 By B. W. Fernando, APPENDIX L.
1939, Ceylon Government Press p.55-60
Contents Next APPENDIX M