IN the Name of Her Majesty VICTORIA, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith.
PROCLAMATION.
By His Excellency SIR ARTHUR ELIBANK HAVELOCK,
Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order
of Saint Michael and Saint George,
Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Island of Ceylon,
with the Dependencies thereof.
WHEREAS We have received from the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the
Colonies directions to proclaim Her Majesty's Order in Council, as follows :
At the Court at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, the 6th day of February, 1892.
Present:
THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
Lord President. Mr. Ritchie. Mr. Jackson.
WHEREAS Her Majesty the Queen has power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Her Majesty's Colony of Ceylon;
And whereas by virtue of the Order in Council and Proclamation rescinded by this Order certain silver rupees and other coins of silver and copper are legal tender in Her Majesty's said Colony;
And whereas it appears to Her Majesty, by the advice of Her Privy Council, that it is expedient to rescind the said Proclamation, and to make a law respecting the coins which are to be the subject of contract, and to constitute legal tender in Her Majesty's said Colony;
Now therefore Her Majesty, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, and by virtue of all powers vested in Her Majesty in that behalf, doth hereby ordain that the law hereinafter mentioned shall take effect in Her Majesty's said Colony.
And the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury and the Right Honourable Lord Knutsford, one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, are to give the requisite directions for causing proclamation of the said law to be made in Her Majesty's said Colony.
1. (1) The silver rupee of British India of the standard weight and millesimal fineness specified in the first schedule to this Order shall be the standard coin of Her Majesty's Colony of Ceylon and its dependencies, in this Order referred to as the Colony.
(2) Every contract, sale, payment, bill, note, instrument, and security for money, and every transaction, dealing, matter, and thing whatever relating to money, or involving the payment of, or the liability to, pay any money, shall, in the absence of express agreement to the contrary, be held to be made, executed, entered into, done, and had in the Colony according to the standard coin of the Colony,
(3) The coin mentioned in the second schedule to this Order shall be treated as equal to the standard coin.*
2. (1) Subsidiary coins may be from time to time coined for the Colony under the direction of the Master of Her Majesty's Mint or at one of Her Majesty's Mints in British India, of the denominations, weights, and fineness specified in the third schedule to this Order.
(2) Those coins shall have for the obverse impression Her Majesty's effigy with the inscription" Victoria Queen," and for the reverse impression the representation of a talipot palm and an inscription with the word" Ceylon," and the date of the year, and with the value of the piece in cents or hundredths of a rupee indicated in English, Sinhalese, and Tamil.
(3) Each coin so coined shall be a legal tender for the amount of its denomination.
(4) Each of the subsidiary coins mentioned in the fourth schedule to this Order shall be a legal tender- for the amount in that behalf in that schedule mentioned.
3. (1) If the Governor of the Colony from time to time requests any new coins of less value than the rupee, whether of silver, copper, or mixed metal to be coined, and the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury approve such request, those new coins may be so coined under the direction of the Master of Her Majesty's Mint, or at one of Her Majesty's Mints in British India.
(2) Such new coins shall have either the impressions* directed by this Order for the coins specified in the third schedule (in this Order referred to as existing coins), or such other impressions as may be approved of by the Master of Her Majesty's Mint and the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury.
(3) Any such new coin may be of the same denomination as any existing coin, or of a different denomination.
(4) Every such new coin, if of silver, shall be of the same fineness as the existing silver coins, and of a weight bearing the same proportion to the weights of the existing silver coins as the denomination of the new coin bears to the denominations of the existing coins.
4. In the making of any existing or new coin a "remedy" or variation from the standard weight, and in the case of silver coins from the standard fineness required by this Order, shall be allowed for any existing coin of an amount not exceeding that specified in the third schedule to this Order, and for any new coin --
5. (1) A tender of payment of money in the Colony if made in standard coins or in any coins specified in the second, third, or fourth schedule to this Order, shall-provided that the coins have not been illegally dealt with, and provided that, in the case of silver coins, such coins have not become diminished in weight by wear or otherwise so as to be of less weight than the weight (if any) specified as the least current weight in the schedules to this Order-be a legal tender
(a) In the case of rupees, for the payment of any amount;
(2) If any new coins are coined, this article shall, after the date fixed by the Governor- in a Proclamation made with the approval of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury and one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, and setting forth in a schedule the same particulars with respect to each coin as are set forth in the third schedule to this Order, apply to the new coins as if the schedule to the Proclamation were added to that third schedule.
6. For the purpose of this Order a coin shall be deemed to have been illegally dealt with where the coin has been impaired, diminished, or lightened otherwise than by fair wear and tear, or has been defaced by having any name, word, device, or number stamped thereon, whether the coin has or has not been thereby diminished or lightened.
7. On the commencement of this Order, the Order in Council and Proclamation specified in the fifth schedule to this Order, and all such Colonial laws and all such Proclamations, whether issued by Her Majesty or by the Governor, as regulate legal tender in the Colony, other than" The Ceylon Paper Currency Ordinance, 1884" (No. 32 of 1884), shall cease to be in force.
8. Nothing in this Order, nor any repeal of laws or rescinding of Proclamations by this Order, shall affect any liability incurred, contract made, or other thing done before the commencement of this Order.
9. In this Order The expression" Governor" means the Governor of the Colony, and includes the Officer for the time being administering the Government of the Colony. Words in the singular include the plural, and words in the plural include the singular.
10. This Order shall come into operation on the First day of July, 1892*, or any earlier day on which it is proclaimed in the Colony by the Governor, and that day is in this Order referred to as the commencement of the Order. This Order may be cited as the Coinage (Ceylon) Order, 1892.
C. L. PEEL.
FIRST SCHEDULE.
Standard Coin.
| Coin. | Metal | Millesimal Fineness. | Standard Weight. | Least Current Weight. | ||
| Grains | Grams | Grains | Grams | |||
| Rupee of British India | Silver | 916.6 | 180 | 11.664 | 176.4 | 11.431 |
SECOND SCHEDULE.
Foreign Coin.
| Coin. | Metal | Millesimal Fineness. | Standard Weight. | Least Current Weight. | ||
| Grains | Grams | Grains | Grams | |||
| Rupee of Portuguese India | Silver | 916.6 | 180 | 11.664 | 176.4 | 11.431 |
THIRD SCHEDULE.
Subsidiary Coins of Ceylon.
| Portion of Rupee for which Tender | Coin. | Metal Millesimal Fineness. | Standard Weight. | Remedy Allowances. | |||
| Grains | Grams | Weight per piece | Millesimal Fineness. | ||||
| Grains | Grams | ||||||
| 0.5 | Ceylon Fifty cent piece | Silver 800 | 90 | 5.832 | 0.630 | 0.0408 | 3 |
| 0.25 | Ceylon Twenty-five cent piece | 45 | 2.916 | 0.315 | 0.0204 | 3 | |
| 0.10 | Ceylon Ten-cent piece | 18 | 1.166 | 0.18 | 0.01l7 | 3 | |
| 0.05 | Ceylon Five-cent piece | Copper or Mixed Metal | 291.6 | 18.9 | 7.29 | 0.472 | None |
| 0.01 | Ceylon One-cent piece | 72.916 | 4.725 | 1.82 | 0.118 | ||
| 0.005 | Ceylon Half-cent police | 36.458 | 2.362 | 0.91 | 0.059 | ||
| 0.0025 | Ceylon Quarter cent piece | 18.229 | 1'181 | 0.46 | 0.029 | ||
FOURTH SCHEDULE.
Subsidiary Coins not of Ceylon.
| Portion of Rupee for which Tender | Coin. | Metal Millesimal Fineness. | Standard Weight. | Least Current Weight. | ||
| Grains | Grams | Grains | Grams | |||
| 0.5 | Half Rupee or Eight anna piece of British India | Silver 916.6 | 90 | 5.832 | 88.2 | 5.715 |
| 0.25 | Quarter Rupee or Four anna piece of British India | 45 | 2.916 | 44.1 | 2.858 | |
FIFTH SCHEDULE.
Order in Council and Proclamation rescinded.
| June 18, 1869: Order in Council and Proclamation. |
Now therefore We, the said Governor of Ceylon, in pursuance and exercise of the authority vested in Us by the said Order in Council, do hereby proclaim and direct that the said Order in Council shall and do take effect and come into force in Her Majesty's Colony of Ceylon, and the Dependencies thereof, from and after the First day of July, 1892.
Given at Kandy, in the said Island of Ceylon, this Twenty-third day of June, in the year of Our Lord One thousand Eight hundred and Ninety two.
By His Excellency's command,
J. A. SWETTENHAM,
Acting Colonial Secretary.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
(The Ceylon Government Gazette Extraordinary of June 25, 1892.)
Ceylon Currency British Period 1796-1936 By B. W. Fernando, APPENDIX E.
1939, Colombo; Ceylon Government Press p.44-48
Contents Next APPENDIX F