Please also see also corrections to current editions of SCWC published by Krause for other centuries 19th (3rd) - 18th (2nd) - 17th (2nd)
The information below has been compiled from various official publications of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, personal communication with the current Superintendent of Currency,Graham Dyer of Royal Mint, and Mr T. M. U. Sallay, Senior Assistant Superintendent of Currency (retired) and author of book "Sri Lanka Currency of Recent Times 1938-1985".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Drop all references to SHRI within () in title and introduction text. Sri Lanka/Ceylon is far more useful, as used in page titles lines. The first few pages toplines should be Ceylon and last few Sri Lanka Rulers British 1796-1948 (not 1972) The Subheading of "Republic" before the 1963 coins is Politicaly meaningless, since Lanka became a Republic only in 1972 with the change of official name in English. However Currency issue did change with the new coinage in 1963. Till then Lanka was mostly reminting Coins with years from 1945 and 1951 with King George Sixth. The Correct historical division is at 1948 with subheading "Independent" Will requre the 1951 King George Sixth, 1955,57 Queen Elizabeth II and the 1957 Buddha Jayanthi Commemoratives to be moved forward, ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- delete the following entries. 114a The 1943 Brass 50 cent which is clearly a pattern is already listed correctly as (Pn9) or off-metal strike. It should not be listed in main section. 117a T. M. U. Sallay confirmed there is No Brass 1944 2-cents Proof. Would like to know reference source for this recently added entry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 1951 dated restrike entry of millions of coins of 10c, 25c, 50c are not Proof. The number of Proof restrikes is unknown although I have managed to find lot more detailed information from Sallay about minting of coins from 1951 to 1962 and confirmed with information published in the Annual Report of the British Royal Mint. Add Notes 1 cent KM 111a Frozen year 1945 Restruck till 1962 5 cents KM 113 Frozen year 1945 Restruck till 1962 25 cents KM 115 Frozen year 1943 Restruck till 1951 50 cents KM 116 Frozen year 1943 Restruck till 1951 10 cents KM 118 Frozen year 1944 Restruck till 1951 10 cents KM 119 Frozen year 1951 Restruck till 1961 25 cents KM 122 Frozen year 1951 Restruck till 1962 50 cents KM 123 Frozen year 1951 Restruck till 1962 2 cent KM 124 Frozen year 1955 Restruck in India till 1959 2 cent KM 124 Frozen year 1957 Restruck in RoyalMint till 1962 see Links from http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/british_ceylon/george~vi.html http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/lanka/george~vi_.html http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/lanka/elizabeth~ii.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KM 126 Rs 5/- Silver Crown Add Note 258,000 returned in 1962 to be melted in Royal Mint see: http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/commemorative/1957_buddhajayanthi2500_5r.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- delete the following entry. Delete Proof 1968 Listed in 5 cents denominations Proofs issued only in 1971 and 1978, and that too 20,000 in Proof Sets Only. as indicated for KM144 Delete Proof 1975 Listed in ann denominations with mintage 1431. The listed Proof 1975 in all denominations 1 2 5 10 25 50 cents and Rupee, with a mintage of 1431 pieces has not been traced. No record of issue from Central Bank in Colombo, or Royal Mint Annual Report. Checking. According to the production numbers given in the Royal Mint annual report for SriLanka(Ceylon) Proof coins minted in 1974/5 (6850) and 1975/6 (7157) had the old emblem design and the 1971 date. No Proof coins with the 1975 date were minted in 1975/6 or 1976/7. Reference: Authority Royal Mint report amd Sallay "Sri Lanka Currency of Recent Times 1938-1985" Published by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL)in 1986 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KM 144: 1 Rupee 1978 Inauguration of President Jayawardene issue 2600 (right shoulder straight) Remove duplicate Entry. Add image add note: Presentation Off-metal Strike. see http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/commemorative/1978_jr_1r.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KM150 500 Rupee 1990 Central Bank of Sri Lanka - 40th Anniversary add KM150a 2,200 proof (Frosted) amend KM150 10,000 BU see http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/commemorative/1990_cbsl40_500r.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KM151 1 Rupee 1992 President Premadasa issue delete KM151a 2,000 BU Only Proof of Silver issue. add note: Presentation Off-metal Strike. see http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/commemorative/1992_rp_1r.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mint numbers for ALL recent issues from information sent to me by Central Bank of SriLanka via FAX has been Included on the pages of the http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/ website. Copy of FAX was sent to Krause in Oct'01 Many of mintage figures provided not included. KM#137 1989 6,000,000 1 cent 1994 5,000,000 KM#139a 1991 50,000,000 5 cents KM#140a 1991 50,000,000 10 cents KM#141.2 1989 45,000,000 25 cents 1991 50,000,000 1994 50,000,000 KM#135.2 1991 40,000,000 50 cents 1994 40,000,000 KM#136.2 1994 50,000,000 1 rupee KM#147 1993 40,000,000 2 rupees 1996 50,000,000 KM#148.2 1986 60,000,000 5 rupees 1991 40,000,000 1994 50,000,000 Numbers below need to be corrected with CBSL Fax These numbers from Sallay and cross checked with Royal Mint Annual reports. 135.1 1972 11,000,000 50 cents 136.1 1972 7,000,000 1 rupee ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Add Images for following commemorative issues which were in 29th Edition KM 126 Rs 5/- Silver Crown KM 162 Rs 1/- Nickel Plated Steel Update darker images posted for KM#116 KM#164 KM#165 KM#166 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Composition of following coins mistakenly listed as Gold after automated transformation of database to new format. KM 100 1904 1/4 Cent Copper (not Gold) KM 106 1912-1926 1/2 Cent Copper (not Gold) KM 110 1937-1940 1/2 Cent Copper (not Gold) KM 157 1996 1 rupee Cu-Ni (not Gold) Pn 8 1904 Pattern 5 cent Copper (not Gold) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Correct following errors in description text KM 90 KM 91 and KM 92 Add note that Earlier dates (1870-1900) exist for this type. KM 148.1 CBC - Central Bank of Ceylon (Not Currency Board) KM 148.2 CBSL - Central Bank of Sri Lanka (Not Currency Board) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Off Metal Strike KM 100a 1904 1/4 Cent Gold (put back this off-metal strike) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TRIAL "TRIAL" in raised letters on both Rev and Obv Pn11 1965 10 Cents Like KM130 struck in Nickel-Brass - Birmingham Mint Pn12 1968 05 Cents Like KM129 struck in Nickel-Brass - Birmingham Mint see http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/pattern/196x_lanka_10c5c_trials.html "TRIAL" in raised letters on Obv Pn13a 1971 5 Cents Like KM129 struck in Nickel-Brass clad Steel Pn13b 1971 5 Cents Like KM129 struck in Steel Pn13c 1971 5 Cents Like KM129 struck in Aluminum see http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/pattern/1971_lanka_05c_trials.html Pn14a 1971 10 Cents Like KM130 struck in Nickel-Brass clad Steel Pn14b 1971 10 Cents Like KM130 struck in Steel Pn14c 1971 10 Cents Like KM130 struck in Aluminum see http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/pattern/1971_lanka_10c_trials.html Independent confirmation that all are official Patterns, from an retired officer Mr T. M. U. Sallay of the Central Bank of Ceylon. and Graham Dyer curator of British Royal Mint Museum. Pattern's shown to Cliff Mishler at exhibit at PAN Show October 2002 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patterns see http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/pattern/index.htm Pn10 1942 1 Cent Like KM111 struck in black Bakelite. Note: Not struck by Royal Mint. see http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/pattern/1942_george_vi_01c_pattern.html 1942 Bakelite see Dick Ford collection Taisei-Baldwin-Gillio Auction #19 23 Feb 1995 lot 255. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Add Following recent commemorative issues None as of 2002 December ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Error I have randomly noticed in Entries for other Nations. Similar errors from Automated translation to new computer database probably exist. 1) Russia changed it's currency in 1997 defining a New Ruble. The listing needs to be clearly separated at that point of Time. 2) Russian Mint sets have been sorted by pattern # and their single+double digit representation has taken List out of chronological sequence. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- General Comments on the New Format. The transformation is obviously to enable the catalog to be printed from a computer database rather than been page formatted. However the individual data entries need to be a bit more general, recognizing for example the existence of Coins which are only issued in Proof Title descriptions for Commemorative coins Different varieties of design and metal the same coin type It may be useful to Flag coins the dozen coins that are NCLT http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/commemorative/nclt.html The main reason the new format is more difficult to navigate is the lack of sub-headings for each denomination. Sub-heading are very important to guide a reader to the region of interest. IMHO a roughly chronological sequence is better than the denomination used now. See http://coins.lakdiva.org.lk/KMcat.html This will bring each series of coins of say different Monarch like Edward VII Greoge V, .... coins together as is natural. This will also not break up sets of coins issued to commemorate the same event in few different denominations. The latest issues will be always be close to end and easy to locate. I am glad that as a result Mintage figures are now listed in full. It was previously hard to read the difference between a "," amd a "." 20,000 is better than 0.020 None of the Ceylon/SriLanka coins have a price for BU. None of the unofficial Proofs listed have a mintage number, since they are a small unknown number struck for inspection by mint-master and made their way to the collector market. I therefore suggest that the Proof value be listed by replacing the empty BU column, when they are known to exist as in listed in Pridmore. Weights of coins to 2 or maybe 3 decimal places is useful. 4 is unknown. Omit the column headline for commemoratives with only proof issues. I feel it is a pity to loose part of the obverse image of the crown sized coin particularly when it is not a standard design. IMHO it is better to shrink the size to fit single collumn with a note of actual size rather than overlay the designs. When clear image is provided brief description of Obverse or Reverse legends for some of the coins adds little to the information. It has even been Duplicated for each metal variety of same coin. I would suggest a single caption with the subject of commemorative issue below the coin image and note any details with each variety, as done in previous issues. Weight of all coins useful. Not just those of gold and Silver. When weight and purity is given ASW and AGW is easily computable. Edge description useful for all coins since it is not visible.. Maybe thickness but both are probably a lot of work British Royal Mint was used for nearly all coins. Maybe omited by statement in introduction to country and noting exceptions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1901 is not a natural year to break series of British Commonwealth coins. Each nation has Natural breaks close to the end of the century and a fussy break will ensure less need for duplication between century volumes and ensure all years of same coin are listed in same volume. For example a reader could be referred to 19th Century volume for 1901 issues for British Commonwealth coins. 17th Century - Portuguese and Dutch Counter Marked Coins. 18th Century - Dutch Coins and British E. I. C. (Till 1800) 19th Century - Ceylon Government to Victoria (Till 1901) 20th Century - Edward VII to Sri Lanka I am very glad that Ceylon and SriLanka were NOT broken up like some of the other nations with change of name, as was done in the Pick Currency catalog few years ago. Maybe needed with change of borders with merger and/or breakup ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The main introduction talks about addition of "Medallic" and "Pretender" (Fantasy?) issues. But this would open up the catalog to any item published in Krause "Unusual Coins", and make it very poorly defined and open to listing anything. Even a number of Pure Bullion items seem to have been listed in catalog for India. Tokens used for currency like the 19th century Ceylon Coffee tokens are clearly a part of the numismatic history of the nation and probably worth inclusion in 19th century volume. It is however a large addition of over 120 tokens cataloged by Pridmore. Although the difference between Fantasy and NCLT is thin, NCLT is still legal tender and counted in the money supply of a nation. I am sure Krause has no intention of listing the coaster sized copies U.S. coins sold in tourist shops as souvenirs which are also fantasy and no different to the 1978 Fantasy 1-cent which has been put back, and listed in the 2003 Edition of Krause. Clearly a new edition of "Unusual Coins" could include all of them but IMHO they don't belong in the SCWC. I understand that the justification of them being in SCWC is to ensure that any ciun like item can be identified using a published catalog, and that these newly identified fantasies will be removed from the SCWC after they are published in the less frequent new edition of "Unusual Coins" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is some confusion in KM Listings distinction between what is listed as Patterns and what is in the main section. It could be considered to move the off-metal Strikes of the 2 Presidential coins and all of the off-metal strikes of Queen Victoria and King Edward VII to the "Patterns and off metal-strikes" section at the end of listing of the regular issues. However to keep current numbers recommend that off metal strikes are listed with patterns retain the same number of standard metal strike with alpha extension as currently used. The 1943 Brass 50 cent which is clearly a pattern (Pn9) or off-metal strike. It should not be duplicate listed in main section as 114a. The 1904 5-Cent type known as a Proof has been listed correctly as a pattern (Pn8), and the 1951 5 Cent was issued only as a Proof is listed with correctly with regular issue since significant numbers were minted and freely available to any interested person or collector. It was the first NCLT from Ceylon.