1812 - Ceylon Government
Silver Rix Dollar Patterns

SPECIFICATIONS Denomination Two Rix Dollar Alloy Silver Diameter 34.0 mm Thickness 1.2 mm Weight 11.55 gms Shape Round Edge Plain DieAxis ?°
	Pridmore #252;KM #PN4

Denomination One Rix Dollar Alloy Silver Diameter 26.8 mm Thickness 0.9 mm Weight 5.48 gms Shape Round Edge Plain DieAxis ?°
	Pridmore #254;KM #PN3

Obverse : Elephant Facing Left with 1812 below the ground line within a dash circle and raised rim.
Reverse : CEY LON on above broken by Cross and CURRENCY below in arcs along perifery. Crown above Panel with value in RIX-DOLLAR Below in in banner DIEU ET MON DROIT (God and my right)

Comment by Pridmore A trial. The execution of this pattern is ascribed to Thomas Wyon junior (1792-1817) who was appointed Pro-batidner Engraver of the Royal Mint 1811 Nov. 20 and Chief Engraver on 1815 Oct. 13

Described as one of the greatest British colonial and excessively rare patterns it is probabaly the highest valued Numismatic item from Ceylon sold in a public Auction as listed below.

Auction Listings

• Cholmley Collection, Sotheby's 1902 May 26 London, lot 392
• John G. Murdoch Collection, Sotheby's 1903 July 23, London, lot 267
• Nobleman [Philipp von Ferrary de La Renoti?re] Sotheby's 1922 March 27, London, lot 518.
• King Farouk, Palace Collection of Egypt. Sotheby's 1954 March 3rd London, lot 2369 of both sold £90
• Purchased by Richard L. Listner in 1971 from Meridian Coin Company Torrance, CA 90505, USA, in 1971 February.
• Dick Ford collection (in Taisei-Baldwin-Gillio Auctions #19 Ceylon 1995 February 23, Singapore.
  2 RixD lot#242 unsold for US$8,000; 1RixD lot#244 unsold for US$5,000; (+10% BP).
  
• Robert Climpson Collection, Noble Numismatics Sale 85 2009 Nov 25th, Sydney.
  lot 2546 2 RixD sold for AU$29,000; lot 2547 1 RixD sold for AU$19,000,
• Richard L. Listner Collection, by St James's Auctions, LLC in conjunction with Classical Numismatic Group (CNG) 2014 August 1st, London.
  Lot 97 1 Rix Dollar estimate $7500 sold for US$27,500 Lot 98 2 Rix Dollar estimate $15000 sold for sold for US$37,500
• Stack's & Bowers Galaries Auction at the New York International Numismatic Convention on 2024 January 13th
  Lot 54036 1 Rix Dollar estimate $25000 sold for US$40,800 Lot 54035 2 Rix Dollar estimate $35000 sold for US$66,000

The Pair of patterns sold in 2014 for US$65,000 and 2024 for US$106,800 a 64.3% increase in value in 10 years, or a reasonable 5% increase in value per year. However when you remove the Buyer's premium and subtract 10% as sellers commission the investor in these items in 2014 gets only about US$80,100 a 23.2% return on investment in 10 years or a poor 2% interest per year. Most of the profit is by the Auction House.

All of the bids were on the Internet. It also appears that the two patterns were won by 2 different bidders, maybe because of the high price. Pity that they now get separated.

These patterns were even the inspiration for a Fantasy made in the early 1970's by non other than the controversial dealer Frank Lapa who also published in 1968 an useful book on 1055-1295 CE Copper Massa coins of Lanka, mistitled Kandy Kings.

The 1800 dpi and 2200 dpi patern images from Stack's & Bowers 2024 NYINC Auction lots 54036 and 54035 displayed at 200 dpi.