| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Denomination | 4½ pence |
| Alloy | Copper |
| Diameter | 24.5 mm |
| Thickness | mm |
| Weight | 4.03 gms |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Grained |
| DieAxis | O° |
| Issue | not identified |
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| Lowsley Unlisted Pridmore #72 Mitchiner #2242 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Obverse - | --.-- M.D.D&CO.. --.-- | between two lines with a dot in centre of each and within a beaded circle. |
| Reverse - | 4D½ | within a beaded circle. |
A well-struck copper token with beaded circles at margin on each
side; evidently issued before the Decimal coinage of 1870. The
initials have not been identified from local inquiries.
Size rather larger than a farthing and of weight about 60 grains.
It is an example of a number of tokens with the same design and of same value with initials of persons or companies which have been used in 19th century British colonial Ceylon during the era of coffee plantations.
Reference
* The Coins of British Commonwealth of Nations to the end of the
reign of George VI 1952
Part 2 - Asian Territories by F. Pridmore Spink & Son Ltd., 1965.
Tokens
* Oriental Coins CE 600 - 1979 by Michael Mitchiner 1979
The coin was scanned at 300dpi and the images are displayed at
250dpi.
The extreamly fine condition coin was obtained on ebay in
2000 April from a dealer in USA from whom I have purchased many coins.