| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Denomination | pence |
| Alloy | Zinc |
| Diameter | 45.3 mm |
| Thickness | mm |
| Weight | 8.90 gms |
| Shape | round |
| Edge | Plain |
| DieAxis | O° |
| Issue | |
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| Lowsley #37 Pridmore #104 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Obv. : | VOLKART BROTHERS GRANDPASS MILLS * -*- * | between two plain circles around at center below a neatly cut circular hole for suspension with a circle marked around. |
| Rev. : | Blank |
VOLKART BROTHERS. The firm of Volkart Brothers was founded in
1851 at Winterthur, Switzerland, and. Bombay, India, by the brothers
S. Volkart and J. G. Volkart. The intention of the brothers was to
establish direct commercial relations between India and the continent
of Europe. At the outset the firms business was confined to the import
of raw cotton and the export of manufactured goods to the Indies.
On the 1st October, 1857, a branch office was opened at Colombo. Its
business activity embraced the export of coconut oil, coffee,
cinnamon, cotton and pearls. This was later extended to all forms of
Ceylon produce and a large Agency business for shipping and
insurance.
As their tokens indicate, they established two oil mills, one at
Grandpass and the other at Maradana. In later years the Maradana mills
were moved to Mutwal.
Reference
* Coins and Tokens
of Ceylon, Lieut. Col B. Lowsley, Num. Chron. Sr III Vol. XV, 1895.
* 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
Image of token ex Pridmore Collection from B&W print scanned from catalog and colorized with Photo-Shop. Displayed at 150 dpi.