When
Mithripala Serisena defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa at the
presidential elections on 2015 the governor of the Central Bank
Ajith Nivard Cabraal
resigned
the nextday.
Ravi Karunanayake
was appointed Finance Minister of the UNP minority government on January 12th
and Arjuna Mahendaran
assumed
duties
as the governor of the Central Bank on January 26th.
CBSL issued, for circulation, currency notes with new signatures on the
"Development, Prosperity and Sri Lanka Dancers" theme
dated 2015-02-04 with no press announcement.
Photo shows Mr. A. Mahendran placing the specimen signature to be used in currency notes.
This is only the third time since the Sinhala only act of 1956 that anyone signed in English. The only other exceptions are Finance Ministers M. H. M. Nainamarikkar in 1988, and K. N. Choksy in 2001 signing the Currency notes in English. Even CBC governor A. G. Ranasinha who had signed the 1954 note in English, signed the 1956 note in Sinhala. A. Mahendran was the First governor of the Central Bank to sign in English since 1954.
I saw my first note on 2015 May 8th. I was told this Rs 5000/- note was released for Sinhala and Tamil New Year about mid April 2015.
D. B. Wijetunga was was both Prime Minister and Finance Minister under
the Presidency of President Ranasinghe Premadasa. When Premadasa was
assassinated by the LTTE on 1993 May 1st he became President and
retained the Finance Ministry, an addition to executive power which
was continued by President Chandrika Kumaratunga in her first term in
office, and adopted by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in both his terms.
When Ravi Karunaratne became Finance Minister, CBSL was retained under
the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinge.
However it is the Finance Minister who represents the government to
CBSL as shown on right.
Authorised by the Monetory Board for printing with 2015 date according to CBSL is
| Denomiation | Initial Authorized | Subsequent Authorized | First Serial | Last Serial | Final 2015 | Increase 2015/16 |
| Rs 20 | 30M | 100M | W/281 000K | W/410 1000K | 130M | 59.6M |
| Rs 50 | 20M | V/141 000K | V/160 1000K | 20M | 20.6M | |
| Rs 100 | 50M | 105M | U/316 000K | U/470 1000K | 155M | 38.1M |
| Rs 500 | 15M | T/116 000K | T/130 1000K | 15M | 7.3M | |
| Rs1000 | 15M | 112M | S/196 000K | S/322 1000K | 127M | 6.4M |
| Rs5000 | 45M | 5M | R/41 000K | R/90 1000K | 50M | 22.7M |
A total of Rs403.6 Billion Rupees was printed in the 17 months between 2015-02-04 to the next date 2016-07-04. About Rs24 Billion a month on average.
The break point of each of the denominations was given in RTI CBSL 11/17 was later found to unreliable, after notes were seen in circulation. Many notes of Arjuna Mahendra seem to have been printed before change over to new CBSL signature of 2016-07-04 and the new Rs1000/- was released only in 2019 April, 34 months after new governor took office. Last seen serial with Arjuna Mahendra Signature is listed above. They were obtained from cash in circulation only by 2019 May 5th. The CBSL document currency section static since since 2015 November was updated on 2017 May 15 few days before answer to my RTI CBSL 11/17.
The new notes that move fastest or lowerest lifetime are the Rs20, Rs50, Rs100 Both Rs20, Rs100 and Rs500 had been minted beyond the initial allocations for 2015-02-04, while the Rs50 was minted as original allocation.
However based on currency in circulation it appears that during the period from 2015 January to 2016 June when Arjuna Mahendra was CBSL governor the Rs5,000 notes in circulation increased by 22.7 Million notes, the Rs 1000 and Rs500 increased by only by 6.4M and 7.3M notes respectively. They were also the last two denominations of notes released by CBSL of the new signature. In 2005, when printing of notes seems to have been changed as soon as MahindaR took over as Finance Minister, we know that printing continued after IndrajitC took over as CBSL Governor. In modern era the 1994 Rs 20, with as much as 6 Million notes printed is extremely rare.
Please Help Track Prefix+Serial when Date on Banknote change. Thanks.