2019 - Sri Lanka - Currency notes
Development, Prosperity and Dancers

(CBSL) will issue, for circulation, currency notes with new signatures, "Development, Prosperity and Sri Lanka Dancers" theme dated 2019-12-24 .

Photo shows Prof. W. D. Lakshman at Desk of Governor of CBSL.

The Notes issued for 2019-12-24 as per Answer to Question of CBSL RTI 078/2021 dated 2021-07-19, which also stated that the Rs500 was not printed for that date.
The Notes issued for 2020-08-12 as per Answer to Question of CBSL RTI 028/2022 dated 2022-05-13.

In 2020 May in reply to a RTI CBSL said The CBSL has ordered banknotes with signatures of Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister/Minister of Finance and Deshamanya Prof W. D. Lakshman, Governor of the CBSL with the date of 2019-12-24.

Date	Denomiation	First Serial	Last Serial	Issued 2019	SNIM Rejection
2019-12-24	Rs 20	W/579 000K	W/611 399K	30.0M	10.8%
2019-12-24	Rs 50	V/293 500K	V/309 591K	15.0M	7.3%
2019-12-24	Rs 100	U/724 250K	U/762 049K	35.0M	7.3%
2019-12-24	Rs1000	S/433 000K	S/482 824K	45.0M	6.7%
2019-12-24	Rs5000	R/192 580K	R/230 691K	35.0M	8.9%
Total				160.0M	8.1%
2020-08-12	Rs 20	W/611 400K	W/644 879K	30.0M	11.6%
2020-08-12	Rs 50	V/309 592K	V/327 816K	15.5M	17.6%
2020-08-12	Rs 100	U/762 050K	U/826 759K	60.0M	7.9%
2020-08-12	Rs 500	T/323 280K	T/334 530K	10.0M	12.5%
2020-08-12	Rs1000	S/482 825K	S/510 006K	24.6M	10.5%
2020-08-12	Rs5000	R/230 692K	R/279 777K	45.6M	7.6%
Total				185.7M	9.8%

With or without the use of Replacement the First and Last serial is not known to the last digit as it could be a replacement or rejected. It is given to the First or last Brick (1000 or K notes)

A total of Rs224.9 Billion Rupees was printed in the 7.6 months between 2019-12-24 to the next date 2020-08-12. About Rs30 Billion a month on average.
A total of Rs265.0 Billion Rupees was printed in the 13.1 months between 2020-08-04 to the next date 2019-09-15. About Rs20 Billion a month on average.

Please Help Track Prefix+Serial when Date on Banknote change. Thanks.

The First Rs5000 note was given to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa when he assumed office on Monday 2020 August 18th.
The First Rs1000 note was given to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday 2020 September 24th at his residence.
CBSL says these notes will be issued to public circulation when the older stock has been issued. The CBSL Museum said there is no decision as if these notes will be sold from Museum in folder.

The CBSL governor has signed in Sinhala as W. D. Lakshman. Most letters of English Alphabet can be written in 1 or 2 Sinhala characters. Only W (ඩබලිවි) requires 4. His full first name Weligamage (වෙලිගමගේ) is written in 5 Sinhala characters. New Sinhala tradition is to use the first character of Sinhala name, however the older generation brought up with a colonial Tradition, continue to use English initials written in Sinhala. i.e. in Singlish.

Reported in Circulation
The Rs5000 of 2019-12-24 on 2020 November 18 by Wasim Sattar
The Rs 100 of 2019-12-24 on 2021 April 29 by Hemal Chandraratne
The Rs 20 of 2019-12-24 on 2021 May 5 by Wasim Sattar
The Rs 50 of 2019-12-24 on 2021 May 19 by Ravi Ratnapala
New Finance Minister Basil Rajapakse appointed on 2021 July 8th
The Rs5000 of 2020-08-12 on 2021 September 4 by Dr Hilmy Sally
CBSL Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal reappointed on 2021 September 15th
The Rs 100 of 2020-08-12 on 2021 December 23 by Harry Gunawardena
The Rs 20 of 2020-08-12 on 2021 December 25 by Dharmaraja
The Rs 50 of 2020-08-12 on 2022 February 5 by Harry Gunawardena
New Finance Minister Ali Sabry appointed on 2022 April 4th
New CBSL Governor P. Nandalal Weerasinghe appointed on 2022 April 7th
The Rs1000 of 2019-12-24 on 2022 April 9 by Priyadharshan
The Rs 500 of 2020-08-12 on 2022 April 11 by Ravi Ratnapala
The Rs1000 of 2020-08-12 on 2022 April 28 by Priyadharshan

The 2020-08-12 dated Rs 5000 note was reported to me on 2021-09-04 by a close friend Dr Hilmy Sally, who had got it from a BoC Bank ATM.
The signatures are identical to the 2019-12-24 dated note. It seemed initially that CBSL had broken with a tradition since 1991, where a new date is adopted only when either of the Signatures changes or a new design is adopted for the Sri Lanka Currency, like in 1991 and 2010. Even some significant changes like the varnish of the lower denomination notes Rs20, Rs50 and Rs100 in 2014 didn't have a change of date. Before 1991 every order got a different date.

CBSL confirmed that the 2021 order used the date 2020-08-12 that Mahinda Rajapakse was sworn in again as Finance Minister after the General Elections held on 2020-08-05.