British Ceylon
Colombo - Pounds Sterling - 1850-1855

Denomination : £ 1 English : One Pound Sinhala : පවඬ්එකයි Thamil : ஒருபவுன் Size : 223x127 mm Date : 18(50) Status : Remainder
Click on image to see Watermarks Inverted N and straight		KM-lk# 3
Denomination : £ 2 English : Two Pounds Sinhala : පවඬ්දෙකයි Thamil : இரண்டுபவுன் Size : 216x130 mm Date : 18(50) Status : Remainder
Click on image to see Watermarks Straight and inverted		KM-lk# 4
Denomination : £ 5 English : Five Pounds Sinhala : පවඬ්පහයි Thamil : ஐந்துபவுன் Size : 225x129 mm Date : 18(50) Status : Remainder
Click on image to see Watermarks straight and inverted		KM-lk# 5

Front : Upper Middle Helmeted Britannia seated facing forward, Shield with Union Jack and Spear angled left under her right hand, on left Sailing Ship and two small catamarans and lion sleeping right, behind three coconut palms, on right Elephant standing right, two packages and steam boat with sails down.
Above CEYLON in arc and large numeric value in cartouch on either side. Sinhala ලංකවෙආන්ඩුවෙකස්බ්‍රිප්පුව above cartouch on left and Thamil இலங்கைஅரசாட்சீயின்கஷ்நொட்டு above cartouch on Right.
To left N^o #### _______ 18 , To right _______ 18 N^o ####
The Bearer hereof is entitled to receive on demand VALUE POUNDS at the GENERAL TREASURY in the Currency of the Island at COLOMBO
Value in Sinhala පවඬ් denomination above and Thamil denomination பவுன் below value in English. On left Numeric Value in cartouch with value in Sinhala පවඬ් denomination above and Thamil denomination பவுன் below.
To right Ex^d & Ent^d Unsigned
In bottom (left, right and center on £1, £2 £5) just inside border in small script Perkins Bacon & Petch, London. Patent Hardened Steel Plate. This is
All within ornamental designs within and alone rectangular border.
Back : Blank
Watermark: CEYLON in downward arc above CURRENCY in a line in middle, and VALUE POUNDS in an upward arc below. Letters written with bright borders, Faintly visible in images posted above. Within Rectangular Border composed of linked loops.
Printed : Perkins Bacon & Petch, London.
Size : Measured on Notes displayed.

Note that all of "dot"s above the Thamil characters which were missing from the crudely printed Thamil Text of older currency notes are now present.

The same vignette was use in all three denominations.
There are however differences in the ornamental design. The numeric value £1 is in a Circle, 2 in an ellipse and 5 in a diamond. Text value ONE POUND in lower left, but just TWO and FIVE in other denominations. Name of Bank above Cartouch straight in £1 £2, but arced downwards in £5.

See extract on production contained in surviving records of the firm held at the Royal Philatelic Society (RPS), London. A significant number of unsigned remainders were discovered and are available in the numismatic market.

Some £5 £2 have been observed where the watermark is oriented inverted with respect to the banknote. This can be expected as the watermarked paper was probably fed by hand to the printer. For example the Remainder £5 note 1007 in the Colombo National Museum £2 note 11580 from Brig. Munasinghe can been seen by clicking on the images above.

However I am curious how the N in the ONE POUИD of watermark alone is inverted in the watermark shown. Another remainder of £1 notes I have seen has it correct and has also inverted like above as well. According to Pam West the error may have been noticed and corrected midway in production run of making water marked paper for printing the banknotes.

Sterling	Serial Number
Denomination	Lowerst	Highest
£1	37004	37099
£2	11525	11598
£5	1003	1097

Serial Numbers
Colombo National Museum £1 37006 37014 (Regular N); £5 1007 (Water-Mark inverted);
British Museum: £1 37004 37021 37031 37035 (All with Regular N); £2 11525 11531 11537; £5 1003 1024 1034 1036;
Ashmolean Museum 37075(Inverted N); 11575; 1076;
Lakdiva Collection 37085(Inverted N); 11586; 1097;
Sanoon Collection 37084(Inverted N); 11596; 1084(Water-Mark inverted);
Lakmal Collection 37087; 11584; 1086(Water-Mark inverted);
W.J.Baker Collection 37098; 11593; 1087(Water-Mark inverted);
Anil Bohora 37094; Brig Munasinghe 37099; 11580(Water-Mark inverted); 1095;

Serial # 370xx of £1 notes; Observe that lower xx=04,21,31,35 have a Regular N. xx=75,82,84 85 have an Inverted N xx=87,94,98, and 99 with higher have regular N. So maybe a small range of serial of Numbers of £1 notes had the inverted N.
Serial # 115yy £2 notes; Observe that yy=80 has full Water-Mark inverted. yy=25,31,37,75 and 84,86,93 are normal.
Serial # 10zz £5 notes; Observe that zz=07,84,86,87 has Water-Mark inverted. zz=03,24,34,36,76 and zz=95,97 are normal.

If you have any of these notes in your collection please let me know the Serial numbers and if the watermark N of the POUND in the £1 note is correct or inverted. Also the orientaion of the watermark. Kavanr @ gmail.com; WhatsApp +94712537551 Thanks

The price asked in Sri Lanka for set of these Notes is over Rs2.5 Million (US$7500).
with serial numbers 37086, 11581 and 1085 sold for US$11520 inc BP, in PMG AU55 slabs at Heritage Auction 4036 Lots 25377-9, in 2022 April,
with serial numbers 37098, 11593 and 1087 sold for A$5700+19.25% at Noble Auction Lot 3843 in 2019 April (W.J.Baker Collection),
with serial numbers 37089, 11589 and 1081 sold for £4000+20% at Spink Auction Lot 1298 https://www.spink.com/lot/17009001298 in 2017 September,
with serial Numbers 37087, 11584, 1084 did not sell with an estimate of £2500 at Spink Auction Lot 200 in 2012 October.
with serial Numbers 370??, 115??, 1099 sold for £2000+20% at Spink Auction Lot 69 in 2007 June.

Based on the Serial Numbers, it appears that under 100 remainders of each denomination must have been found. The Accession date on Colombo National Museum is 1924 and the British Museum is 1925, which probably reflects the date when these notes were discovered about century ago.

Text from

Image at 300 dpi displayed at 50 dpi. I thank Late Mr Tuan Sallay for this set.
I thank Ms Dilini Rajapaksha of Colombo National Museum for the inverted Watermark image of their £5 note. I thank Brig. Siri Munasinghe for the Watermark images inverted of the £2 note and the straight N £1 note.

Please contact kavan @ gmail.com if I have made errors in encoding the Thamil in Unicode.