2017 - Sri Lanka - Currency notes
Development, Prosperity and Dancers

Photo shows Mr. Mangala Samaraweera placing his specimen signature when we took over the Finance Ministry to be used in currency notes.

In 2017 September 21st DeLaRu presented a specimen Rs 5000 Note with new Finance Minister's signature. The note is not stamped Specimen, but has a special serial number MPS 19560421 which is the initial and Birth Day of Mangala Pinsiri Samaraweera born on 1956 April 21st. Is DeLaRue playing with our money by this printing of a Personalised Currency Note.
Are there examples of this sort of presentation note being printed in other countries, and what is the technical numismatic term for such printed notes? I asked on the IBNS Forum and got no answer as yet.

I saw my first note Rs 5000 in 2018 December, 20 months after he took office. Rs 500 in 2019 April.

Finance Minister Mr Mangala Samaraweera took office on 2017 May 25 which should have ended the RK+IC pair of signatures in less than 1 year. RTI 11/17 reply dated 2017-05-15 just 10 days before Mr Mangala Samaraweera took office did not mention the printing of any Rs 20, Rs100 and Rs1000 notes. However according to RTI 66/18 dated 2018-10-23 issued 17 months after Mr Mangala Samaraweera took office, I am informed that notes of these denominations with the RK+IC signatures were not only printed, that I quote CBSL is yet to receive the currency notes bearing the last serial number of the RK+IC series (Except for the Rs5000).

The 2017-05-22 dated currency notes according to CBSL and CBSL RTI 66/18 should have the start serial numbers as

Date	Denomiation	First Serial	Last	Issued
2017-05-22	Rs 20	W/496 000K	W/579 000K	75M
2017-05-22	Rs 50	V/266 000K	V/293 500K	25M
2017-05-22	Rs 100	U/588 200K	U/707 750K	110M
2019-01-28	Rs 100	U/707 750K	U/724 250K	15M
2017-05-22	Rs 500	T/207 779K	T/268 280K	55M
2019-01-28	Rs 500	T/268 280K	T/323 280K	50M
2019-01-28	Rs1000	S/351 000K	S/433 000K	75M
2017-05-22	Rs5000	R/121 000K	R/153 860K	29.8M
2019-01-28	Rs5000	R/153 860K	R/192 580K	35.2M

A total of Rs190.3 Billion Rupees was printed in the 18.9 months between 2017-05-22 to the date "2018-12-20" when Mangala Samaraweera took office agian. About Rs10 Billion a month on average.
A total of Rs277.5 Billion Rupees was printed in the 12.1 months between "2018-12-20" to the next date 2019-12-24. About Rs23 Billion a month on average.

In 2017 December it was reported that Currency notes with signature of Mangala Samaraweera have been printed and sent to CBSL. However many notes with signature of Ravi Karunanayaka have been printed before change notes with his signature of 2015-02-04 and 2016-07-04 and last Rs1000 denomination was only released in 2019 April. Currency Notes with signature of Mangala Samaraweera took a long time to be seen in circulation.

The last Serial prefix I had seen in circulation in late 2019 August was R/150 I then saw the R/155 note with date 2019-01-28 in an eBay Auction.
It is the first time since 1990 that we have the same signitories on the same type of note with two different dates.
This is because Margalo Samaraweera was sworn in as Finance Minister for the second time and took office 2018 December 20th. According to e-mail clarification from CBSL 2019-01-28 date is when they obtained a new Specimen signature which appears different from the first. The date used since 1991 has also been traditionally the date the new Finance Minister or new Governor of the Central Bank assumes duties. So 2018-12-20 date would have been logical if CBSL recognized the fact that Mangala Samaraweera took office for second time. Although similer, the two signatures in Sinhala are significantly different. This is typical of someone who normally signs in English.

Before 1991 there were multiple dates with the same signatures.
The good Tradition since 1991 was to use the same date even for subsequent orders till the signatures changed or the currency type changed, as it did in 2010. It is also the cheaper option since printing plates don't need to be changed.

According to reply to my CBSL RTI 0004/2019 there were no banknotes printed with signatures of Governor Indrajit Cumarasawmy and Mahinda Rajapaksa who assumed the role of Finance Minister from 2018 October 25th till that transfer was rendered null and void by Supreme court on 2018 December 13th.

Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed the role of PM & Finance Minister again from 2019 November 25th after his younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected Executive President of Sri Lanka on 2019 November 17th. Governor Indrajit Cumaraswamy gave notice of his resignation effective 2019 December 20th. According to reply to my CBSL RTI 0001/2020 there were no banknotes printed with signatures of Mahinda Rajapaksa and Governor Indrajit Cumarasawmy before his resignation on 2019-12-20
Prof. W. D. Lakshman took over as the 15th Govornor of CBSL on 2019-12-24.

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

The last of this Series of Notes to be seen is the 2019-01-28 dated Rs100 which I found in circulation in 2021 April. At 15M it has relatively the smallest mintage of all the issues.