2013 - Sri Lanka - 500 Rupee note
Commenwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM)

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) issued, for circulation, a modified Rs 500 currency note to commemorate CHOGM 2013 Sri Lanka on 2013 November 15th, dated 2013-11-15.

images/2013_chogm_500r_uvf.jpg&images/2013_chogm_500r_wm_s.jpg images/2013_chogm_500r_uvb.jpg
Click image to see Note Security under UltraViolet illumination
and mockup of watermark image
The commemorative note is the same as the regular series Rs 500 note except for the replacement of the butterfly on lower left with the CHOGM 2013 Sri Lanka logo and a slight modification of the watermark.

Front: Landscape
CHOGM 2013 Sri Lanka logo in single Purple Color to the lower left.
An artist's impression of World Trade Centre and Bank of Ceylon Headquarters in the city of Colombo and a view of the ancient Buddhist temple Lankathilaka Viharaya at Kandy to upper right. Illustrated the Sri Lanka bird Emerald Collared Parakeet (Layard's Parakeet) to the right.
Sri Lankan Lion with sword standing left to upper right.
Numeric 500 at upper left and lower right. At bottom center the value රුපියල් පන්සියයයි in Sinhala, ஐந்நூறு ரூபாய் in Thamil and FIVE HUNDRED RUPEES in English, of decreasing font size.
ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව in Sinhala at Top center, with it இலங்கை மத்திய வங்கி in Thamil and English CENTRAL BANK OF SRI LANKA on next line. Legend in 3 lines

ශ්‍රී ලංකාණ්ඩුව වෙනුවෙන් නිකුත් කරන ලද මේ
මුදල් නෝට්ටුව ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඇතුළත ඕනෑම මුදල් ගණනක්
ගෙවිම සඳහා නිතියෙන් වලංගුය
Size of digits in serial number increase in size. Horizontal Black Serial number on upper left and vertical Red Serial number on right.
Facsimile signatures above මුදල් ඈමති
(Finance Minister) HE President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the මහ බැංකුවේ අධිපති (Central Bank Governor) Ajith Nivard Cabraal,
with date 2013-11-15 below.
Security Thread Starchrome with 2 mm width, which changes colour from red to green with the letters CBSL RS500
Back: Portrait
A drawing of a Thelme dancer and a Yak Bera drummer. A Padmanidhi guard stone is on the upper right on a vertical Band with a stylized floral motif, Dvithva Liya Vela.
A map of Sri Lanka appears in the background centered to the left.
Numeric 500 at upper left and lower right. රුපියල් පන්සියයයි in Sinhala, ஐந்நூறு ரூபாய் in Thamil and FIVE HUNDRED RUPEES in English, in 3 lines, of decreasing font size, at lower left.
ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුව in Sinhala, இலங்கை மத்திய வங்கி in Thamil and CENTRAL BANK OF SRI LANKA in English, in 3 lines, of decreasing font size at center upper left.
Printer Thomas De la Rue, Sri Lanka, in tiny text DE LA RUE in bottom right.
Watermark: Cornerstone plus on left same image of Parakeet flipped to right, darker than background with vertical 1000 lighter than background to it's right.
UV Printing:
Front: Minimal. Highlighted Green square with numeric 500 in large Font, upper right of center . Serial number in Green on left, Orange on right
Back: Limited highlight of Drummer and Dancer.
Click image to see Note Security under UltraViolet illumination
Latent image: Right of the top left numeric on front, the Numeric value 500 written with horizontal lines on a vertical lines background, both slightly tilted clockwise, as seen on this 1200 dpi scan on right. Image also show microprinting array of text CBSL.
Replacement Notes See details with images for series in *-Notes

Predominant Color : Purple  |  Size : 143 x 67 mm
Serial Prefix : T  |  Replacement Prefix: Z/5
Florescent Fiber : Yellow  |  Braille : Four Dots
Mintage : 5,000,000  |  Folders : Unknown
Range of Serial # : T/51 000001 - T/55 1000000

An open competition was organized with deadline 2012 July 4th to select the official logo of CHOGM 2013. With over 150 entries received nationwide the design submitted by Mr Jagath Jayasinghe was selected. It depicts the national flower of Sri Lanka the blue water lily (Nil Manel) surrounded by multicolored petals, which represent the diversity and unity among the Commonwealth countries,

Host countries of previous CHOGMs have also issued such commemorative Numismatic items. In 2007 the Bank of Uganda issued a sh10,000 Note and in 2009 Trinidad And Tobago a $100 Currency Note. In 2011 the Royal Australian Mint issued a one dollar coin.

CBSL had already printed 50 million of the current 2010 Rs500 note and the 5 million commemoratives will have serial prefix T/51 to T/55.

On Monday November 11th the commemorative currency note was put on display at the New CBSL Economic History Museum at Center Point which was opened that day. On Friday 15th a limited edition attractive Currency Folder with first 5000 serial numbers was sold for Rs 800/ (US$6), and will be on Sale at CBSL website. The Logo of PrintCare appears on the lower-right edge of back of folder. The rest have been issued into circulation at face value and available from CBSL or any Bank.

The Sri Lankan note appears to be a rush job since final approval from the monetary board only happened after August when the rumour of this note first circulated. Printing the logo in only Purple was probably done modifying the final Intaglio print rather than all Four plates required for a multicolor logo. However the butterfly has been erased completely from other plates. Since the Multicolour was an essential part of the logo it is a pity that De La Rue, was unable to print it in colour on the currency note.

Read my article New CHOGM Rs. 500 currency note in 2013 November 17th, Sunday Times Business Times Section.

Unmarked Specimen notes with Serial T/51 000000 of this note was slabed in acrylic presented by the President of Sri Lanka, to delegtes of CHOGM.
Also released to CHOGM 2013 delegates was a Welcome Token given to CBSL free by The Royal Mint UK.

Text edited from Press Release of the CBSL. 300 dpi images scanned from Note in folder obtained from CBSL on 2013-11-15.
For collected details of the images on this Banknote see NotesCollector.