| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Denomination | 48 Stiver |
| Alloy | Silver.891Ag |
| Type | Struck |
| Diameter | 19.0 mm |
| Thickness | 3.7 mm |
| Weight Legal | 9.05 gms |
| Weight | 8.83 gms |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Plain |
| DieAxis | 160° |
| Mint | Ceylon |
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| Pridmore #5; Mitchiner #2202; Krause #77 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Obverse : Within a circle of dashes an elephant facing
left with a perspective ground. The year 1803 below a line.
Reverse : Within a circle of dashes
CEYLONGOVERNMENT preceded by a group of four dots. The value
in Stivers 48 ST at center within a bead
circle. Two lines below the T.
R. Nott reports two varieties among (2) 1803 coins; six varieties among (7) 1804 coins; and single variety among (2) rare 1805 coins the he has from the Lowsley collection. Pridmore Lists 1 varieties for 1803 (P#5) (without dot); and 2 varieties each for 1804 (P#6-7), and 1805 (P#8-9) i.e. with and without dot between CEYLON.GOVERNMENT.
The First contract signed with Mr. Blume on 1803, February 4th and provided for the coinage of a silver rix-dollar to weigh 50 to the pound (Dutch) or 9.88 grams and the standard fineness 0.833. Very few rix-dollars were struck of this weight and fineness.
Text from
* Ceylon Coins and Currency By H. W. Codrington. Colombo 1924
Page 155 Chapter XI British - Coins struck in Ceylon. Plate 154.
The coin was scanned at 600dpi and the images are displayed at 300dpi. It was won on ebay in 2003 March from a NZ dealer.