Carey Strachan & Co.
Union Mills - Colombo

SPECIFICATIONS Denomination 17 cents Alloy Bronze Diameter 32 mm Thickness  mm Weight 11.39 gms Shape Round Edge Plain DieAxis O° Issue
Lowsley #6 Pridmore #14 Mitchiner #2233

Obverse :	Centered UNION MILLS	CAREY STIRACHAN&CO_ * COLOMBO *	along periphary within beaded circle inside raised rim.
Reverse :	Centered large 1	within beaded circle inside raised rim.

A copper token of about the size of a bronze penny. These tokens were struck in England about the year 1873, and represented 17 cents each.
The Union Mills, now the property of Messrs. Carey, Strachan & Co., formerly belonged to Messrs. MacLachian & Mackenzie, who became insolvent in 1869 or 1870. They are situated in Union Place, Slave Island, Colombo.

CAREY, STRACHAN & Co. This firm was established in 1869 under the name of Carey and Strachan, the partners being L. St. George Carey and Charles Strachan. In or about 1873 the name was changed to Carey, Strachan & Co.
L. St. George Carey died in 1875, and in 1887 the name of the firm was again changed, this time to Charles Strachan & Co.
In 1896, a company was formed in London, the objects being to acquire, carry on and develop certain tea estates, the central tea factory known as the Galaha Factory, the freehold property known as the Union Mills, and the General and Agency business of Charles Strachan & Co.
The Union Mills, Union Place, Slave Island, Colombo, employed over 500 hands for curing coffee etc.

Reference
* Coins and Tokens of Ceylon, Lieut. Col B. Lowsley, Num. Chron. Sr III Vol. XV, 1895.
* The Coins of British Commonwealth of Nations to the end of the reign of George VI 1952 Part 2 - Asian Territories by F. Pridmore Spink & Son Ltd., 1965. Tokens
* Oriental Coins CE 600 - 1979 by Michael Mitchiner 1979

The coin was scanned at 300dpi and the images are displayed at 200dpi.
The Almost uncirculated condition coin was purchased on ebay in 2000 April from a dealer in USA