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Obverse : An image of His Holiness Pope Francis.
Within a circle of 120 dots is a ring of 33 honeysuckle flowers in the
traditional Sinhala artistic style. Number 33, is considered a sacred
number in the Christian tradition, based on the estimated lifetime of
Jesus Christ. The visit
සුදතුම්
පිය ශ්රි
ලංකා ගමන
in Sinhala on top,
திருத்தந்தையின்
இலங்கை
விஜயம்
in Thamil on the upper left,
and PAPAL VISIT SRI LANKA on upper right.
with the dates
13-15
ජනවරි
சனவரி
JANUARY 2015, at the bottom along the periphery with raised rim.
Reverse : The official logo for the POPE FRANCIS
Visit to SRI LANKA 2015. Large numeral denomination 500 with
රුපියල් in Sinhala,
ரூபாய் in Thamil,
and RUPEES in 3 lines to the left.
The country name
ශ්රී ලංකා in Sinhala, centered on top,
இலங்கை in Thamil
on left and SRI LANKA on right.
The periphery within raised rim is decorated with a Liywela made out
of 40 floral designs each with Na flowers, 3 Na buds and 3 Na leaves,
within a circle of 120 dots. Na, the National Tree of Sri Lanka, is
used in the statue of Our Lady of Lanka - representing the Blessed
Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.
Designed by Rev. Fr. Priyantha Silva.
The frosted proof coin has been struck with one ounce of sterling
silver to the British crown coin size. Enclosed in a circular coin
capsule it is embedded in red velvet inside a white leatherette
covered 6.5cm square spring hinged presentation box with white satin
inside cover. A printed numbered Certificate of Authenticity
contains the specifications and the text in English, Sinhala and Tamil.
The coin was presented to His Holiness Pope Francis by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe at an event held by His Excellency President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo on 2015 January 13th. Event reported in evening News (Watch at 8 min into News Video). By chance, we saw the Pope, returning from this event, with roads closed for his travel, as he drove past the Kollupitiya market at 6:07 PM, as captured on a her Nokia Phone by Lidwina Sebastian.
It was sold to public at CBSL Cash counter from 2015 January 19th for the issue price of Rs 9000/- (US $69).
In 1990 the Silver Crown had a face value at Rs500 ($12.5), in 1998 it rose to Rs1000 ($15.6), in 2006 it rose to Rs1500 ($14.7), and in 2011 it rose to Rs2000 ($15.0). Why the face value was reduced in 2014 to Rs500 ($4) is unexpected. There was some apprehension from those who were not coin collectors and wanted it with religious devortion when they were told the Rs500/- coin costs Rs9000/- The coin has just over Rs2000 of Silver, to which the cost of Minting the Proof coin, Packaging, Air Freight, Taxes (VAT+NBT), and maybe the face Value is added.
Coins were sold at strictly one coin per person in queue. The initial sale was stopped after about a hour around 10 AM. The coins then appeared at a much higher price on Chatham Street. One dealer said the coins went like hot cakes. To try prevent the limited mintage of coins being bought up by dealers and sold for a higher price to collectors, buyers had to register request for a coin, with your name and phone number at the CBSL Economic History Museum. You could then buy the coin after getting a phone call from CBSL stating that one is available for you. The CBSL Museum staff did register Telephone requests. However process was frustrating to many genuine collectors, who without knowing the new procedure, come maybe from long distance, and had to return on another day to get a coin for their collection. CBSL recorded names and national IDs of those who purchased coins.
Read my article which was published as Silver coin to commemorate Papal visit to Sri Lanka in the Sunday Times of 2015 January 25th.
The coin was obtained from CBSL on 2015 January 20th and scanned at 600 dpi and the images are displayed at 254 dpi.
Also displayed above are scans of Artwork sent to Mincovna Kremnica in
Slovak Republic, included in CBSL Press release.
On Artwork, the Tamil, Sinhala and English Legenda are slightly different
from each other.
English - Papal Visit Sri Lanka;
සුදතුම්
පිය ලංකා ගමන
in Sinhala - Holy Father Lanka Trip (No Sri);
திருத்
தந்தையின்
விஜயம்
in Tamil - Pope's Visit (No ilankai).
This error has been corrected in the coin issued.
However, the
Thamil Solar calender month
தை
has been replaced wrongly as
சனவரி
probabaly trying to use correct transliteration
ஜனவரி
of Gregorian calendar month. I thank Ishfar for pointing out this Error on minted coin.