1784 - Dutch - Ceylan
Colombo - Silver Rupee

Silver Rupees from Dutch Mint of Colombo issued to the Surat standard under Resolution of 1784 April 1st.

SPECIFICATIONS
DenominationOne Rupee
AlloySilver.972
TypeStruck
Diameter~22. mm
Thickness__._ mm
Weight legal11.706 gms
Weight11.76 gms
ShapeRound
EdgeSmooth
DieAxis___°
MintColombo
1784_Colombo_rupee_ag_obverse 1784_Colombo_rupee_ag_reverse
Codrington PL127; Schloten 1260; Krause #31.1
Obverse : Malay-Arabic Legend
in Rim of radial dashes
Wang

Walan-d

Kompani

Kolom-bu

Coin

Holland

Company

Colombo

Reverse : Malay-Arabic Legend
4 dot cross above
Year 1784 below.
Puqu djaziret

Sailung

Money, Island

(of) Ceylon

They were first proposed that they agree to the standard of Batavia, but since this was not acceptable in the Coast of Coromandel, coins were minted to the Surat Standared.

The inscription in badly formed and incorrectly abbreviated Malay-Arabic letters. Two dies known. Little more than 121,500 were struck in 1784. It is listed as extremely rare (RRR) in Scholten.

1,636 were minted in 1786 with weight 12.977 gms of 0.833 fine Silver according to official sources, but none are known. See also the subsequent classic 1787 Colombo Silver coin from that Dutch era.

Text from
* Ceylon Coins and Currency By H. W. Codrington. Colombo 1924
  Chapter X Dutch - Coins of the Eastern Mints. Plate 127. Page 132
* The Coins of the Dutch Overseas Territories- 1601-1948
  C. Scholten, 1953, Amsterdam: Jacques Schulman. page 148-149

It was illustrated lot#35 in Taisei-Baldwin-Gillio Auction #19 of Richard Ford collection of The Colonial Coinage of Ceylon, held in Singapore on 1995 February 23rd.

I thank Jan Lingen who kindly sent me the 300 dpi scans of this extreamly rare XF coin from his collection and are displayed at 250 dpi.