Century 3rd BCE. to 1st CE - Lanka
Ruhuna - Elephant and Svastika - Cast
The cast Elephant and Svastika coins are recent finds at Akurugoda
near Tissmaharama in south east Lanka and are thick and rough casts.
The thin and finely Struck
coins of same type
were mainly found at the Abhayagiri Dagoba in Anuradhapura. It is the
Classic and largest of the ancient coins which is uniquely from Lanka.
| SPECIFICATIONS |
| Alloy | Copper | |
| Type | Cast |
| Diameter | 30.7 mm |
| Thickness | 3.2 mm |
| Weight | 14.2 gms |
| Shape | round |
| DieAxis | O° |
|
| 
|
Obverse : Elephant walking to the left with trunk extended and tail
ending in a triple fork, occupying the whole of the base.
Above are four symbols
| A | Just above Elephant | The life symbol |>|=
|
| B | On Top | The Svastika revolving left or right
mounted on a staff and surrounded by a railing indicated by
four vertical lines rising from a horizontal line.
|
| C | On upper left | Tree with three-Branches
each ending in a triple fork in a enclosure, divided into four compartments by a vertical and a horizontal line.
|
| D | On upper right | Chitaya of three cells, the two
bottom ones are contiguous.
|
Reverse : four symbols arranged
| A | On Top | The railed Svastika revolving left or right.
|
| B | Below | Chitaya of three cells, the two
bottom ones are divided by space, beneath a horizontal line.
|
| C | To left | The hour glass symbol i.e. |>|<| upright.
|
| D | To right | Nandipada symbol.
|
The description of seven these coins (H.1 to H.7) found in Akurugoda
and cataloged in 1999 by Osmund Bopearachchi and Rajah Wickramasinhe
in the book Ruhuna. An Ancient Civilization Re-visited .
This coin is similer in weight and description to Plate
Specimen H.2 in this book. It was obtained from the author,
selecting instead from a larger lot a coin with the clearest elephant symbol.
Click here for longer discussion
and links to other Plate coins from this book in this collection.
The coin was scanned at 300dpi and displayed at 200dpi.
It was obtained in 2000 August from
Rajah Wickremesinhe an Author and collector in Colombo, Lanka.