Century 3rd BCE. to 1st CE - Lanka
Ruhuna - Lion and Svastika

The Lion and Svastika lead coins are rare recent finds at Akurugoda near Tissmaharama in south east Lanka.

SPECIFICATIONS
AlloyLead
TypeCast
Diameter16.4 mm
Thickness3.5 mm
Weight2.76 gms
Shaperound
Edgerough
DieAxis150°
 ruhuna_lion_Svastika_cpb_obverse ruhuna_lion_Svastika_cpb_reverse
Obverse : Lion jumping to the right with arched back and front legs stretched forward. Three heaped chitya below. Parts of few Brahmi text characters visble
Reverse : Railed svastika revolving to right (clockwise) at center of coin. Brahmi text characters visble all around periphery.

Ten lion and svastika lead coins (E.1-E.10) with sizes 7 to 25 mm and weights from 0.5 to 7 grams that were found in Akurugoda are cataloged in 1999 by Osmund Bopearachchi and Rajah Wickramasinhe inRuhuna. An Ancient Civilization Re-visited . The coin above was obtained directly from the same collector who provided most of the items for that book.

This coin is probably a more complete specimen of fragment E.5 which has a 3-heap chitya below lion as on this coin.

This coin has only been lightly cleaned which is good. A more professional cleaning may help reveal more detail and symbols, but I have not decided if to try.

The coin was scanned at 600 dpi and displayed at 400 dpi. It was obtained in 2003 May from Mr A. Ratnayaka a collector in Katharagama, Lanka.