1st-3rd Century CE - Lanka
`Lakshmi' Plaques - Cast Mini

SPECIFICATIONS Alloy Cu-Pb? Type Cast Height 15.0 mm Width 7.2 mm Thickness 2.2 mm Weight 1.20 gms Shape rectangular DieAxis 5°

Obverse : goddess Lakshmi standing between two stalks of a plant at edge. Feet not visible. Only a silhouette cut of the two small elephants with water pots visible close to head, for more details of which click here .
Reverse : railed svastika revolving to right (clockwise). Base of rail only a line. Above a "flag" pointing right.

Twenty Lakshmi and svastika lead coins (H.30 to H.49) with heights from 13 to 47 mm ; width from 5 to 23 mm and weights from 0.5 to 16 grams that were found in Akurugoda are cataloged under Local Coins in 1999 by Osmund Bopearachchi and Rajah Wickramasinhe in the book Ruhuna. An Ancient Civilization Re-visited . The coin above was obtained directly from the same dealer who provided most of the items for that book.

The degeneration of the Lakshmi figure to practically four dots is interesting since 4 similarly oriented dots appear in more recent coins which may therefore be a representation of Lakshmi.
For longer discussion and links to other Lakshmi plaques see collection.

The plaque was scanned at 600 dpi and displayed at 600 dpi. It was obtained in 2001 December from Mr A. Ratnayaka a Dealer in Katharagama, Lanka.