Century 3rd BCE. to 1st CE - Lanka
Inscribed Lead Token with Elephant

This Inscribed Lead token found in Akurugoda is Plate Specimen A.3. illustrated in 1999 book by Osmund Bopearachchi and Rajah Wickramasinhe Ruhuna. An Ancient Civilization Re-visited .

SPECIFICATIONS
AlloyPb
TypeCast
Diameter17.1 mm
Thickness2.0 mm
Weight3.84 gms
MintRuhuna
OBRW_A3_OBVERSE OBRW_A3_REVERSE

Obverse : Elephant with tusks standing to right. Moon-symbol above.
Reverse : Legend in Brahmi - gu ta ha
gu Moon-symbol ta swastika ha fish symbol.

OBRW_A3_drawing

The text on this particular coin is retranslated and discussued by Pushparatnam in his 2002 book Ancient Coins of Sri Lankan Tamil Rulers, as Coin 10, Figure 17 on page 55 among line drawings of 11 coins from the OBRW Ruhuna catalog.

Click here for longer discussion of items from Ancient Ruhuna and links to other Plate coins from this book in the lakdiva collection.

The specimen was scanned at 600 dpi and displayed at 400 dpi.
It was obtained in 2016 May from Lalith Raddella in Colombo who had purchased a selection from Raja Wickramasinghe.