| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Denomination | 48 Stiver |
| Alloy | Silver.833Ag |
| Type | Cast |
| Diameter | 20.0 mm |
| Thickness | mm |
| Weight Legal | 9.05 gms |
| Weight | 8.1 gms |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Cast |
| DieAxis | O° |
| Mint | Contemporary Forgery ? |
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| Pridmore #13; Mitchiner #2203; Krause #77 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Obverse : Within a circle of dashes an elephant facing
left with a perspective ground. The year 1809 below a line.
Reverse : Within a circle of dashes CEYLONGOVERNMENT
preceded by a group of seven dots. 48 ST the value in
Stivers at center within a bead circle. No lines below the T.
Cast silver specimens like this can only be regarded as local contemporary forgeries. This forgery is 10% underweight. The 9 in the date is almost like the 0. Note also the irregular bead circle and the size, orientation and spacing of the thick lettering around it. It is very regular and finer in the genuine silver stivers.
Text from
* Ceylon Coins and Currency By H. W. Codrington. Colombo 1924
Page 155 Chapter XI British - Coins struck in Ceylon. Plate 154.
The coin was scanned at 600dpi and the images are displayed at 300dpi. It was won on ebay in 2000 August from a Lankan in Canada who said he had inherited it as a part of an ancestral collection from his mother in Kandy. In view of this provenance it is most likely to be contemporary. It was returned to the seller for refund after finding it was under-weight and apparently not genuine.