1975 - SRI LANKA
Five Cents - OMS

Rare Aluminum Off-metel-strike (OMS) of Five cents and Ten cents denominations struck with date 1975 of the circulation Nickel-Brass coins of year 1975. They follow the 1971 TRIAL patterns struck for both Five cents and Ten cents in Brass clad steel, steel and Aluminum. Aluminum was adopted and made legal for the Five cents and Ten cents coins only from the 1978 issue. Aluminum had been used for the one and two cents coins since 1963.

SPECIFICATIONS
DenominationFive cents
AlloyAluminum
Diameter21.46/18.24 mm
Thickness1.67 mm
Weight1.02 gms
ShapeSquare with round corners
EdgePlain
Die-Axis0°
 1975_SriLanka_05c_al_oms_obverse 1975_SriLanka_05c_al_oms_reverse
KM pn1

Obverse : The Armorial Ensign of Sri Lanka

Reverse : The large numeral 5 with the value FIVE CENTS in Sinhala, Tamil and English below and year of issue at the bottom within a circle of the traditional Sinhala Liyavela art with Lanka in Sinhala on top.

Retired officer T. M. U. Sallay of the Central Bank of Ceylon, confirmed them to be official OMS. I am not sure how many were produced or known to exist. I was told that about 10 sets of this OMS exists. They were listed for the first time in the 2003 SCWC (30th Edition).

The OMS coin was scanned at 600dpi and the images are displayed at 300dpi.