IN SOL'THEEN IXBIA. 
185 
of Amiens made England also mistress of Ceylon, wliile the 
Dutch. " moved on" beyond our limits, it behoves us to leave 
them now and to pass on to, firstly, the consideration of 
the English issues in Ceylon, and then to those struck on 
the main land. 
The very first year of the British occupation of Ceylon 
witnessed the issue of a coinage peculiar to the island, and 
from that day to this the same system of issuing a separate 
series has been continued. Some of the early Anglo-Ceylon 
types appear to have been struck in England, as they resem- 
ble the stamp of coin at that time in use in Europe, and 
differ widely from those usually turned out of the native 
mints. On the obverse these coins bear the well- executed 
figure of an elephant, standing left, with the date 1802 
in the exergue, surrounded by a circle and a ring of dots 
and on the reverse the fraction of the rix-dollar (the value 
of which was equal to 48 stivers), with the circumscription 
"CEYLON GOVEENMENT^' bordered as on the obverse. 
This series occui's in three sizes, -j-'^, and of a rix- 
dollar, which, at this time, as far as English issues were 
" seulement a 48 sous, fut generalement employe dans les transactions com- 
' ' merciales privees. 
" Le ducaton etait I'espece principalement mise en circulation par la 
" Compagnie, surtout a Batavia. Sa valeur fut fixee par le tarif de la 
" Compagnie a 13 esoalins ou schelUngen de 6 sous, tandis qu'il ne valait 
" en lealite que lOj escalins, De cette maniere la Compagnie se faisait un 
" benefice de 2J escaKns, soit 15 sous, sur chaque ducaton ! 
" Les ducats servaient surtout dans le commerce avec la Perse. Les 
" etablissements neerlandais a Malabar et a Ceylan etaient generalement 
• ' pourvus de ducats, attendu que le commerce du poivre se faisait tou jours 
" avec cette monnaie d'or fix^e au taux de 18 escalins. Les ducats de Venise 
" etaient les plus estimes. 
" A Malabar, les petites monnaies indigenes d'or et d'argent etaient 
" generalement appel^es fanams. II en existe plusieurs varietds, a cause du 
' ' nombre de monarques qui possddaient le droit de battre monnaie ; aussi 
' ' differaient-ils entre eux en valeur. 
" Les petites monnaies en plomb ou en cuivre s'appelaient bocs ero hken et 
cfls ou casks.''' 
