| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Denomination | 19 cents |
| Alloy | Copper |
| Diameter | 29.0 mm |
| Thickness | mm |
| Weight | 7.94 gms |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Milled |
| DieAxis | O° |
| Issue | |
Wekande Mills, Colombo
This token were issued in 1881 for the firm of George Steuart & Co. merchants, bankers, estate and commission agents, was started in 1835.
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| Lowsley #35 Pridmore #96 Mitchiner #2246 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Obverse : Legend along periphery | GEORGE STEUART & C O. 1843 CEYLON | Commemorative date in center 1843 within four plain circles. |
| Reverse : Legend along periphery | WEKANDE MILLS, Wekande in Sinhala and Tamil on left and right respectively | two women at work; one filling a sack inscribed GS&C all within a rope and plain circle at center. |
The 1881 token designed by the manager, Mr Charles Hendry, were issued in 1881, after all the countermarked coins in use by the firm had been called in. The mills were in their most posperous days at a time when 1300 hands at Wekande Mills (Slave Island, Colombo) engaged in curing coffee.
This was probably the last Coffee token issued and the only token recorded that bear inscriptions in native scripts, although neither are correct. The Sinhala should read VAKANDE and the Tamil omits a letter.
The main business of the firm has been that of estate agency work. As their minted token indicates, the firm had Wekande Mills (Slave Island, Colombo) which employed over 1,000 hands engaged in curing coffee, cinchona, etc.
Text from
* Coins and Tokens of Ceylon, 1895 by Colonel B. Lowsley - (#35)
* The Coins of British Commonwealth of Nations - 1961 by F. Pridmore (#96)
* Oriental Coins AD 600 - 1979 by Michael Mitchiner (#2246)
The coin was scanned at 300dpi and the images are displayed at 200dpi.
The extremely fine condition coin with original luster was purchased
in August 1998 on ebay.