1978 - Sri Lanka - 1 Rupee
First Executive President

A commemorative one rupee cupro-nickel coin was issued by Central Bank of Ceylon on 4th February 1978 for circulation on the installation of J. R. Jayewardene as the First Executive President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

SPECIFICATIONS Denomination Rupees One Alloy cupro-nickel Diameter 25.4 mm Weight 7.13 gms Thickness 1.9 mm Shape Round Edge Security 1 Die-Axis 0° Issue 1,997,400 Special Die 2,600 In Gold 30+10 Mint Royal,Wales
	KM# 144

obverse : The Armorial Ensign of Sri Lanka.
Reverse : An proile image of the President His Excellency J. R. Jayewardene in the center. with the value `ONE RUPEE' stated in in Sinhala appear at the apex of the coin and in Tamil and English on ether side with the date 1978.02.04 and `Sri Lanka' in Sinhala at the bottom below the date.

It will be interesting to note that the minting of this coin was undertaken at very short notice, in fact a matter of only three weeks was available for the designing, preparation of tools, minting of the coins and delivery of at least a small quantity for issue on the appointed date. To circumvent these difficulties the Royal Mint adopted a special tool method. This consignment was brought to Sri Lanka in the early hours of 1st February 1978 by T. M. U. Sallay (Senior Assistant Superintendent of Currency and author of book "Sri Lanka Currency of Recent Times 1938-1985") who had been flown earlier to London in this connection. More... The effigy on these 2600 special coins is slightly different from those on the balance of the order. The most noticeable difference is the shoulder line of the President's image. In the rare coin shown on right it is comparatively straight, while in the standard coin shown above it curves upwards.

According to Sallay, who I had the pleasure of meeting in Colombo in Dec 1999 the choice of denomination was based on the availability at that time of 1 rupee blanks at the royal mint. The obverse was to be the same, and the artwork for the reverse was done independently by two artists. One of the original dies was used to produce the small initial consignment and got worn out in the process, and the other slightly different die replicated to make the coin dies used to mint the rest of the 2 Million coins.
The special issue of 2600 coins is not a Proof as listed in Krause. It is significantly rare since most of this 2600 released into circulation got mixed with the 2-million before it was realised to be different from the rest. About 20,000 Proofs were minted of the common type and included in the 1978 set of eight Sri Lanka coins.

Included in that small consignment were 30 coins of identical design to the special version and minted in gold and weighed 12.82 gms (~1.6 sovereigns) The Central Bank paid £42.14 for each of these coins of which £33.89 was Bullion. 10 more of these gold coins were ordered subsequently for £52.14 each. The gold coins were distributed among the cabinet members. Two of the gold coins are on display at the Currency Museum of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. I got it finally listed in Krause in the 2002 edition.

The Gold coin is a POMS (Presentation Off-Metal Strike). i.e. since the non-standard metal makes it non-legal tender they are not NCLT.

There is an uncanny parallel between the Sri Lanka 1978 J.R.Jayawardena one Rupee coin and the US 2000-P Sacagawea dollar coin. There were 5,500 Sacagawea 2000-P US dollar coins randomly hidden inside Cheerios-brand cereal products during a 2000 General Mills advertising promotion. In February 2005 it was discovered they had been struck with an early die which was different from that used for the regular issue Sacagawea dollars. In addition this same early die was also used for striking a dozen Proof 2000-W Sacagawea 22-karat gold dollar coin that were placed aboard the space shuttle Columbia during its July 23, 1999, space mission.

The coins were scanned at 300dpi and the images are displayed at 250dpi. The uncirculated commemorative coin was obtained from the Central Bank of Ceylon. The special rare JRJ coin was a very kind gift to me from Thun Sallay.