Century 3rd BC to 1st AD - Lanka

Ruhuna - Lion and Svastika

The Lion and Svastika lead coins are rare recent finds at Akurugoda near Tissmaharama in south east Lanka. A coin before and after it was midly cleaned.

SPECIFICATIONS Alloy Lead Type Cast Diameter 21.0 mm Thickness 2.6 mm Weight 3.76 gms Shape round Edge rough DieAxis O°
Alloy Lead Type Cast Diameter 21.0 mm Thickness 2.5 mm Weight 3.66 gms Shape round Edge rough DieAxis O°

Obverse : Lion jumping to the right with arched back and front legs stretched forward within plane circle. Few Brahmi text characters visble
Reverse : Railed svastika revolving to left (anticlockwise) to the upper right of coin. Few Brahmi text characters visble.

Ten lion and svastika lead coins (E.1-E.10) with sizes 7 to 25 mm and weights from 0.5 to 7 grams that were found in Akurugoda are cataloged in 1999 by Osmund Bopearachchi and Rajah Wickramasinhe inRuhuna. An Ancient Civilization Re-visited . The coin above was obtained directly from the same collector who provided most of the items for that book.

The lions in (E.1-E.10) are all standing. The Jumping lion is of (E.11-E.13) type with Brahmi legend but without a railed svastika visible on the mostly indistinct reverse. The coin above is probably of this second variety.

This coin has only been lightly cleaned which is good. A more professional cleaning may help reveal more detail and symbols, but I have not decided if to try.

The cleaned coin was scanned at 600 dpi and displayed at 300 dpi. It was obtained in 2001 December from Mr A. Ratnayaka a collector in Katharagama, Lanka, from the small collection he sent for display at the Sri Lanka Numismatic Society 25th Anniversary exhibition. I thank Ed Krivoniak for expertly cleaning this coin.