Owner Comments:
This coin is extremely rare and surprisingly difficult to find. This coin is the top pop at NGC for the type and has a very strong counterstamp. The 1/4 rupee c/s version is easier to find but is also quite rare.
This is the last Ceylon "rupee" in silver that ended up trading at the equivalent of a rupee. The first British coinage; the 1803 48 stuivers (elephant right) was 152.5 grains of silver and technically could have traded with the British Indian rupee on par. With the British having just taken Ceylon from the Dutch, the Dutch names were initially retained with the Rix Dollar (rijksdaalder) being the main silver unit. By the end of 1803, a new type of Rix dollar was being coined. The rupee ended up being traded at 1.33 Rix dollars. The British made a specific effort not to introduce the British India rupee in Ceylon, but the silver Rix dollars being coined were constantly underweight and meant that no silver coinage actually traded in Ceylon.
The coin counter marked with the British crown is the Madras Mint Arcot One rupee with closed lotus form (Krause Madras Presidency #413) the issue of which was authorized by a proclamation dated 1817 December 9th in Fort St. George (Madras). The coins bear a date of AH1172 (which is 1764) even though they were minted much later.
The number issued from the 1824 Ceylon Blue book lists that 282,337 Arcot rupee coin were imported into Ceylon and counter marked for local use by a later proclamation dated 1823 December 31st. to pass at 4/3 rix-dollar or 16 fanams. (Pridmore #24; Mitchiner #2224; Krause #86). All these coins have a very precisely located counterstamp.
Ironically, these coins, valued at 16 fanam, were actually overweight in silver compared to the prevailing rates and these coins were withdrawn from circulation after the British Sterling was introduced in the island 2-years later.