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| Sunday, 24 October 2004 |
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Rare Rouble 500 note with Jayantha by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE
A man turns up at our office with his son in-law and then hands over a photocopy of a 500 Rouble Russian monetary denomination and a Compact Disc (CD) containing a picture of the rare Russian monetary note believed to have been printed somewhere in 1912. The man concerned is a retired banker who wished to remain anonymous as he shuns publicity. But he introduced his son-in-law, Jayantha Karunasena, a seaman cum an electrician who by accident came across the rare note while on a sojourn in Iraq eight years ago. According to Jayantha it all happened while his ship was being piloted by an Iraqi Captain while crossing a river somewhere in the Bassra province. Jayantha befriended the Captain and fell into a conversation with him. The captain said that his hobby was collecting money and pulled out a note from his trouser pocket and offered it to me. I examined the note and found that it was a 500 Rouble Russian note. Although I had not seen a 500 Rouble note before I guess that it had the hall marks of a genuine note. It embossed flower designs and the pictures of the Russian royalty. The note had a fresh appearance as if it had not been in circulation. "All I had in my pocket was a 100 rupee Sri Lankan note which I offered the captain for the 500 Rouble note and he accepted it," he said. The note however looks large for a monetary note, 12.6 centimetres in width and 27.5 centimetres in length with the picture of Peter the Great, the Emperor of Russia and Queen Yekatherina. The note bears the year 1912, which suggest that it was most probably was printed 92 years ago before the onset of the Russian revolution. Its serial number BO 160142 is printed clearly on the reverse side of the note in the water mark cage. The 500 mark is printed just below it. Jayantha however said after returning to Sri Lanka he had completely forgotten about it until his father-in-law, a collector of coins one day came across it by accident lying along with other documents at his home. Having realised the intrinsic value of the note we took the note to the Russian Cultural Centre in Colombo to elicit more information. The officer at the Cultural Centre having seen the note informed us that it was a rare note and requested time to furnish details about it. |
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