(sold for $20.0)

1843, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Copper "George Steuart & Co. / Wekande Mills" Token.

Mint Place: Bombay References: Pridmore 96. Condition: Minor deposits, otherwise about XF! Mint year: 1843 (according to Pridmore, struck during 1881!) Denomination: Commercial Token - Wekande Mills (George Steuart & Co.)  Material: Copper Diameter: 29mm Weight: 7.92gm

Obverse: Two ceylonese women, one seated refining grains, the other filling a sack with initials of the mill owner (G.S&C - for George Steuart & Co.). English, Tamil and Sinhalese   legend around. Legend: . WEKANDE .  / . MILLS . Reverse: Date (1843) within inner circle. Legend: GEORGE STEUART & CO. * CEYLON *

The multiracial population of Ceylon was numerous enough to support   the European colonists; the Portuguese and the Dutch offspring of the   past 440 odd years of colonial history was large enough to run a stable   government. Unlike the previous rulers, the British embarked on a   plantation programme which initially brought coffee plantations to the   island. These were later wiped out by coffee rust. Coffee plants were replaced by tea and rubber plantations. This made Ceylon one of the richest countries in Asia.

The British also brought a million Tamils from British India and made them indentured labourers in the Hill Country. This was in   addition to the several hundred thousand Tamils already living in the   Maritime provinces and another 30,000 Tamil Muslims.   Thus the seed of ethnic discord was sown in the British era. The   linguistically bipolar island needed a link language and English became   universal in Ceylon.

Censuses in Ceylon began in 1871 and continued every ten years. The Censuses of 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 had shown Ceylon Tamils and Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka grouped together. By 1911 Indian Tamils were shown as a separate   category. The population statistics reveal that by 1911, Indian Tamils   constituted 12.9 per cent, whereas Sri Lankan Tamils formed 12.8 per   cent of the population of 4,106,400; in 1921, 13.4 per cent and 11.5 per   cent; in 1931, 15.2 and 11.3; in 1946, 11.7 and 11.0; in 1953, 12.0 and   10.9; in 1963, 10.6 and 11.0; in 1971, 11.6 and 11.2; and in 1981, 5.5   per cent and 12.7 per cent respectively. The census show that during a   large period of time in the history of Ceylon, Indian Tamils outnumbered   Ceylon Tamils until between 1971 and 1981 where more than 50 per cent   of the Indian Tamil population were repatriated as Indian citizens back   to India. However, many Indian Tamils were also granted Sri Lankan   citizenship where upon declared themselves as Sri Lankan Tamils.

British Ceylon (Sinhala: බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ලංකාව, Britanya Lankava; Tamil: பிரித்தானிய இலங்கை, Birithaniya Ilangai), known contemporaneously as Ceylon, was a British Crown colony between 1802 and 1948. At first the area it covered did not include the Kingdom of Kandy, which was a protectorate from 1815, but from 1817 to 1948 the British possessions included the whole island of Ceylon, now the nation of Sri Lanka.

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