₨20 — Twenty Rupees
The artwork
Front: A Gurulu Raksha mask fills the right side — the garuda bird-demon of the low-country dance tradition, cobras coiled above its brow and a serpent gripped in the red beak, carved in the exaggerated style of Ambalangoda. To the left, a lotus bloom and a carved circular medallion sit under the trilingual heading: Sinhala across the top, then Tamil and "Central Bank of Sri Lanka", with the date 2001-12-12 between two signatures.
Back: Two stilt fishermen perched on their poles in the shallows off the southern coast, rods angled over the water — a wholly Sri Lankan scene rendered in olive and pale green. At the left, a spiny murex shell drawn in fine intaglio line beside the vertical "TWENTY RUPEES" panel. The bank's name runs sideways in all three languages, with a large 20 in a rosette at the right.
In circulation
Part of the series introduced in 1991, printed and dated in batches through the following fifteen years; this piece carries the December 2001 date. It stayed in everyday use until the Central Bank's 2010 "Development, Prosperity and Sri Lankan Dancers" family took over, though older notes were never demonetised.
Details
- IssuerCentral Bank of Sri Lanka
- CurrencyRupee (₨)
- DenominationTwenty Rupees
- Collectedon the Sri Lanka journey, 2005
- Series1991 mask and heritage series, dated 12 December 2001
- PrinterThomas De La Rue and Company Limited
- SignatureTwo: the Minister of Finance (K. N. Choksy) and the Governor of the Central Bank