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The
concise guide to the Anglo-Sri Lankan lexicon - part VIII by Richard
Boyle Cash (1598).
This is also recorded in H-J2. According to the OED2, the word can
be traced to many languages, such as Tamil "kasu" and
Singhalese "kasi", coin. It is "A name applied by
Europeans to various coins of low value in the East Indies and China."
There are no illustrative quotations from English literature pertaining
to Sri Lanka in the OED2. Demi-farthing.
"A copper coin of Ceylon, of the value of half a farthing."
There is no historical evidence for this term in the OED2, which
is why it remains undated. Hook-money.
"A currency formerly in vogue in Ceylon, consisting of pieces
of silver twisted into the form of fish." Again, there is no
historical evidence for this term in the OED2. John Davy provides
an early reference in An Account of the Interior of Ceylon (1821:245),
but he uses the Sinhala name and merely likens the 'coin' to a hook:
"The silver coin in circulation, called a riddy or rheedy,
is worth about seven pence English, and is equivalent to sixty-four
Kandyan challies (a copper coin). Its form is singular; it resembles
a fish-hook, and is merely a piece of thick silver wire bent." James Emerson
Tennent, writing in Ceylon (1859[1977]:I.393), goes one stage further
and calls it 'fish-hook money.' More importantly, he relates something
of its history: "No ancient silver coin has yet been found,
but specimens are frequently brought to light of the ridis, pieces
of twisted silver wire, which from their being sometimes bent with
a considerable curve have been called 'Fish-hook money.' These are
occasionally impressed with a legend, and for a time the belief
obtained that they were a variety of ring-money peculiar to Ceylon.
Of late this error has been corrected; the letters where they occur
have been shown to be not Singhalese or Sanskrit, but Persian, and
the tokens themselves have been proved to belong to Laristan on
the Persian Gulf, from the chief emporium of which, Gambroon, they
were brought to Ceylon in the course of Indian commerce; chiefly
by the Portuguese." Rix-dollar
(1803). "A unit of currency introduced into certain former
colonies, as by the Dutch in Cape Province and the English in Ceylon."
Of the half dozen or so illustrative quotations in the OED2, the
earliest, from the Penny Cyclopaedia (1836:453), is the only one
pertaining to Sri Lanka: "In the district of Putlam they (elephants)
were faced boldly in the open forest, and ensnared singly, for a
reward varying according to the size and description of animal,
from 11 to 152 rix-dollars." However, there
is an antedating or earlier reference by Robert Percival in An Account
of the Island of Ceylon (1803:117) that provides a history of the
currency and a hint of the complicated manner of its conversion:
"The current coin here, as well as in the rest of the European
dominions on the island, consisted on the arrival of the English,
of rix-dollars, a nominal coin, like our pounds sterling, valued
at a certain quantity of copper money. There were besides several
smaller copper coins, called pice or stivers, half-pice and dudies.
Four pice or two dudies went to a fanam, and seven fanams to a rix-dollar.
This proportional value of the coins has however been altered, and
new regulations established since the island has come into our possession.
There is now current a new coinage of double and single pice and
half-pice, made by our East India Company. A pice is about a halfpenny
sterling; four pice go to a fanam, and twelve fanams to a rix-dollar,
or, as it is usually called by our people, a copper rupee. This
latter coin goes for about two shillings sterling; and four of them
are equivalent to a star pagoda, a Madras gold coin worth eight
shillings sterling. Our troops are generally paid one third in gold,
one in silver, and one in copper. This proportion varies however
according to the state of the treasury. In issuing the copper money,
government usually allows forty-five fanams to the pagoda, which
is about the same proportion as charged by the company at Madras.
The troops however are rather sufferers by this rate, as the Dutch
and English merchants insist upon forty-eight fanams to the pagoda,
in their dealings with them. The fluctuation in the value of the
money in Ceylon is very great, and depends upon the immediate plenty
or scarcity of gold and silver there." Rupee (1612).
This is also recorded in H-J2. "The monetary unit of India
. . . Also the monetary unit of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and a number
of other countries." There are no illustrative quotations from
English literature pertaining to Sri Lanka in the OED2. Three-halfpence
(1483). "Money of the value of three halfpennies, or a penny
and a halfpenny; a silver coin of this value issued by Queen Elizabeth;
also, a silver coin of William IV and Victoria, issued for use in
Ceylon." An 1898 illustrative quotation in the OED2 states:
"William IV also coined silver half-penny pieces for Ceylon
and the West Indies." |
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