10-20 tonnes of Lankan coins in Indian temple tills

The Central Bank (CB) is considering bringing back 10 to 20 tonnes (10-20,000 kg) of Sri Lankan coins lying in tills of temples in India, Governor of the Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal said.

Sri Lankan devotees regularly put local coins as ‘panduru’ meritorious offerings into tills in Buddhist temples and Hindu kovils during Dambadiva pilgrimages in India and these coins remain idle.

Once these coins are brought to Sri Lanka it will be put into circulation, he added. Coins worth millions of rupees are deposited in the tills and collection boxes of temples and other religious places. It would be costly to replace them with new coins.

The Governor said the 20 tonnes was a preliminary estimate and no value has been placed yet on this quantity.

In addition over 2.3 billion coins were held by the Sri Lankan public in their drawers and tills. Most of these coins remain idle and do not circulate within the country creating a shortage of coins, CB sources said.

In Sri Lankan households ’ tills’ are a traditional form of saving money which is still widely popular specially among rural children despite the growth of the banking sector.

Apart from them, religious places such as temples, churches and kovils are also places where coins get collected and remain idle for a while.

Fifty, five and 10 cent copper coins are almost extinct with only the cheaper aluminium replacements found occasionally.

Bus commuters complain that on many occasions they found it difficult to get their change money from bus conduc- tors. "You almost never get one rupee change money from bus conductors," said a daily bus commuter.

Meanwhile a new set of coins representing the districts of Sri Lanka will be issued this year, Mr. Cabraal revealed.

The design for the new series of Rs.10 coins will depict one or more of unique archaeological, cultural, economic, environmental, religious or social characteristics of each district, he said.

Citing an example, the Governor noted that the Rs.10 coin depicting the Colombo district will portray certain city sights and the Colombo Port.