Sri Lanka

U.N. New York, Page 2008.2 (BL-2)

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For designing a flag, the North American Vexillological Association recommends a booklet by Ted Kaye called, Good Flag, Bad Flag. Based on it’s criteria, the Sri Lanka flag is very good, although it has some problems.

The first rule is to Keep It Simple. Sri Lanka’s flag is not simple. School children can draw something reminiscent by making the lion more cartoonish. Another rule is to Use a Few Basic Colors. It uses four colors, which is a little much. Also, the orange bar on the left against the orangy yellow field is not very distinguishable. Another rule is No Lettering or Seals. There are no letters, but there is something of a seal by including the lion.

The rules where Sri Lanka’s flag excels is to Use Meaningful Symbolism to Be Distinctive or Be Related. The lion is the symbol of the Sinhalese – a major race of the island nation. The four bo leaves repesent the states of Budhism, which is part of their culture: benevolence, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. The large orange band represents the Tamils people, and the teal band is for the Moors or Muslims. The golden or yellow border is meant to represent all of the minority communities that surround the others and make the country whole. See the Wikipedia for more.

As for distinctive, it looks like no other flag. You’d recognize it in battle, and even when hanging from a mast without the wind blowing.

Note

The U.N. already had a flag series. I don’t see the point of another even if it includes coins from each country. Plus, it’s not all coins and not paper currency. For many of the European countries, they have basically the same Euro coin. It’s not an appealing series.

Contains 8 spots: own 8 – 8 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Dec 22, 2025

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Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot

own

catalog

subject

description

comment

Flags & Coins

1.1	✓	953a	Britain Flag & Pound Coin	41 (may 2008) comm., multicolor
1.2	✓	953b	Singapore Flag & Dollar Coin	41 (may 2008) comm., multicolor
1.3	✓	953e	Philippines Flag & Peso Coin	41 (may 2008) comm., multicolor
1.4	✓	953f	Indonesia Flag & Rupiah Coin	41 (may 2008) comm., multicolor
2.1	✓	953c	Colombia Flag & Peso Coin	41 (may 2008) comm., multicolor
2.2	✓	953d	Sri Lanka Flag & Rupiah Coin	41 (may 2008) comm., multicolor
2.3	✓	953g	United Arab Emirates Flag & Dirham	41 (may 2008) comm., multicolor
2.4	✓	953h	Libya Flag & Dinar Coin	41 (may 2008) comm., multicolor

Footnotes

• Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).

• Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.

• Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.

• To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.

No Covers Found.