War Purposes Contribution
WWII 5 Cent & 10 Cent Labels

The "War Purposes Contribution" label was for voluntary donations to support the war effort. labels of Five and Ten cent denominations were issued in 1941 to be pasted on the front of envelope where they often received postal cancellations or on the back of envelopes to seal flap.
The "V" for Victory overprints in the same year are seen on the labels in blue on the Black on Green 5 cent and in Red on the Blue on Yellow 10 cent.

5 Cent Stamp : Green with Black Print. On Upper Panel WAR PURPOSES CONTRIBUTION with යුදකටයුතුවලට උපකාර in Sinhala and -.-.- in Thamil in next two lines. Middle Panel on Left An Anti Air craft Gun with by 4 Military Soldiers shooting at 3 planes. CEYLON on upper Left. On the Right 5 Cent rounded square coin-shape with a design like its reverse සතපහයි in Sinhala, on left. ௫.சதம் in Thamil on right. and CENTS at bottom with a Big Numeric 5 in the middle. Lower Panel HELP FREEDOM'S FIGHT with නිදහස් සටනට උදව් දෙනු in Sinhala and -.-.- in Thamil in next two lines.
10 Cent Stamp : Yellow with Blue Print. CEYLON centered on Top. On Upper Banner in an Arc WAR PURPOSES CONTRIBUTION with යුදකටයුතුවලට උපකාර in Sinhala and -.-.- in Thamil in next two lines. Below 10 Cent circular coin-shape. ශතදහය in Sinhala, on right ௧0•சதம் in Thamil on left and CENTS at bottom along annulus separated by 3 dots. with a Big Numeric 10 in the center. To left drawing of an Anti Air craft Gun shooting at a plane. To right a Navy Ship. Lower Panel HELP FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY with ජන සම්මත ආණඩුව රැකගනිමු in Sinhala and -.-.- in Thamil in next two lines.

The only WWII bombing of Colombo by Planes was the Japanese attack on 1942 April 5th, which happened after these labels were issued.

Envelope with 11 Feb 1941, 10 cent label	Envelope with 20 Mar 1942 5 cent with V label

I thank Ravi Ratnapala for the images of these envelopes from his collection

20 JU(ne) (19)41 and 17 DE(cember (19)41 Postmarked Stamps found online.
If you have a label with clear postmark earlier than 1941 Feb 11 or later than 1942 March 20 please contribute image to kavanr @ gmail.com.

From Brig Munasinghe's documents: A letter dated December 18, 1941 sent to his father, thanking for regular monthly contributions from your Salary towards the War Purpose Fund. in the Empire's War effort.

Tamil needs to be typed and I will much appreciate if you can type it in Unicode and send it as I am illiterate in Tamil.

The Labels were scanned at 600 dpi and displayed at 100 dpi. They were purchased on eBay.

See also StampBoards discussion.

Part of stamps.lakdiva.org a website for
Stamps of Ceylon and Sri Lanka since 1857.