Catalog
1 Anna Bangalore; PoW Camps
| Issuer | British India Prisoner of War Camp Administration |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941-1945 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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| Obverse description | Yellow-orange underprint with a purple guilloche border and a central oval vignette in yellow, against which the denomination 'ONE ANNA' is printed in dark brown letterpress. The legend 'PRISONERS OF WAR' arcs across the upper portion and 'CAMP' across the lower, both in purple, while 'Group I Bangalore' is overprinted in dark brown across the centre. Denomination indicators '1A' appear in purple within small panels at left and right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | PRISONERS OF WAR ONE ANNA 1A Group I Bangalore CAMP |
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| Comments |
British Indian POW camp currency occupies a peculiar administrative corner of wartime monetary history. These locally-produced chits were issued to Axis prisoners — primarily Italian and German — held at camps across the subcontinent, allowing controlled internal purchasing without giving captives access to rupees that could fund escape attempts. The Bangalore camp was one of the larger facilities, processing Italian prisoners captured in the East African campaign after the fall of Italian East Africa in 1941.
Production was strictly utilitarian, handled locally rather than by any established security printer. Paper quality and impression consistency vary considerably across surviving examples as a result.