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1 Cent Lordsburg PoW Camp
| Issuer | Lordsburg Prisoner of War Camp |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943-1945 |
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| Currency | Dollar (1785-date) |
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| Obverse description | Printed in blue on buff paper with a two-panel layout: the left panel carries the camp inscriptions in bold letterpress type within a blue border, with the warning clause in smaller text at lower left; the red serial number is printed across the lower portion of the left panel. The right panel, separated by a vertical rule, displays the large numeral "1" above the denomination text "CENT" within a blue rectangular frame. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | COMPOUND CANTEENS PRISONER OF WAR CAMP LORDSBURG, N.M. NOT GOOD IF DETACHED 1 CENT |
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| Comments |
The Lordsburg Internment and Prisoner of War Camp in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, operated under the Geneva Convention's requirement that detainees receive compensation for labor — but in scrip, not U.S. currency. This note is part of that canteen currency system, restricted to on-site use and theoretically non-convertible, which was precisely the point: it kept prisoners from accumulating dollars that could fund escape attempts or be passed to outside contacts.
Lordsburg was notably one of the camps implicated in the 1942 shooting deaths of two Japanese civilian internees — Toshiro Kobata and Hirota Isomura — by a U.S. Army guard, an incident investigated but ultimately unprosecuted. The camp later transitioned to holding German and Italian POWs alongside Japanese detainees.
Surviving examples of Lordsburg scrip are scarce; most were redeemed or destroyed at war's end.