Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Cent Mexia; Internment Camp
| Issuer | Mexia Internment Camp Canteen |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dollar (1785-date) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed in black on orange paper stock. The left field carries the canteen identification in three lines — issuer name, function, and location — with a cautionary notice reading "NOT GOOD IF DETACHED" and a red typeset serial number positioned at lower left. To the right, a bold numeral "1" above the word "CENT" is set within a rectangular value tablet. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Entirely unprinted plain orange paper stock, bearing no design, text, or markings of any kind. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Mexia (pronounced "muh-HAY-uh") was the site of a WWII internment camp in Limestone County, Texas, operated by the INS to hold primarily German and Japanese civilian internees — merchant seamen, businessmen, and others swept up under the Enemy Alien Control Program rather than combat POWs. The camp canteen issued its own scrip precisely to prevent internees from accumulating U.S. currency, which could theoretically fund escape attempts or be passed to outside contacts.
Civilian internee camp scrip from Texas facilities is genuinely uncommon. Most was redeemed or destroyed at war's end, and the Mexia issues in particular survive in small numbers across all denominations.