1 Cent Mexia; Internment Camp

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.