Catalog
1 Dollar Kananaskis Camp
| Issuer | Camp 130, Kananaskis, Alberta (Canadian POW/Internment Camp) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1946 |
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| Composition | Paper (blue) |
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| Obverse description | Entirely typographic letterpress voucher printed in black on plain blue paper stock, devoid of vignette, guilloche, or ornamental border. The camp designation "Camp 130" is set at the top centre, beneath which the denomination "$1.00" appears in large format in the central field. The validity period "Jan.-June 1946" is positioned at the base, completing the austere three-line layout. |
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| Reverse description | Reverse left entirely blank on the same plain blue paper stock, bearing no text, vignette, underprint, or security elements of any kind. |
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| Comments |
Camp 130 at Kananaskis was one of Canada's largest prisoner-of-war facilities, holding German POWs — many of them Afrika Korps veterans — through the latter war years and into the postwar period. This scrip was issued in 1946, after the war's end, when repatriation was still months away for many inmates. The camp currency system was designed to prevent POWs from accumulating Canadian legal tender, which could theoretically fund escape attempts or black-market activity.
The 1946 date is significant: men spending this scrip had already lived through Germany's defeat and were waiting, sometimes bitterly, to go home.