1 Franc - 62° compagnie

Prisoner of war camp currencies occupy a peculiar corner of notaphily, and this 1 Franc token from the 62e Compagnie de Prisonniers de Guerre is no exception. During the First World War, the French military administered captured German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners through numbered companies, each effectively a self-contained labor unit. Camp scrip of this type was issued to prevent prisoners from accumulating official French currency — a straightforward security measure that also gave the administration control over what could be purchased.

Documentation on individual company issues is fragmentary. The 62e Compagnie left almost no administrative paper trail, making precise attribution of surviving notes difficult.