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1 Mark Friedrichsfeld am Niederrhein; PoW Camp
| Issuer | Gefangenenlager Friedrichsfeld (Prisoner of War Camp, Friedrichsfeld am Niederrhein) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915-1918 |
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| Value | 1 Mark |
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| Obverse description | Printed in blue and green, the note carries a dense guilloche underprint in lime green covering the entire field, with circular rosette medallions at each corner. A large central vignette in dark blue consists of three interlocking oval guilloche lozenges enclosing a white cartouche bearing the denomination "EINE MARK" in bold letterpress. The camp name "GEFANGENENLAGER" and the legend "Gut für" appear at the top, "FRIEDRICHSFELD" at the bottom, and the disclaimer "Kein öffentliches Zahlungsmittel" runs along the lower border, with the numeral "1" repeated in each corner. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse repeats the identical design to the obverse, printed in the same blue and green colour scheme with a guilloche-patterned lime green underprint, circular corner rosettes, and the central triple-lozenge blue guilloche vignette enclosing the white denomination cartouche. The same inscriptions appear in identical positions, confirming this note was printed uniformly on both sides without distinction. |
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| Comments |
Friedrichsfeld, near Wesel in the Rhineland, held tens of thousands of Allied prisoners during the First World War — at its peak one of the largest PoW camps in Germany. Camp scrip like this 1 Mark note was a deliberate policy instrument: by issuing internal currency redeemable only within the camp, German authorities prevented prisoners from accumulating Reichsmarks that might fund escape attempts or be passed to civilians.
Friedrichsfeld scrip is among the more frequently encountered German PoW issues, reflecting the camp's sheer size and long operational run across nearly four war years.