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1 Mark Köln; Officer PoW Camp
| Issuer | Offizier-Gefangenenlager Köln-Rh. (Officer Prisoner-of-War Camp Cologne) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Mark |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 1 OFFIZIER-GEFANGENENLAGER KÖLN-RH. GUT FÜR 1 MARK DER KOMMANDANT: Köln a. Rh. den 1. Oktober 1918 Kein öffentliches Zahlungsmittel. M. DuMont Schauberg, Köln. (Translation: Officer prisoner-of-war camp Cologne on Rhine. Good for 1 mark. The commandant. Cologne on Rhine. October 1st, 1918. Not legal tender for public use.) |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in black on a yellow guilloche underprint, the reverse carries three paragraphs of regulatory text centred within the note, each separated by a thin rule line. The border repeats the same lathe-work guilloche pattern as the obverse, with corner numeral "1" devices, and the overall layout is plain and typographic with no pictorial vignette. |
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| Comments |
Offizier-Gefangenenlager Köln-Rh. was one of several German facilities holding Allied officer prisoners under the 1907 Hague Convention regulations, which required that officer prisoners receive pay commensurate with their rank — paid in camp scrip rather than Reichsmark, to prevent accumulation of currency usable outside the wire. This note is a direct product of that obligation.
M. DuMont Schauberg, still operating today as one of Germany's older newspaper and publishing houses, printed the issue locally. The 1918 date places it in the final months of the war, meaning some of this scrip likely never completed a full circulation cycle before the armistice rendered the camp's internal economy moot.