1 Pfennig Friedrichsfeld am Niederrhein; PoW Camp

Friedrichsfeld, near Wesel on the Lower Rhine, held one of Imperial Germany's larger prisoner-of-war camps during the First World War — at its peak housing tens of thousands of Allied prisoners. Camp scrip like this 1 Pfennig note was a deliberate administrative tool: by creating an internal currency redeemable only within the wire, the camp authorities could control purchasing, suppress black markets, and ensure prisoners could not accumulate Reichsmarks useful for escape funding.

The Cambis reference 2971 places this in a well-documented but physically elusive series. At 25 x 25 mm, the note is closer to a postage stamp than conventional paper money — handling losses are severe, and intact examples are genuinely uncommon.