10 Centimes Rouen; Canteen voucher

Issued by the prisoner-of-war depot at Rouen during the First World War, this voucher belongs to a category of internment scrip that functioned as a controlled internal currency — POWs could not be permitted access to French francs, which could facilitate escape. Canteen vouchers of this type were printed locally, often by small regional printers with no experience in security printing, which accounts for the crude execution seen across the series.

Rouen held a significant transit and holding population given its position as a major Allied logistics hub. Most of these vouchers were destroyed at war's end; survivors reached the collector market almost entirely through chance.