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10 Cents Antilles Department
| Issuer | Antilles Officers' Open Mess, APO 851 |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941-1947 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 Cents (0.10) |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed voucher on beige paper with black text; issuer name and APO designation centered in bold serif type, with a ruled border enclosing the design. Denomination '10 CENTS' appears in a boxed cartouche at right. Serial number printed in red at center. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ANTILLES OFFICERS' OPEN MESS APO 851, N.Y., N.Y. NOT GOOD IF DETACHED 10 CENTS |
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| Comments |
APO 851 was the Army Post Office designation for the U.S. military presence in Trinidad and the surrounding Antilles during and immediately after World War II. Messes issued their own scrip to keep dollars out of local circulation and to prevent currency from drifting off-base — a persistent problem wherever American troops were stationed near civilian economies with dollar appetite.
Officers' club scrip of this type was never legal tender and carried no federal backing. Surviving pieces are genuinely uncommon; mess scrip was typically redeemed and pulped when a unit rotated out.