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10 Cents Stockton; PoW Camp

Issuer Prisoners of War Canteen, Stockton, California
Year 1944-1946
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Composition Paper
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Obverse lettering PRISONERS of WAR
CANTEEN
Stockton, Calif.
VOID IF DETACHED
10
CENTS
PW
Reverse description Reverse entirely unprinted, showing plain buff-coloured paper stock with no text, vignette, or other markings.
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Comments

Stockton's Camp Stockton held Axis prisoners — predominantly German and Italian — during the latter years of the war, and the canteen scrip issued there was a deliberate policy instrument, not a convenience. The Geneva Convention permitted prisoner canteen purchases, and the U.S. Army issued camp-specific currency partly to prevent POWs from accumulating dollars that could fund escape attempts or be passed outside the wire.

The Camb 8520 reference places this firmly in the documented American POW scrip series, but local California camp issues are considerably harder to trace than the standardized Army-printed series. Whether this note was printed by the camp administration itself or contracted locally remains difficult to establish with certainty.

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