10 Cents Wheeler PoW Camp

Camp Wheeler, outside Macon, Georgia, operated as both a U.S. Army training facility and a prisoner of war compound during the Second World War, holding primarily German and Italian captives. PoW camp canteen scrip was a practical necessity under the Geneva Convention's requirement that prisoners have access to a canteen — but the scrip had to be valueless outside the wire, so it couldn't be used to bribe guards or fund escapes.

Wheeler canteen issues are among the more elusive of the American PoW scrip series. Unlike some larger camps, Wheeler did not produce extensive documentation of its canteen operations, which makes precise attribution of individual denominations difficult. The orange-red paper is a distinguishing physical feature across this series.