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10 Heller POW - Mauthausen
| Issuer | K.u.K. Kriegsgefangenenlager Mauthausen (Imperial and Royal POW Camp Mauthausen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
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| Reference(s) | C#1413 |
| Obverse description | Dark letterpress-printed camp scrip with guilloche-bordered oval numerals '10' at left and right flanking a central rectangular panel bearing the camp inscription. Below, a circular vignette of the Austro-Hungarian imperial double-headed eagle is set between the denomination legend 'ZEHN HELLER'. Date '1.MAI 1918' appears above the eagle, with two manuscript signatures and their roles printed below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 10 No. 10998 K·UND·K KRIEGSGEFANGENENLAGER MAUTHAUSEN 10 1.MAI 1918 ZEHN HELLER Verwaltungsoffizier Lagerkommandant |
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| Comments |
Mauthausen in 1918 was an Austro-Hungarian prisoner-of-war camp holding tens of thousands of men — Russians, Italians, Serbs, Romanians — at a site that would later become notorious for entirely different reasons under a different regime. Camp scrip of this kind was a practical administrative tool: it kept prisoners from accumulating currency redeemable outside the wire, and it controlled what could be purchased at the camp canteen. The 10 Heller denomination placed it at the lowest tier of the internal economy.
These notes were produced for internal use only and had no validity beyond the camp perimeter. Very few survived the armistice — most were voided and discarded when the camps dissolved in late 1918.