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10 Kronen Harth bei Amstetten; PoW Camp
| Issuer | Kriegsgefangenenlager Harth bei Amstetten (Officers' Section) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914-1918 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress text on a dense purple guilloche underprint with ornamental geometric tiling. Denomination value boxes at upper left and right read "10 Kronen"; a small double-headed eagle vignette appears at top centre. The full camp designation is set in bold block capitals across the centre field. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Unprinted; the obverse impression shows faintly through the thin paper as a blind offset, leaving an otherwise plain cream surface with a dotted border perimeter. |
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| Comments |
Harth bei Amstetten was one of the Austro-Hungarian prisoner-of-war camps that issued its own internal scrip during the First World War — a common enough practice, but the Officers' Section designation here matters. Under the Hague Convention of 1907, commissioned officers were not required to perform labor, so camp authorities used denominated scrip partly as a control mechanism: officers drew a portion of their pay in camp currency, which could only be spent within the compound and could not fund escape attempts the way hard currency might.
Amstetten camp notes are genuinely scarce survivors. Most were redeemed or destroyed at the war's end — the Austrian collapse in late 1918 left little administrative appetite for formal redemption, and much simply burned.