10 Mark Cassel PoW Camp

German prisoner of war camps during the First World War routinely issued their own internal scrip to prevent Allied prisoners from accumulating Reichsmarks that could fund escape attempts. The Cassel camp's notes circulated exclusively within the wire — usable at the canteen, nowhere else. Denominations were deliberately mismatched with standard currency to make them worthless outside the perimeter.

These camp issues were produced under wartime austerity with minimal security printing, which is why no two surviving examples look quite alike in terms of ink density and impression quality.