10 Mark Golzern; PoW Camp

Golzern was a prisoner-of-war camp established along the Mulde River in Saxony, and like hundreds of similar German installations during the First World War, it issued its own internal currency to control purchasing within the camp economy. These Lagergeld notes circulated exclusively among prisoners — Allied soldiers, primarily — and were not redeemable outside the wire. The Johannes Pässler printing house in Dresden handled production for several Saxon camp issues during this period, working from relatively simple typeset designs rather than engraved plates.

The handstamp is the only meaningful security feature, applied locally at the camp rather than at the press. Forgery within camp populations was a documented concern, which is why most Lagergeld carried some form of countersignature or stamp that the printer itself could not replicate.