10 Mark Helmstedt; PoW Camp

Helmstedt's officer prisoner-of-war camp was one of dozens of German facilities that issued their own internal scrip during the First World War, but the officer camps occupy a distinct category. Under the Hague Convention, captured officers could not be compelled to work, so the economic logic of camp currency was different here — it controlled purchasing at the canteen rather than substituting for labor wages.

The yellow paper stock is characteristic of the Helmstedt issues and helped prevent substitution with standard Reichsmark notes circulating outside the wire.