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10 Rupees Diyatalawa; PoW Camp
| Issuer | Prisoners of War Camp, Diyatalawa |
|---|---|
| Year | 1901 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress on cream paper with a fine guilloche underprint in pink. The British Royal coat of arms appears as a vignette at upper centre, flanked by the serial number repeated on both sides. A central ornate cartouche with scrollwork frames the denomination in blue; a stamped date and violet authorisation stamps appear at lower left and centre. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Blank. |
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| Comments |
Diyatalawa, in the hill country of Ceylon, held Boer prisoners captured during the South African War — at its peak, over 5,000 men were interned there. This note is one of several denominations issued by the camp administration to function as internal scrip, allowing prisoners to make purchases within the compound without handling British colonial currency. The system was common in larger PoW camps of the period and served as much to control the internal economy as to accommodate it.
Ceylon-issued Boer PoW scrip survives in smaller quantities than comparable notes from the Green Point camp near Cape Town, partly because repatriation in 1902 left little incentive to bring the paper home.