100 Mark Karlsruhe PoW Camp

Prisoner-of-war camp money issued under the authority of the Inspectorate of the 14th Army Corps covers a specific and often overlooked category of WWI material. The 14th Army Corps was headquartered in Karlsruhe, and its inspectorate administered camps across the Baden region — this note circulated exclusively within those compounds, preventing prisoners from accumulating Reichsmark currency that could fund escape attempts or be smuggled out.

The yellow cloth substrate is the distinguishing feature of the series. Fabric-based camp money was harder to counterfeit than paper and immediately identifiable as non-negotiable outside the wire.