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2 Cents Fort George; PoW Camp
| Issuer | Prisoner of War Camp Canteen, Fort George G. Meade |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942-1946 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | PRISONER OF WAR CAMP CANTEEN FT. GEORGE G. MEADE, MD. NOT GOOD IF DETACHED 2 CENTS |
| Reverse description | Printed in black on the same orange-tan paper, the reverse is dominated by a central letterpress vignette enclosed within a ruled border, bearing the large numeral 2 within a circular frame over the word CENTS, with a fine line border surrounding the composition. The bold capital letters P and W flank the central vignette to the left and right respectively, serving as the standard Prisoner of War canteen currency identifiers. |
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| Comments |
Fort George G. Meade held a substantial population of German and Italian POWs during the Second World War, and the canteen scrip issued there was a direct consequence of the Geneva Convention's requirement that prisoners be allowed access to a canteen and compensated for labor. The U.S. Army standardized this across dozens of camps, but each installation printed its own series, making Meade's scrip a localized artifact of that administrative machinery rather than a centrally produced currency.
Camouflage-print and color-coded denominations were common across American POW scrip to prevent hoarding and transfer outside camp perimeters. The 2-cent value handled the smallest canteen transactions — tobacco, soap, razor blades.