2 Pfennigs Lechfeld; PoW Camp

Lechfeld was a Bavarian military airfield and training ground repurposed early in the war as a prisoner of war enclosure. The camp's internal currency was a practical necessity — German military authorities across all major PoW installations were required under standing orders to prevent Reich coinage from circulating among prisoners, both to limit smuggling and to control purchasing within camp canteens. J. P. Himmer of Augsburg, a well-established regional commercial printer, handled several such contracts for Bavarian camp administrations during 1915.

Red paper stock was not decorative — different denominations were distinguished by colour to reduce substitution fraud within the camp economy.