2 Reichsmark Lagergeld

Lagergeld — prisoner-of-war camp money — was issued by the Wehrmacht high command under the terms of the Geneva Convention, which required that POWs receive pay and be given a medium of exchange usable within the camp economy. These notes were deliberately designed to be worthless outside the wire: non-convertible, non-negotiable, and tied to a captive internal market of canteen goods. The 2 Reichsmark denomination sat at the upper end of the Lagergeld scale, theoretically meaningful purchasing power within the camp canteen system.

Allied POWs frequently treated the scrip with contempt — it was widely understood as a fig leaf of compliance with international law rather than genuine remuneration. Many surviving examples were carried home as souvenirs, which partly explains their availability today despite the chaos of 1945 camp liberations.