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20 Lire Cremona Concentration Camp
| Issuer | Campo Concentramento per Internati Civili - Cremona |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942-1945 |
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| Currency | Lira (1861-2001) |
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| Obverse description | Plain letterpress printing on cream stock with double ruled border. Denomination "LIRE 20" in a box at left, a lightly impressed Star of David stamp at centre, and a circular camp official stamp at right overlapping the numeral "20". Serial number "N.425" in manuscript at upper right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | = Campo Concentramento per Internati Civili - Cremona = LIRE 20 Buono per L. 20 Il Comandante il Campo Vale solo nello Spaccio del Campo (Translation: Concentration Camp for Civilian Internees - Cremona. Voucher for 20 lire. The Camp Commander. Valid only in the camp canteen.) |
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| Comments |
The Cremona camp operated as an internment facility for civilian detainees — primarily Jews, political prisoners, and foreign nationals — under the Italian Social Republic's wartime detention apparatus. Internal camp scrip of this type was not merely a financial convenience. It was a control mechanism, severing internees from any access to outside currency and making black-market contact with the local population harder to sustain.
The cardboard substrate is characteristic of Italian civilian camp issues from this period, reflecting both material shortages and the provisional assumption that these notes would circulate only briefly. They were not designed to last — which is precisely why surviving examples are uncommon.