Catalog
20 Mark Karlsruhe PoW Camp
| Issuer | Inspektion der Kriegs-Gefangenenlager des 14. Armeekorps, Karlsruhe |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Kein öffentliches Zahlungsmittel. 20 Zwanzig Mark Gültig nur innerhalb des Lagers, sonst ohne jeden Wert. Karlsruhe i. B., 1. Oktober 1915. Inspektion der Kriegs-Gefangenenlager des 14. Armeekorps -:- Abrechnungsstelle Gesetzlich geschützt. (Translation: Not a public means of payment. Twenty Mark. Valid only within the camp, otherwise without any value. Karlsruhe in Baden, October 1, 1915. Inspection of the Prisoner-of-War Camps of the 14th Army Corps. Settlement Office. Legally protected.) |
| Reverse description | Plain blue cloth with no printed design or inscriptions, the woven textile texture visible across the entire surface. |
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| Comments |
The Inspektion der Kriegs-Gefangenenlager des 14. Armeekorps administered camps in the Baden region, and this scrip was issued specifically to prevent prisoners from accumulating Reichsmark currency — a real concern for the German military, which feared that hard money in prisoner hands could fund escapes or bribery of guards. Camp money kept transactions internal and traceable.
The blue cloth construction is unusual even within the already heterogeneous world of German PoW camp issues. Paper shortages in 1915 drove some camps toward improvised substrates, and cloth provided a degree of durability that crude wartime paper could not. The 20 Mark denomination is notably high for camp scrip of this period.