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20 Mark Schneidemühl; PoW Camp
| Issuer | Gefangenenlager Schneidemühl |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914-1918 |
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| In circulation to | Yes |
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| Obverse description | Printed in violet on cream paper, the note is composed entirely of typographic and geometric letterpress elements without pictorial vignettes. A central oval cartouche with fine horizontal guilloche lines carries the denomination inscription in ornate script, flanked on each side by a large circular medallion bearing the numeral "20" within a beaded border and radiating sun-ray ornaments at the corners. The camp name and restriction notice appear in bannerettes above and below the central cartouche. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | GEFANGENENLAGER 20 Zwanzig Mark SCHNEIDEMÜHL NUR GEFANGENENGELD (Translation: Prisoner of war camp. Twenty mark. Prisoner money only.) |
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| Comments |
Schneidemühl — now Piła in northwestern Poland — operated one of the German Empire's larger prisoner-of-war camps during the First World War, holding primarily Russian and later Romanian prisoners. Like most German PoW installations, it issued its own internal scrip to allow controlled commerce within the wire: canteen purchases, small transactions between prisoners, wages for labor details. These notes circulated in a closed economy with no connection to the Reichsbank whatsoever.
Camp scrip of this type was produced locally, often on whatever printing stock was available, which accounts for the considerable variation in paper quality across surviving examples from the same series. Forgery by prisoners was a documented problem at several German camps, though whether it was an issue specifically at Schneidemühl is not confirmed in the literature.