25 Cents Camp Patrick Henry; PoW Camp

Camp Patrick Henry, located near Newport News, Virginia, was primarily a staging area for troops shipping out to Europe — but it also held Axis prisoners of war, and this 25-cent canteen chit is a product of that dual function. The Army issued scrip denominations like this at PoW camps under the Geneva Convention's requirement that prisoners receive pay for labor, in a form that could not be spent outside the wire.

Canteen currency from Camp Patrick Henry surfaces rarely. The camp was decommissioned quickly after 1945, and most scrip was destroyed or discarded during demobilization rather than formally redeemed.