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3 Mark Wildemann PoW Camp
| Issuer | Offizier-Gefangenenlager Wildemann |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914-1918 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Mark (1873-1923) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black on yellow cloth, the voucher bears a handstamped circular seal at the upper left, with a serial number handwritten in ink at the upper right. The denomination inscription is set in large letterpress type across the centre, beneath which the issuing authority is named in a smaller typeface. A manuscript signature appears in the lower portion of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse of the yellow cloth voucher is largely plain, carrying only a faint handstamped inscription in the upper centre and a manuscript authorisation signature below it, both applied in black ink. |
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| Comments |
Wildemann, a small mining town in the Harz Mountains, hosted one of several German prisoner-of-war camps that issued their own internal scrip during the First World War. These camp currencies were a practical necessity — they prevented prisoners from accumulating Reichsmark that could fund escapes or black market dealings with local civilians.
The yellow cloth composition here is the distinguishing feature of this particular denomination within the Wildemann series. Cloth-based camp scrip is considerably less durable than paper and survives in worse condition generally; the material itself made forgery marginally harder within the camp population.
Campbell 3613 places this squarely in the officer prisoner camp category — Offizier-Gefangenenlager — where Allied officers were held separately under the Geneva Convention's class distinctions.