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5 Centimes - Bon de cantine
| Issuer | Dépôt de Prisonniers de Guerre |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914-1918 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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| Obverse description | Plain beige cardboard note printed in black letterpress. The heading "Dépôt de Prisonniers de Guerre" runs across the top, with "de" below indicating the specific depot location, left blank for handwritten completion. To the right, the denomination legend "BON DE CANTINE" and face value "0 Fr. 05" appear in bold type, while a serial number appears at lower left alongside a circular administrative handstamp. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Dépôt de Prisonniers de Guerre de BON DE CANTINE 0 Fr. 05 (Translation: Prisoner of War Depot. Canteen voucher.) |
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| Comments |
Bons de cantine were internal scrip issued by French prisoner-of-war depot administrators to allow German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners to purchase goods at the camp canteen without handling French currency — a practice formalized under the 1907 Hague Convention, which obligated detaining powers to provide canteen access while preventing ordinary money from circulating inside camps. Each dépôt typically printed its own series independently, which means these bons exist in dozens of local variants with no central issuing authority coordinating design or denomination structure.
The beige cardboard substrate was almost certainly chosen for durability under rough handling, but also made counterfeiting by prisoners slightly harder to conceal.