Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 centimes - Le Mans
| Issuer | Dépôt de Prisonniers de Guerre, 4e Région |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914-1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Dépôt de Prisonniers de Guerre 4e RÉGION BON de 0.05 cent. No p. Ch. Blanchet |
| Reverse description | Reverse is entirely blank, printed on unadorned plain paper with no text, vignette, or ornamental design, showing only the natural aging and fold lines of the stock. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
France organized its prisoner-of-war camps by military region during the First World War, and the 4e Région — headquartered at Le Mans — issued its own internal scrip precisely because conventional currency could not be permitted to circulate freely among POW populations. The concern was practical: money that could leave the camp was a resource for escape. Denominations this small were designed for canteen use only, keeping any transaction within the wire.
Ch. Blanchet was a local Le Mans printer with no particular connection to the Banque de France. The printing is functional rather than secure — which matters, because camp scrip of this type was routinely counterfeited by prisoners, and surviving examples occasionally show crude forgeries that passed without detection.