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5 Centimes - Miramas Bouches-du-Rhône
| Issuer | 15ème Région Militaire - Dépôt de Prisonniers de Guerre de Miramas |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914-1918 |
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| Currency | Franc (1795-1959) |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain cream paper, otherwise blank, bearing a circular purple handstamp applied at centre-left. The stamp impression is a round official seal of the Prisoners of War Depot at Miramas, Bouches-du-Rhône, with a small device at its centre. A handwritten or stamped number is visible to the right of the seal. |
| Reverse lettering | DEPOT DE PRISONNIERS DE GUERRE ★ MIRAMAS (B-DU-R) ★ (Translation: Prisoners of War Depot. Miramas, Bouches-du-Rhône.) |
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| Comments |
French military prisoner-of-war camps operated their own internal scrip systems during the First World War, and the 15th Military Region — headquartered in Marseille — administered several such depots across the Bouches-du-Rhône. Miramas, a rail junction town on the Étang de Berre, held German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners put to agricultural and infrastructure labor. The camp scrip prevented detainees from accumulating currency usable outside the wire.
At the 5 centimes denomination, this is the lowest fractional value in the Miramas series — essentially a canteen token in paper form, issued to balance small transactions where metal coinage was deliberately withheld.