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 - Roanne

Issuer Dépôt de Prisonniers de Guerre de Roanne (13ème Région)
Year 1916
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 13me RÉGION
PRISONNIERS DE GUERRE
0fr, 05
Cre Mlle N° 38 823 P.G. du 15 Mai 1916
(Translation: 13th Region. Prisoners of War. Issue No. 38823, P.O.W., 15 May 1916.)
Reverse description Log in to see details
Reverse lettering DEPÔT DE PRISONNIERS DE GUERRE
✤ DE ROANNE ✤
(Translation: War Prisoner Depot of Roanne.)
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

French prisoner-of-war camps operated internal scrip systems during the First World War because regular coinage was hoarded out of circulation almost immediately after mobilization in 1914. The 13th Military Region, headquartered at Lyon, administered the Roanne depot, and these small-denomination notes functioned as canteen currency — usable only within the wire, redeemable for nothing outside it.

The 5-centime value is the lowest practical denomination in the series, intended for tobacco and minor provisions. Paper at this level of camp scrip was often produced locally with minimal security printing, making counterfeiting within the camp itself a documented nuisance at several comparable French depots.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE