5 Cents Camp Atterbury PoW Canteen

Camp Atterbury, established in 1942 near Edinburgh, Indiana, held both German and Italian prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention's requirement that canteen facilities be provided to internees. U.S. Army PoW camp canteen money was deliberately made non-transferable — the perforation served as a simple but effective mechanism to distinguish camp scrip from ordinary currency, reducing the risk of notes escaping the canteen economy into surrounding communities.

The Geneva Convention obligation also meant the U.S. government had to maintain at least nominal accounting of canteen profits, which were theoretically credited back to prisoners. Whether that accounting was scrupulous at Atterbury is a separate question.