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5 Cents Fort Benning PoW Camp
| Issuer | Fort Benning Prisoner of War Camp |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942-1945 |
| Type | Vouchers |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | FORT BENNING PRISONER OF WAR EXCHANGE Void After 25 June 1945 5 CENTS |
| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely unprinted, presenting a plain pink paper surface with no text, vignette, or decorative elements of any kind. |
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| Comments |
Fort Benning held Axis prisoners — primarily German and Italian — under the Geneva Convention's requirement that captives be compensated for labor. These scrip notes were the mechanism: PoWs received them as wages, then spent them within the camp canteen system. The currency was deliberately non-negotiable outside the wire, preventing it from functioning as escape currency or entering local civilian commerce.
Pink paper was not cosmetic — color-coding denominations reduced counterfeiting and simplified canteen accounting. Similar color-differentiated scrip appeared at dozens of American PoW installations, though individual camp printings varied considerably in quality and design execution.