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5 Cents Vint Hill Farms Station; Officers' Open Mess
| Issuer | Officers' Open Mess, Vint Hill Farms Station |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942-1945 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Cents (0.05 USD) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Red stock with black letterpress print; the denomination numeral '5' appears in a bold black panel at right, with 'CENTS' below. Issuer name and station title fill the left portion, with a red serial number printed across the lower centre. A perforation pattern runs along the right edge, and the caution 'Void if detached' appears at lower left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain red stock with no printed text or design; a perforated numeral '5' is punched through the note, visible from the reverse as the dominant feature against the unprinted surface. |
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| Comments |
Vint Hill Farms Station in Fauquier County, Virginia was a signals intelligence facility — one of the first in the United States to intercept Japanese military communications in the lead-up to Pearl Harbor. The Officers' Open Mess scrip was a closed-circuit currency, valid only within the mess itself, a common arrangement at restricted military installations where controlling cash flow reduced security exposure and simplified accounting under wartime audit requirements.
The red paper composition was a deliberate denomination marker, not decorative. Different colors distinguished face values at a glance behind a busy bar.