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5 Francs - Camp de concentration de Garaison Hautes-Pyrénées
| Issuer | Camp de Concentration de Garaison, Hautes-Pyrénées |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916-1918 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | DÉPARTEMENT DES HAUTES-PYRÉNÉES CAMP DE CONCENTRATION DE GARAISON CINQ FRANCS Le Comptable, Le Directeur. L. CASSAN AINE, TOULOUSE. (Translation: Hautes-Pyrénées department. Garaison concentration camp. Five francs. The accountant, the director.) |
| Reverse description | Brown letterpress print on cream paper with the same chain-link border and rosette cornerpieces as the obverse. A circular official vignette at centre portrays a seated allegorical female figure — a Marianne-type personification of the French Republic — with the denomination numeral 5 and the word Francs repeated on either side. The monograms G and HP appear in the corner cartouches. |
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| Comments |
Garaison was not a military prison camp but a civilian internment site — one of dozens established across France during the First World War to hold enemy nationals, primarily German and Austro-Hungarian civilians caught inside French borders at the outbreak of hostilities. The camp occupied a former pilgrimage sanctuary in the Hautes-Pyrénées, a detail that gives the site an unusual character among French internment facilities.
Camp scrip of this type was issued to allow internees to purchase goods within the camp economy while preventing French currency from circulating among a population considered a security risk. L. Cassan Aîné was a regional Toulouse printer with no particular specialization in security documents, which shows — the notes are typographically plain and easily replicated, a known vulnerability the authorities apparently accepted.