5 Francs - Camp de concentration de Garaison Hautes-Pyrénées

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.