5 Lire Laterina - n. 82

Campo 82 at Laterina, near Arezzo, held primarily British and Commonwealth prisoners captured in North Africa. The internal scrip system was imposed partly to prevent POWs from accumulating Italian currency that could fund escape attempts — a concern that became acute after the large-scale captures at Tobruk in 1942 dramatically swelled camp populations across central Italy.

Production was crude and entirely local, which is why surviving pieces vary noticeably in ink saturation and registration. The orange coloring distinguished this denomination within the camp's internal hierarchy of denominations, but the printing quality left them easy to counterfeit — a problem the camp administration was apparently aware of and largely ignored.