5 Lire Rab concentration camp

The camp at Arbe (Rab), on the Dalmatian island of that name, was established by Italian occupation authorities in the summer of 1942 and became one of the deadliest internment camps in occupied Yugoslavia — mortality rates from starvation and disease were catastrophic. The scrip issued there was not a banking instrument in any conventional sense. It functioned purely as an internal token currency, preventing internees from accumulating Italian lire that could theoretically be used to bribe guards or make contact with the outside.

Camp scrip of this type was produced under field conditions, and the Arbe issues are among the crudest printed in the Italian-administered Adriatic territories. Paper quality and impression consistency vary significantly between surviving examples.