5 Mark Hammerstein; PoW Camp

Hammerstein — now Czarne in northern Poland — housed Russian and later French and British prisoners during the First World War. Camp-issued scrip like this was a deliberate administrative tool: by paying prisoners in currency unusable outside the wire, camp authorities controlled purchasing power and prevented cash from funding escape attempts. The Gefangenenlager system operated semi-autonomously, with individual camps designing and issuing their own notes rather than drawing from a centralized Wehrmacht-era system, which is why Hammerstein issues differ visually from those of contemporary camps.

Cambage 3081 is among the scarcer Hammerstein denominations. Camp scrip was rarely preserved — prisoners had little incentive to hoard it, and most was destroyed or discarded at repatriation.