5 Mark Plassenburg; PoW Camp

Plassenburg, the Renaissance hilltop fortress above Kulmbach in Bavaria, was repurposed during the First World War as an officers' prisoner of war camp — one of Germany's more unusual detention facilities, housing captured Allied officers in a sixteenth-century stronghold. Camp-issued scrip like this was a practical necessity: it allowed prisoners to make controlled purchases within the camp canteen economy while preventing genuine Reichsmark currency from accumulating in enemy hands.

Alexander Wiede of Chemnitz was a small commercial printer, not a specialist security firm. Camp currency of this type was produced under minimal anti-counterfeiting standards — the real deterrent was the geographic isolation and the camp administration itself.