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5 Rupees Bhopal; PoW Camps

Issuer Bhopal Prisoners of War Camp
Year 1941-1945
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Currency Rupee (1770-1947)
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Obverse description Violet letterpress print on plain paper with an elaborate rose-pink guilloche rosette at centre, enclosed within a fine geometric lathe-work border. The curved inscription PRISONERS OF WAR arches across the top, FIVE RUPEES is printed in large bold letters across the guilloche centre, and BHOPAL CAMP appears as a brown overprint below the denomination. Denomination numerals Rs. 5 appear in cartouches at both left and right margins.
Obverse lettering PRISONERS OF WAR
FIVE RUPEES
Rs.5
BHOPAL
CAMP
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Bhopal's prisoner of war camp scrip belongs to a category of wartime emergency currency that most Indian princely states never had cause to issue. During World War II, several camps on the subcontinent were authorized to produce their own internal currency to control the movement of funds among prisoners — preventing accumulation of specie that could theoretically fund escape attempts or bribery of guards.

The Campbell reference for this piece is sparse, and surviving examples surface rarely enough that precise print run data remains unknown. Bhopal State, still under its own administration as a princely state during this period, issued denominations across a short range. The 5 Rupees is among the harder values to locate.