5 Yen - P.O.W. Canteen Ticket

Issued for use within Japanese-administered prisoner of war camps in Taiwan during the Pacific War, these canteen scrip notes were part of a broader Japanese military policy of providing captive Allied personnel with nominal purchasing power — theoretically allowing them to buy supplementary food or comfort items through camp-controlled canteens. In practice, the canteen system varied wildly between camps, and in many facilities almost nothing of substance was available to purchase.

The handstamp serves as the sole security feature, which tells you exactly how provisional these were. They had no life outside the wire.