50 Cents Diyatalawa; PoW Camp

Diyatalawa, in the hill country of Ceylon, held thousands of Boer prisoners captured during the South African War. The British established an internal scrip system at the camp to allow limited commerce without giving detainees access to sterling — a precaution against escape funding as much as an administrative convenience. Notes like this one circulated exclusively within the camp perimeter and were theoretically non-negotiable outside it.

Campbell 4801 is among the more elusive denominations from this issue. Camp scrip rarely survived repatriation; most was surrendered or simply discarded when prisoners were shipped home following the Peace of Vereeniging in May 1902.