50 Cents Lethbridge; PoW Camp

Internment Camp 133 at Lethbridge held the largest concentration of Japanese-Canadian and Japanese prisoner-of-war internees in Canada during the Second World War, at its peak housing several thousand men. The camp scrip issued there — including this 50-cent denomination — was a deliberate closed-economy measure, ensuring that internees could not accumulate Dominion currency that might facilitate escape or outside contact. Bulman Brothers, a Winnipeg commercial printer with no particular security printing pedigree, produced the series under contract.

The scrip was redeemable only within camp canteen facilities and was voided at repatriation.