Catalog
50 Cents Medicine Hat Internment Camp
| Issuer | Medicine Hat Internment Camp (P.O.W. Canteen) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943-1945 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Printed entirely in red on buff-coloured paper, this canteen voucher is set within an octagonal border. The denomination "50c" is rendered in large bold letterpress type at centre, with the inscriptions "GOOD FOR" above and "P.O.W. CANTEEN" below, followed by "MEDICINE HAT INTERNMENT CAMP" in two lines. The printer's imprint "BULMAN BROS. LTD., WPG." appears at the lower margin, and a vertical serial number strip is printed at the right edge. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Completely plain buff-coloured paper with no printing, overprint, or ornamentation of any kind. |
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| Comments |
Medicine Hat held one of Canada's largest prisoner-of-war camps during the Second World War, housing primarily German and Italian POWs at its peak capacity of several thousand men. Canteen scrip of this type was issued under the Geneva Convention framework, which obligated detaining powers to credit POW wages and allow internal purchasing — the scrip system ensured that camp currency could not be spent outside the wire, while still meeting treaty obligations.
Bulman Bros. of Winnipeg printed a range of Canadian institutional and commercial ephemera during the war years, and their involvement here was purely logistical. The denomination structure across the Medicine Hat series runs in small increments, reflecting canteen pricing rather than any formal monetary system.