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50 Pfennig Frankfurt am Main; PoW Camp
| Issuer | Inspektion der Kriegsgefangenenlager im Bereich des XVIII. Armee-Korps |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress on pale yellow paper with a brown underprint; the central denomination '50 PFENNIG' is set in bold Gothic typeface flanked by two circular guilloche rosettes. The heading 'Inspektion der Kriegsgefangenenlager im Bereich des XVIII. Armee-Korps' appears across the top, with the issuing authority, place, and date 'Frankfurt a/M den 1. Jan. 1917' centred below the denomination. Two manuscript signatures appear at lower left and right beneath the printed titles 'Der Inspekteur' and 'Der Adjutant', with a block of small-type regulatory text and a warning notice at the foot; the serial number is printed vertically along the right margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Uniface; the reverse is unprinted, presenting a plain cream-coloured paper surface with no design, text, or security elements. |
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| Comments |
The XVIII. Armee-Korps oversaw prisoner-of-war camps across its regional command area, and this 50 Pfennig scrip was issued specifically to control purchasing power within those facilities — preventing prisoners from accumulating Reichsmark currency that could fund escapes or be used outside the wire. Camp scrip of this type circulated only within designated canteens and could not be exchanged back into German legal tender.
Frankfurt-area PoW camp issues from 1917 are among the less-documented Lagergeld series. Many were printed in small runs by local commercial printers and destroyed at war's end rather than formally demonetized.