Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Pfennigs Göttingen; PoW Camp
| Issuer | Kriegsgefangenenlager Göttingen (Göttingen Prisoner of War Camp) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Brown letterpress print on an orange guilloche underprint, with ornate corner rosette devices and a continuous decorative border frame. The denomination numeral '50' appears in each corner, with the camp title 'Kriegsgefangenenlager GÖTTINGEN' arched across the upper field. The central value inscription 'Fünfzig Pfennig' is set within a bold rectangular dark band, below which the place and date of issue and the camp redemption clause are printed in small type; a diagonal manuscript handstamp overlay is also present. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 50 Kriegsgefangenenlager GÖTTINGEN Fünfzig Pfennig Göttingen, im Dezember 1917. Dieses Lagergeld gilt nur als Zahlungsmittel im Lager Einlösung erfolgt nur durch das Gefangenenlager Göttingen (Translation: Göttingen prisoner of war camp. Fifty pfennig. Göttingen, December 1917. This camp currency is valid only as payment within the camp. Redemption is only possible through the Göttingen prisoner of war camp.) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Göttingen's PoW camp scrip sits within one of the more administratively serious German prisoner money programs of the First World War. Under the 1907 Hague Convention, Germany was obligated to pay working prisoners wages — but paying in Reichsmark created obvious problems, including the financing of escapes. Camp-specific Lagergeld solved this by creating a closed monetary circuit: the notes could only be spent at the camp canteen and were worthless outside the wire.
J. C. König & Ebhardt in Hannover were prolific printers of this category, supplying scrip to multiple camps across Lower Saxony. The firm's commercial printing background shows in the competent but unflashy execution.