50 Pfennig - Köln; Officer PoW Camp

Offizier-Gefangenenlager notes occupy an unusual corner of First World War notgeld — these were not emergency currency for the civilian public but internal scrip issued for use within a specific prisoner-of-war facility. The Cologne officer camp held Allied officers, and this 50 Pfennig piece functioned as canteen money, insulating the camp's internal economy from the broader currency shortages gripping Germany in the final year of the war.

M. DuMont Schauberg, the Cologne press that produced this note, was one of the Rhineland's major commercial printing houses — better known for newspaper work than wartime scrip. The contract was local and logistically convenient.