Part 1

WAR PRISONER MONEY AND MEDALS

By Guido Kisch

Reprinted from THE NUMISMATIST 1963

I Internment Camp Money

The guarantee of humane treatment for prisoners of war is an achievement of modern international law. This interesting and important legal problem was discussed at great length at several international conferences at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. A kind of ethical and legal code resulted consisting of a comprehensive body of rules and regulations, both written and unwritten. The International Red Cross played an important part in the development and crystallization of those humanitarian ideals as they are embodied today in the provisions of the international law concerning prisoners of war. Its rules have been explicitly or tacitly accepted and to a great extent put into practice by most of the civilized nations of the world. Their disregard, as in the recently reported case of 115 helpless American military prisoners of war murdered in cold blood by the Germans near Malmedy, or in the notorious death camps of Oswiecim and Belsen-Bergen, is a relapse into barbarism, characteristic of the Hitlerite hordes. As a rule, however, the status of prisoners of war is universally respected and they receive a fair treatment from all nations, in accordance with the rules of international law. They may be employed by their captors for certain labors, but must be accorded fair living conditions.

Considerations of war economy and corresponding military precautions created the necessity of issuing special money for the use of prisoners of war. A shortage in currency is often an unavoidable result of national war conditions. It would be greatly increased, of course, if the actual use of national currency would be permitted also to the rising numbers of captives. The issuance of special currency for the exclusive use of war prisoners is therefore an act of national defense in wartime. The use of this special type of money, for which both paper and metal are employed, is restricted in a twofold way. Its circulation is limited to war prisoners, and—even more strictly—to definite internment camps. The prisoners’ specially made money, often easily distinguishable through a round or square hole in the center, is excluded from general monetary circulation. The prisoner is not able to buy articles in the ordinary channels of the national commerce. Moreover, he is left without means in case of escape.

These are the ideas and motives underlying the issuance of separate money for prisoners of war.

During the First World War such money was produced by the warring nations of Europe. In Germany, where 635,000 allied prisoners were confined at the end of the war, it was called _Gefangenenlagergeld_; in France, with the greatest number of German war prisoners (400,000), it was known as _monnaies des camps de prisonniers_. In Germany production reached tremendous amounts and resulted in almost unbelievable varieties, far surpassing the needs dictated by war economy and military policy. Röttinger’s catalogue of German internment camp money lists about 1360 different places of issue and authorities competent to issue such money. There were thousands of types and varieties. All kinds of material were used and all types of style imaginable were represented. From these facts another motif comes to light which prompted that mass production of war prisoner money. Apparently this new type of currency quickly attracted the attention of numismatists, first in the lands of its origin, then in the adjacent neutral countries, and later in the entire world. The interest of collectors and students once awakened was soon exploited by the German government through a mass export of complete sets of prisoner currency to foreign countries. Thus a means was provided of obtaining valuable and badly needed foreign exchange for a worthless kind of currency. In fact it was a practically worthless kind of money, worthless even from the numismatic point of view. For the almost innumerable varieties impaired the collector’s interest who could not entertain any hope ever to obtain a complete collection. While Germany continued this practice for the duration of the war, in line with her general inflationary policy, Austria-Hungary seems to have kept the issuance of her war prisoner money within the limits of the actual war needs.

The hypothesis of the partly inflationary character of the German internment camp money during the First World War and of its doubtful numismatical value, as set forth here, is borne out by several other observations. There were very few complete or almost complete collections of “Gefangenenlagergeld” even in Germany, the most important ones being that of the _Reichswirtschaftsmuseum_ in Leipzig, where one specimen of each type of _Notgeld_ was officially deposited by the _Reich_ as issued, and that of a private collector, Doctor Arnold Keller of Berlin, the publisher of _Dr. Arnold Kellers Notgeldbücher_. In Holland, there was also a collection outstanding because of its completeness, namely that of Mr. Paul Daub of Utrecht, a private collector. The American Numismatic Society, in due recognition of the given situation, rightfully did not care to acquire complete sets of this money, either during or after the war, but contented itself with a few specimens only. There have been a few private collectors in the United States none of whom seems to have attained great achievements in this field. None the less, the interest is still kept alive to some degree in collectors’ circles through the “International Emergency Money Club” of New York City, the only club of its kind in existence, founded in 1936 in New York City, with an active membership of thirty in 1942.

Beginning as early as January 1917 the well known firm of J. Schulman of Amsterdam offered complete sets of such money in a series of consecutive catalogues on war money, entitled _La Guerre Européenne 1914-1917_. Here collectors could obtain almost all sets available which were probably secured from the official authorities of issuance in Germany. The international reputation of the firm of Schulman in Amsterdam is too well established to permit reflection on the ethics of its business transactions. Merely for the sake of clarity it should be stated that none is implied here.

Obviously, numismatic interest turned quickly to the items of this previously little known type of war emergency money. In the very beginning, most probably, everyone thought that it would be a quickly passing numismatic phenomenon. No one could at that time realize the dimensions that production of war prisoner money would finally reach. All this notwithstanding, the literature on this special kind of money is scarce, incomplete and widely scattered. The appended select bibliography might therefore be welcome to those interested in this field of collecting which probably will be revived soon after the return of peace. It is needless to state that no claim is being made of completeness in the bibliographical data offered below.

No doubt, in the present war, too, internment camp money has been issued. Scanty news on such money issued in Great Britain, particularly in the Isle of Man internment camp for civilian and soldier prisoners of war, has already been brought to the attention of numismatists. A member of the Czechoslovak State Council in London, Mr. Ernest Frischer, recently informed the present writer that internment camp money is in use in the ill-famed concentration camp of Terezin (Theresienstadt) in Bohemia, where about 50,000 Jews are being held by their German “Protectors.” According to information received by the War Department in Washington, on the other hand, “no special type of money is issued for the use of prisoners of war held in this country. However, prisoners of war are issued 'canteen checks,’ a form of script which is given them in lieu of cash. This script is redeemable for merchandise at prison camp post exchanges. This script is not uniform, each of the several Service Commands procuring it and issuing it to camps within its jurisdiction. No photographs of the canteen checks are available.”

Naturally, more detailed and definite information will be available only after the termination of hostilities and the restoration of unimpeded research channels.

II European War-Prisoner Medals

With regard to war prisoner medals, the numismatic situation is completely different from that outlined here for internment camp money. True, there may have been also a “mass production” of such medallic items in Europe during the war of 1914-1918. But it never could have paralleled that of the emergency money for internment camps.

Two motives, above all, caused the issuance of war prisoner medals: the raising of funds for the support of prisoners of war or the amelioration of their condition; and the creation of the commemorative tokens or medals for presentation to captives after their liberation. It is doubtful and highly improbable, that the “mass production” of such medals ever reached in quantity a volume equal to that of war prisoners money. The number issued may well run into hundreds, at most a few thousands, but certainly not many thousands. For, to the best of this author’s knowledge, no commemorative war medal in the form of an official decoration to be given to all war prisoners in general was issued by any of the states participating in the First World War. Nor did any of the European states that remained neutral and held members of the belligerents in internment camps, issue commemorative medals for internees. This suggestion may well deserve the attention of the United Nations’ military authorities. After the present war a special commemorative medal of honor should be issued, intended for those who had to endure the great hardships of captivity for their country, often suffering undescribable physical and mental restraint. Such a token of gratitude would show to these heroes that they, too, had not been forgotten and that their sacrifice is duly appreciated and will permanently be remembered.

It seems that in the last European war prisoner medals were issued privately only. The extensive search for such medals carried on by the author in numismatic literature and dealers’ catalogues as well as through interviewing of collectors and dealers, yielded only four items. Three are of German origin, only one is French. None of these medals has aroused as yet the attention or curiosity of numismatists in general or of collectors of medals in particular.

Because of its medallic representation a typically German “war medal” will be mentioned first. No specimen was available to this writer. None is found in the Museum of the American Numismatic Society in New York City. It is a unilateral bronze medal, measuring 64 millimeters in diameter, designed by the German artist. Ludwig Gies, whose initials L.G. appear on the obverse. It is one of the numerous “war medals” created by him in the beginning of the First World War. It depicts the act of capture. A German soldier is shown capturing and taking away a French, a Russian, an English, Belgian, Serbian, and a colonial native prisoner of war. A brief description, but no reproduction of this medal, is found in J. Schulman’s Catalogue LXV, of April 1916, p. 82, No. 809. It is pictured among the artist’s other war medals in Max Bernhart’s _Die Muenchener Medaillenkunst der Gegenwart_, Plate 15, No. 102, wherefrom the reproduction is made.

The medal reproduced here as No. 1, another German war prisoner medal, is a silver medal, of 37.67 grams, measuring forty-one millimeters in diameter. The obverse depicts the full figure of a German prisoner of war, dressed in his uniform, on which a sign PG (French: _prisonnier de guerre_) is visible. Standing on the shore of a river, being of course the Rhine, he holds his hands stretched out to express his fervent longing for his home country. Not only the mountains of the latter are visible on the opposite shore but also the home village with its little church in the foreground. The inscription in the left upper space of the medal, before the soldier’s eyes, reads: SEHNSUCHT (longing). The reverse bears the following inscription in a quadrangular space surrounded by ornaments: VOLKSBUND/ZUM SCHUTZE/DER DEUTSCHEN/KRIEGS u. ZIVIL/GEFANGENEN, meaning, “National Society for the Protection of German Military and Civil Prisoners of War.” On the rim of the medal name and place of the producing firm are visible: C. Poellat, Schrobenhausen. The designer’s name does not appear on the medal. No year is given. In accordance with the aims of the issuing society the medal was probably destined to promote interest in and support of the German prisoners of war in enemy land. No records or accounts of the activities of this society were available in this country. Nevertheless it is safe to assume the following. Sending of food parcels from Germany was possible only in the first years of war. But even later, in the period of grave food shortage, funds were still needed and actually raised for clothing, and particularly for books, which were continuously sent to prisoner camps in great quantities. A specimen of this medal is in the collection of Dr. Bruno Kisch, New York City.

There is a French counterpart to this medal. A small medal, 26 millimeters in diameter, similar to No. 1 in its motives, but apparently more artistically designed, is known to have been struck in France. No specimen is available in this country. According to the brief description in J. Schulman’s Catalogue LXXIII it was designed by O. Yencesse and executed in a silvery white metal. The obverse shows a French soldier seated in an attitude of despondency. The inscription reads: POUR NOS—PRISONNIERS. that is: “For Our Prisoners.” On the reverse a dove is visible bearing in its bill an olive branch. Below is the date 1916. The motive of the issuance of this medal was patently fund raising.

No. 2 is a medal made of hard white metal, and struck for the German prisoners of war interned at Douglas, Isle of Man, to commemorate their detention there. Its diameter measures 46 millimeters. On the top there is a rectangular vertical loophole. The obverse shows the Douglas prison camp, in the foreground its barracks and huts, also an unfolded banner is visible; in the background a fortress at the left of the beholder, and a lighthouse at the right. Between the fortress and the lighthouse is the Manx triskelion or triquerta, occupying a prominent place in the upper center. The entire picture on the obverse is enclosed by a surrounding wreath of barbed wire. The reverse has a wreath of leaves with a panel in the middle. The inscription reads, in the upper segment: WELTKRIEG 1914-1915 (“World War 1914-1915”); in the lower: DOUGLAS ISLE OF MAN; in the middle: ERINNERUNG AN DIE KRIEGSHAFT (“In commemoration of war detention”). No artist’s name is given. Specimens of this medal are found in the museum of the American Numismatic Society, New York City, and in this writer’s collection. The first mentioned specimen is in an (original) plain wooden case with no ornament. Other wooden cases are known, on the cover of which an inlaid design is visible representing an open-jawed snake as the symbol of war. The words _Weltkrieg 1914/15_ are added on the case. This medal was pictured and briefly, though not exactly, described in _The New York Times_ of August 26, 1916. In The Numismatist of March 1916, a reproduction with a few explanatory lines was also published, the medal having been exhibited at the January meeting of the New York Numismatic Club.

Douglas, Peel and Knockaloe had been chosen as sites for the detention camps on the Isle of Man. Here many an alien who for years had followed some profession or trade in Great Britain was interned in 1914 for the duration of the war. The English and German Relief Committees with the active cooperation of the American Young Men’s Christian Association succeeded in performing what seemed to the _New York Times_ correspondent at that time to have been an unheard-of feat under the existing conditions: the establishment of an art school for prisoners of war at Camp Douglas. Beside wooden boxes done in chip carving and in wood intaglio, the commemorative medals for German war prisoners were certainly the most artistic objects produced there. Through a strange irony of fate, they were strictly “made in England.” “Some day they will be of historic value,” said the _New York Times_ correspondent in concluding his article. The art school was established in 1915. From the inscription on the medals “1914-1915” it is clear that they must have been designed and executed in the latter year, three years before the war came to an end.

No other war prisoners medals dating back to the First World War have come to the attention of the present author. Yet, there may be some that eluded him. He therefore would appreciate any additional information that readers should be kind enough to send him (address: 415 West 115th Street, New York 25, N. Y.)

III American War-Prison Tokens and Medals

1. “Historical Tokens”

The study of European money and medals issued for prisoners of war in 1914-1918, aroused—little wonder—the curiosity as to whether similar items came into existence in this country too. No war prisoners money or medal originating in the last war is known to the author. In his collection, however, five related items are found, four small tokens and one large medal, which are deserving the historian’s and medallist’s attention. All of them picture war prisons of ill fame. Four pertain to the Revolutionary War, the fifth to the Civil War. Thus it is pertinent to consider them all in this connection.

Nos. 3 A, 3 B, 4 and 5 are copper tokens, each 31 millimeters in diameter. They are not “historical” items in that they have come down to us as immediate witnesses from the period of the Revolutionary War. They are rather medallic creations of an outspoken commercial character, but nevertheless “historical” tokens. Nos. 3 A and 3 B are identical with No. 1 of a series of fourteen “Historical Tokens” issued by August B. Sage, a well-known New York coin dealer, in 1859. No. 4 in the present numbering is identical with No. 2, and No. 5 with No. 5 of the same series. On the first page of his _Catalogue of Coins, Medals and Tokens_, No. 1, of February 1859, Mr. Sage announced that “this series will consist of about 25 tokens, each one giving a correct representation of some public building around which there is anything of an historical interest.” No more than fourteen tokens were actually issued of this series. All of them were advertised in Mr. Sage’s later catalogue of June 1859. They were executed in copper plain edge and in copper and brass with reeded edges. In 1859, the set was offered for sale for $4.00. Mules in copper, brass, and tin are known. Of No. 1 and No. 6 two dies were made: in both cases the original die showed some mistakes in picture or legend which were corrected in the second die. In Chapman’s catalogue of the Bushnell collection a specimen of No. 1 in silver is listed as No. 462. It was described as of “weak impression, but very rare.”

No. 3 A shows on its obverse a three-story building. On top a fourth-story attic is added with four dormer windows. Above the roof rises an octagon-shaped tower surrounded by a balustrade and surmounted by a cupola ending in a cross. On the front side of the building at the level of the main floor an empty space is visible. It was probably designated in the draft for a gate or entrance door which is, however, missing. The building is surrounded by a fence. In the lowest part of the obverse, a large asterisk is placed between two smaller ones. The top space contains the inscription: THE OLD PROVOOST, N. Y. The reverse has the following legend arranged in five lines A/ BRITISH/ BRISON/ DURING THE/ REVOLUTION. The third word reads _B_rison, and not Prison. This inscription is placed within the chain of shackles in a wreath-like arrangement. The endings converge but do not meet, in the lower part of the obverse. Between the open ends one reads: NO. 1, and underneath in smaller letters parallel to the rim: AUG. B. SAGE’S HISTORICAL TOKENS.

No. 3 B, of the same type and make looking almost identical with, but differing in details from No. 3 A, must be considered as a “revised edition” of the latter. The obverse is identical with that of No. 3 A with only one deviation: No. 3 B has an entrance door instead of the empty space in the front wall of the building. The reverse shows more divergencies. The wording and arrangement of the main inscription are identical with that of No. 3 A. But the mistake in the word PRISON is here corrected, the B having been replaced by a P. In 3 B the surrounding open chain occupies only the upper half of the margin, while the title of the token series takes its place in the corresponding space in the lower half: “AUG. B. SAGE’S HISTORICAL TOKENS.” The half-circles of the chain in the upper part and of the series title in the lower part thus form a kind of wreath surrounding the main inscription of five lines. The numeral, No. 1, appears here in the lower part and is separated from the last line of the inscription, REVOLUTION, by a small asterisk between two brief exergual lines. Asterisk and lines are missing in No. 3 A.

Both types of the token, 3 A as well as 3 B, have on the obverse below the left corner of the fence, the initial L, representing the name of the engraver, George H. Lovett, who is listed in the New York City Directory of 1859 as die-sinker at 131 Fulton Street. He executed all the Sage tokens and several very pretty Washington medals.

The medallic picture of the “Old Provoost” is undoubtedly based on Alexander J. Davis’s (1803-1892) drawing that was engraved by Alexander Anderson (1775-1870) and reproduced in _The New York Mirror_ of September 10, 1831, in John Pintard’s article, “The Old Jail.”

The site of this “modern bastille” was City Hall Park. It was built as the second jail, in succession, in the City of New York in 1757 and completed in 1759. In the revolutionary period it was memorable during the occupation of the City by the British forces, from 1776 to 1783, as a British military prison, known as “Provost” and later as “Martyr’s Prison”, still later as “Debtor’s Prison”. In 1830 it was reconstructed and fitted to receive public records, henceforth known as “Register’s Office” or “Hall of Records”. It was finally demolished in 1903 to make way for the Subway. Coins, buttons, and human bones were found in the excavation. A tablet, erected in 1907, on a granite monument in the Park still marks the site of the “Old Provost.”