Coins; Medals; Money; Numismatics; Prisoners of war
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.
[Illustration: Different Types of War Prisoner Money]
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account