[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.
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.”