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½ Piastre Maadi; PoW Camp
| Issuer | Prisoners of War Camp, Maadi |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914-1918 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | ½ Piastre (0.005 EGP) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Plain unadorned voucher printed in black letterpress on cream paper. The camp name 'PRISONERS OF WAR CAMP, MAADI' appears at top, separated from the central fractional denomination '1/2' by a horizontal rule. A manuscript signature appears in ink at lower right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Completely blank, unprinted reverse on plain cream paper. |
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| Comments |
Maadi, on the southern outskirts of Cairo, housed one of Egypt's principal prisoner-of-war facilities during the First World War under British administration. Camp scrip of this kind was issued to control internal purchasing — prisoners could not accumulate sterling or Egyptian currency, so camp-specific notes replaced it entirely within the compound economy. The ½ Piastre denomination reflects the small-scale transactions these notes were designed for: canteen goods, tobacco, basic sundries.
POW camp issues from Egypt are among the least-documented of the period. Record-keeping was inconsistent, surviving specimens are genuinely rare, and attribution is often complicated by the absence of serial numbers or printer's marks on the simpler denominations.