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10 Piastres Alexandria Internment Camp
| Issuer | Alien Internment Camp, Alexandria |
|---|---|
| Year | 1914-1921 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ALIEN INTERNMENT CAMP ALEXANDRIA VALUED 10 P. T. TEN PIASTRES No... |
| Reverse description | Plain unprinted cream paper reverse with a hand-pencilled numeral '10' underscored by a single pencil stroke in the upper centre area, on an otherwise blank surface showing age toning. |
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| Comments |
During the First World War, the British military interned enemy nationals — primarily Austro-Hungarian and German civilians — in camps across Egypt, which was then under British administration. Alexandria's internment camp issued its own scrip to control internal commerce, keeping detainees away from Egyptian currency markets entirely. These privately circulating camp notes occupy a genuinely odd space: neither military scrip in the conventional sense nor civilian banknotes, but instruments of a captive economy with no external legal standing.
Surviving examples are rare. Attrition within camp environments was high, and there was no formal redemption mechanism that would have driven notes back to an issuing authority for preservation.