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2 Annas Calcutta; American Officers' Mess.
| Issuer | Calcutta American Officers' Mess |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942-1945 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2 Annas (⅛) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Plain voucher printed in black letterpress on grey paper stock, entirely unadorned. The issuer's name appears in two lines at the top, with the denomination expressed as "As. 2." in large bold numerals in the lower portion. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Calcutta American OFFICERS' MESS As. 2. |
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| Comments |
American Officers' Mess notes from Calcutta are among the more unusual pieces of WWII-era American military scrip produced in the Asian theater. These were not officially sanctioned military payment certificates — the U.S. Army's formal MPC program didn't launch until 1946 — but rather informal mess tokens issued locally by individual officers' messes to manage canteen transactions and limit cash handling among staff.
The annas denomination is telling: whoever ordered the printing was working within the local Indian monetary system rather than dollars, which suggests these circulated almost entirely among Indian mess staff, not American personnel.