Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
5 Cents Keflavik; Officers mess
| Issuer | Officers' Open Mess, Keflavik Airport |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper (violet) |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Violet paper with black letterpress text. Left panel carries the issuer name and location in bold type, with a red serial number below the detachment warning in the lower left. Right panel encloses the denomination numeral and unit in a bold bordered box. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Keflavik Officers' Open Mess Keflavík Airport NOT GOOD IF DETACHED 5 CENTS |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Military scrip issued for use within the Officers' Open Mess at Keflavik Airport, the NATO air base in Iceland that served as a critical North Atlantic patrol and anti-submarine warfare hub throughout the Cold War. The U.S. military maintained a substantial presence there from 1951 until the withdrawal in 2006, and on-base scrip of this type functioned as a control mechanism — limiting the spending of foreign currency and preventing dollars from entering the local Icelandic economy, a condition the Icelandic government periodically pressed Washington to enforce more strictly.
Mess-specific denominations at this scale were used almost exclusively for small canteen purchases. Attrition from daily handling was high; survivors in any condition are more common in collector hands than in archival records.