5 Cents Thika Camp

The D.A.P.S.S. — Directorate of Army Postal Services and Supplies — operated a network of prisoner-of-war camp scrip across East Africa during the Second World War, with Thika Camp No. 5 holding primarily Italian prisoners captured during the East African Campaign of 1940–41. Camp scrip of this kind was issued to prevent POWs from accumulating currency usable outside the wire, a requirement under Geneva Convention provisions governing prisoner canteen privileges.

Thika issues are among the scarcer East African POW denominations. The camp itself was a major internment site, but survival rates for low-denomination scrip are poor — small values circulated hardest and were rarely preserved.