Voucher - 6 Pence Hay Camp 7; Confinement Voucher

Features

Location Australia
King George VI (1936-1952)
Type Paper vouchers › Confinement voucher
Year 1941
Value 6 Pence (1⁄40)
Currency Pound (1788-1966)
Composition Paper (card stock)
Size 138 × 76 mm
Shape Rectangular
Demonetized Yes
Number
N#
305196
References Camb# 1212
Lance K. Campbell; 1993. Prisoner-of-War and Concentration Camp Money of the Twentieth Century (2nd edition). BNR Press, Port Clinton, Ohio, United States.

Obverse

Blue; seal consisting of kangaroo, emu, and merino ram against background of barbed wire fencing. Border of seemingly random spirals of barbed wire.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
THE CAMP SEVEN BANK, INTERNMENT CAMP, HAY
WILL UPON DEMAND PAY AGAINST THIS NOTE
SIX PENCE
LEGAL AUSTRALIAN CURRENCY

Designer: George A. Teltscher

Reverse

Blue; text on background of 25 merino rams marked with number "7".

Script: Latin

Lettering:
THIS NOTE IS VALID ONLY
WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES
OF
CAMP SEVEN
INTERNMENT CAMP HAY
The bank is under no obligation to honour this Note if presented by Holders outside this Camp.

Designer: George A. Teltscher

Comments

Designed by Jewish Austrian graphic artist George Teltscher, educated at Bauhaus in the early 1920s, eventually moving to London in 1938. Deported to Australia as an enemy alien in 1941, where he designed the confinement vouchers for the Hay Internment Camp. Printed by the owner of The Riverine Grazier, a local newspaper.

Three latent messages are included in the design of this note.

In the background, along ground level, the barbed wire spells out "HMT Dunera / / Liverpool to Hay". HMT (Hired Military Transport) Dunera was the ship on which 2,542 internees were deported, departing from Liverpool, England, dropping off approximately one fifth of the internees in Melbourne, the rest to New South Wales to be divided into Camps 7 and 8. Teltscher was one of the "Dunera Boys", Jewish Germans who, having escaped to England, were now ironically deported to Australia on suspicion of being spies for Hitler. Among the Dunera Boys were artists and intellectuals who organized artistic and educational projects, including the creation of the paper vouchers used in Camp 7.

The barbed wire forming the border contains the message "we are here because we are here" repeated around the entire note; this is a reference to the camp's song, sang to the tune of Auld Lang Sine.

In the wool of the merino ram on the obverse, the name "Eppenstein" can be read; this refers to Andrew Eppenstein, one of Camp 7's leaders. In the wool of the 25 rams on the reverse, names may also be made out; it is believed that this may refer to the names of internees in Hut 26 at Camp 7.

Teltscher's note designs have provoked considerable interest and debate, and more latent messages are sometimes believed to exist, but have not gained broad consensus.

Although Teltscher also went by the name George Adams after moving to England, the signature visible on the obverse is as George A. Teltscher.

See also

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Date VG F VF XF AU UNC
1941-Mar-01  #1212a - signatures E. Mendel and R. Stahl
1941-Mar-01  #1212b - signatures W. Epstein and Stahl
1941-Mar-01  #1212c - signatures H. N. Relinson and Stahl

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