British Army special voucher (banknotes)

At the end of the war in Europe in 1944, France, Britain, United States and Russia agreed at the Potsdam Conference to split Germany into four occupation zones. The British area was occupied by the 21st Army Group that was collectively known as the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). The Allies' job was challenging. They had to disband and disarm the German fighting machine, reassemble the country's basic infrastructure, and cope with population on the brink of starvation. To this end the BAOR operated as a country within a country, requiring a monetary system that functioned to serve the needs of the occupying forces. However, a problem soon emerged; goods intended for the troops were being sold to a thriving black market among the local population at highly inflated prices. Millions of pounds sterling were being lost by the taxpayers of Britain. A series of stopgap measures slowed, but did not stop the problem. It was decided in March 1946 that special military voucher system was needed.

Historically, soldiers serving overseas had been paid in local currency rather than in their "home" currency, most cash drawn by soldiers would go directly into the local economy, and in a damaged economy the effects of a hard currency such as the £ circulating freely alongside weaker local currencies could be severely problematic, risking severe inflation. There were other problems as well; once £ were circulating in a combat region, the opposing side could freely use its own stocks of £ as currency, or acquire stocks for use elsewhere to support their war effort. The high purchasing power of the £ and its easy transference back to Britain also posed a significant incentive to the black marketers.

However, whilst the use of local currencies was effective where they were provided in cooperation with the local authorities, it was impractical in combat zones where the government might be either hostile, deliberately ambivalent, or simply non-existent. In these cases, the military authorities issued special "military currency", which was paid out to soldiers at a fixed rate of exchange and simply declared legal tender in occupied areas by local commanders.