205 - GERMANY, 1930s, CARL SCHLEICHER & SCHÜLL, DÜREN “Mustergültige Schecks,” sample book of bank checks.

GERMANY, 1930s, CARL SCHLEICHER & SCHÜLL, DÜREN “Mustergültige Schecks,” sample book of bank checks. A rare, complete commercial booklet published by Carl Schleicher & Schüll in Düren (Rhineland), a manufacturer of technical papers and security prints. The cover features Fraktur lettering with the company’s monogram, and the spine is reinforced with leather and secured with two metal rivets. The book contains twelve sample checks presented to banks as a demonstration of the company’s expertise: a variety of security backgrounds, guilloche patterns, engraved vignettes (bank building facades, coats of arms, cooperative emblems), typefaces, and color combinations. The introductory note specifies that the forms are faithfully reproduced, with the exception of the color and company names, which have been intentionally altered; some place names are thus fictitious (Karlsheim, Burgfeld, Mersburg), while others refer to real cities (Fürth, Chemnitz, Breslau, Eisenach, Bühl, Heinsberg, Ebern). One example combines a check with a commercial postcard (Postkarte-Drucksache). The checkbook retains its original commercial and technical texts, detailing the qualities expected of a check: watermarked security paper, reactive paper, protection against mechanical and chemical tampering, and manufacturing and shipping under supervision. The last page outlines the requirements for the “Einheitsscheck”; only the format and text are mandated, while the color, background, and typeface are left to the client’s discretion: Überbringerscheck 105 × 197 mm, Orderscheck 105 × 236 mm. Carl Schleicher & Schüll, Düren, Germany, 1930s. Complete booklet of twelve sample checks. Size 20 × 10.5 cm, conforming to the regulatory dimensions of the Überbringerscheck. Condition: needs completion (paper is fresh, with slight foxing and small stains on the cover; perforations are intact). A beautiful and unusual artifact from the history of German banknote printing during the interwar period. Provenance: the collection of John van Kessel (Antwerp, 1885), head of the General Secretariat and Inspector General of the National Bank of Belgium. A professional reference document from the library of a senior executive at the Belgian central bank, this booklet illustrates the attention paid by banking circles to German security printing processes during the interwar period.