The circular letter of credit

Before traveller's cheques were everywhere, a traveller with means carried a circular letter of credit: his banker introduced him to its correspondents abroad, opened him a credit of so much, and asked each of them to pay him against his drafts on a London house, to write the payment on the back of the letter and to see that it was still valid. The holder signed the letter at issue, so that every paying bank could compare his signature.

Bearer prints the letter in French, the banking language of the form read, a letter issued at Boston in 1892. The back where the payments were written has not been found; its columns are ours, and the office says so.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

Open this example in the office

The paper

Parts reconstructed

• the back, where the paying banks wrote their payments: the letter read asks for it but has not been photographed on that side; its columns are ours

Still to be confirmed

• the letter read was issued in 1892; the same banking form in French is printed for 1920 to 1939, the words of a letter of the period not found. What would settle it: a circular letter of credit of the twenties or thirties.
• the bank's engraved border and its perforated amount are drawn as plain rules. What would settle it: nothing: a design pass.

Sources

• Kidder, Peabody & Co. and Baring Brothers & Co. Ltd; photograph on Wikimedia Commons, Lettre de crédit circulaire No. A 1828, £1,000, issued at Boston on 9 April 1892 by Kidder, Peabody & Co. for themselves and as attorneys for Baring Brothers & Co. Ltd, valid until 30 June 1893, the amount perforated and written, Lettre de Crédit Circulaire, the place and date, Messieurs, nous prenons la liberté d'introduire auprès de vous et de recommander à vos attentions obligeantes M. …, nous lui ouvrons en même temps un Crédit circulaire de … dont vous voudrez bien lui fournir la contrevaleur sous retenue de vos frais et contre ses traites sur Messieurs … à vue, qui recevront tout accueil à présentation; veuillez inscrire vos paiements au dos de la présente lettre, qui est valable jusqu'au …; agréez, Messieurs, l'assurance de notre parfaite considération; signature de l'accrédité; the correspondent's signature (read directly)

Open the passport office · MGS Toolbox