The Prohibition agent's commission

From 1920 the Internal Revenue Service of the Treasury enforced Prohibition, and each of its agents carried a folding card: a leaf with two photographs, full face and profile, under the Treasury's embossed seal, and a leaf certifying that the bearer was duly employed as a Federal Prohibition Agent and authorized to execute and perform all the duties delegated to such officers by law, countersigned by the Federal Prohibition Commissioner and signed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The commission was void without the photograph.

Bearer prints it off the card of Isidor Einstein, the New York agent famous for his disguises, dated 1 April 1920. The Treasury's seal is not drawn. From July 1930 the Bureau of Prohibition passed to the Department of Justice, whose card has not been found, so the desk offers this one until then.

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

The same paper elsewhere

• Police warrant cards by country

Still to be confirmed

• the card read is of April 1920; from the Prohibition Reorganization Act of 1930 the Bureau of Prohibition passed to the Department of Justice, and the Treasury's card ends on 30 June 1930. What would settle it: a Prohibition agent's card of the Department of Justice, 1930 to 1933.
• the Treasury's seal between the two offices and embossed on the photographs is not drawn. What would settle it: nothing: the emblems of states are not drawn.

Sources

• Wikimedia Commons (public domain), Identification card of Federal Prohibition Agent Isidor Einstein, New York, 1 April 1920 (Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, No. 6915), top leaf: PHOTOGRAPH, two photographs, full face and profile, under the Treasury's embossed seal; bottom leaf: DATE …, the number in red, THE UNITED STATES / TREASURY DEPARTMENT / INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, THIS CERTIFIES THAT … OF … IS DULY EMPLOYED AS A (Federal Prohibition Agent) AND IS HEREBY AUTHORIZED TO EXECUTE AND PERFORM ALL THE DUTIES DELEGATED TO SUCH OFFICERS BY LAW. Countersigned … Federal Prohibition Commissioner; … Commissioner of Internal Revenue. THIS COMMISSION IS VOID IF PHOTOGRAPH OF BEARER DOES NOT APPEAR ABOVE. (read directly)

Open the passport office · MGS Toolbox