Description and research notes
Issued cheque from the Cairo branch of Banque Belge pour l’Étranger, dated 2 September 1918, produced during the final months of World War I. Printed with a rich Art Nouveau–influenced border, dual-tone engraving, and a full branch list (Londres, Rotterdam, Le Caire, Alexandrie, Shanghai, Pékin, Tientsin), this form showcases the global reach of Belgian capital networks during wartime.
The cheque is made payable to the Société Anonyme Agricole et Industrielle d’Égypte, one of Egypt’s most important agricultural concerns of the early 20th century. It bears clear manuscript entries, the Banque Belge signature pair, and a sharply struck bank control stamp. The aesthetic and technical quality of the engraving align with Belgian and French security-printing standards of the 1910–1920 period.
WWI-period Belgian financial documents issued in Egypt are exceptionally scarce. Most Cairo-branch material was destroyed or dispersed following Belgian institutional restructuring after the war. Surviving complete cheques from 1918, with full manuscript completion and no reductions or stamp cuts, are rarely encountered and represent a crucial primary source for the multinational financial presence operating in Egypt during the Great War.