First Republic moneyboxes, treasure boxes, spinning-wheels and keys to them. Part 3.- cash boxes of other manufacturers

In the last episode, we will look at cassettes of other production than the most common Tresoria, as it was not only a domestic phenomenon, similar cassettes can be found in neighboring countries. The whole trick is said to have come to Europe from the USA, where the first similar cassettes started to appear. It istherefore common to see similar Polish, German versions in our country.

MĚSTSKÁ SPOŘITELNA PRAŽSKÁ cash box by fi. Alter Volanský

At first glance, it resembles the cash boxes from fi. Tresoria which we discussed in the previous part, the cash box is more or less identical in size and design. The lock is of simple design, but again universal and the key fits into all the same design., so again, if you copy the key 100% and the lock is not significantly damaged, it should open.

Again, the patent number was a good clue for identification, namely patent no.2424/26 which again can be found on the lid of the cash box in the manufacturer's logo.

Kreditanstalt der Deutschen (KdD) cash box

This is a German company operating for a relatively short period of time i.e. from 1911 until 1945. The company was founded on the wave of economic nationalism, the clientele was exclusively German. During the war it was a major financial institution, cooperating with the Nazi occupation administration, which led to the takeover of HADEGA by the bank's donor. Among other things, HADEGA dealt in precious metals confiscated from Jews for the benefit of the III. Reich. After 1945, the company was dissolved for logical reasons.

photo of KdD deposit books with caption : An interesting find was recently made by my colleague Ladik, in the collection of deposit books you can also see two books from the KdD company (above)

This particular money box was made by the Vienna Wertheim company, founded in 1852 by Franz Wertheim. The company, like Tresoria in Prague, was mainly involved in the manufacture of fireproof cash registers and is still in business today. Its deeper history and current offerings can be viewed at https://wertheim.at/

The cash box is noticeably taller compared to traditional Czech cash boxes and the openings for coins and banknotes are located from the top. But what dominates this treasure box is the sophisticatedly made massive lock with 4 locks on each side. In this case, unfortunately, the key can no longer be made just from sheet metal, but it is necessary to find a suitable key that fits and rearrange the locks as needed, or file the key to the desired state. The production of this key was the most complicated of all and it took me a long time to find a suitable key that could be modified.

Treasury of the Citizen's Bail in the East

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a specific manufacturer for this piece, only the letters B.E. and the inscription PROTECTED BY LAW are listed as the manufacturer's markings, but I still see this type quite often. The peculiarity of this type is that the lock is not riveted to the body of the case as it was in other cases, but it is soldered, as well as other components of the case (e.g. If you want to make a key, you will have to disconnect the lock and saw out a new key according to the locks.

Unfortunately, if the lock is closed, there is no other way to get into it than to use mild violence and try to pry the lock hook out with a suitably modified tool. Since the bottom half has an overlap that fits into the top half, the running plate at the overlap must be bent slightly and then realigned after repair.

And that's it from the last part and my modest collection, maybe there will be more parts in the future if I can hunt for morebut I believe I have covered the most commonly seen types and especially the universal lock types, it might help a few people.

Below the article you will find scanned keys with measurements, so just print out the attachment , check that the measurements match, or enlarge/reduce as needed and glue onto a piece of sheet metal and file according to the drawing.