MAMRAN:
A check; an expression used by Polish Jews from the end of the sixteenth to the beginningof the nineteenth century. The word is derived from "membrana," Low Latin equivalent for "promissory note." It was first used by Mordecai Jafeh in "'Ir Shoshan" (ch. 48), and was recognized by the law of East Prussia of 1801. Later laws, declaring that in legal documents only the language of the country may be used, threw the term into disuse. There are various forms of the word—"mamre," "mamram," "mamrama," "mamrame," etc., and a number of false etymological derivations (e.g., from 
= "to exchange"; or from "Maharam" [Meïr] Lublin, supposed to have introduced it).
Bibliography:
- Bloch, Der Mamran (
), der Jüdisch-Polnische Wechselbrief, in Berliner Festschrift, Berlin, 1903.
