[Earl of Ormonde]

I imagine a passport cover which might be attached somehow, for example, by a neck chain like an identity badge or whatever. The reason why the passcover cover is necessary is because without it I don't see how the passport could be attached without such a cover.

What these chaps are talking about isn't for security purposes. It's basically a leather book cover that you put on your passport, just like the cover you put on paperback novel.

The only time I used one was on my old large dark blue cardboard cover UK passport when I was in the RAF, to physically protect it from the elements and travel fatigue!

Nowadays with plastic covers & with the border authorities needing to scan passport covers into quite a narrow gap, a leather cover is both unnecessary & just gets in the way.
That said, I've never seen a cover that is small enough for modern EU style passports.

The black leather covers, specifically designed for the old very dark blue UK passports, were however very snazzy because they had the gold British coat of arms on the front, as did the passport, and two cutouts to reveal in turn the two cutouts on the passport cover containing passport number and name.

Very nice.

Old British passport, the leather cover was exactly the same https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3362/3481508410_c7cbebd8f2.jpg

 

[Earl of Ormonde]

Voila! Leather passport covers for all countries!
And I just thought of something, imagine you're going to a country known to be hostile to yours, you could put a different cover on your
passport....oh what a wheeze that would be! :icon_smile_big: Like it says in that Telegrpah article:
"WE LOVE The passport covers which come in dozens of nationalities (you could do a Jason Bourne and have several)"

https://images.google.se/imgres?imgurl=https://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01442/passport-460_1442272c.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelaccessories/5816490/William-and-Son-Good-buy-guide.html&usg=__jgUL8aU40wBNBcr9NTprRh5oTpI=&h=288&w=460&sz=15&hl=sv&start=16&sig2=2mBVnawYYxKapIEN_Cjw6w&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=RbTOVGh79PwWZM:&tbnh=80&tbnw=128&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbritish%2Bpassport%2Bcovers%2Bleather%26hl%3Dsv%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1&ei=uml1S8XIKZD4-Qa12KSdBg

 

[Earl of Ormonde]

furthermore, even Europeans behave most discretely about their own identification documents.

That's not my experience at all. When standing in the queues at airports I see passports in the hands of the vast majority of travellers, and the colour combined with the emblem/writing on the front ocmbined with the look of the person makes it quite obvious and or easy to identify their citizenship.

And in a show of national pride I always hold my passport by a corner, out from my body with the Irish harp outwards and in full view! A practice I see many nationalities doing but not all.

Quite odd once, when going through the Customs baggage checks in Copenhagen in the mid 90s, having landed from Heathrow, the Customs officers had stopped a load of Britons and were going through many bags, it was a long queue. But when I came up to the table, Irish passport held out for inspection they just looked at it, smiled and waved me thorugh. Then stopped the next Brits behind me. Make of it what you will.