Fourgon blindé

An armored vehicle (also known as an armored cash transport car, security van, or armored truck) is an armored van or truck used to transport valuables, such as large quantities of money or other valuables, especially for banks or retail companies. The armored car is typically a multifunctional vehicle designed to protect and ensure the wellbeing of the transported contents and guards. Typically customized on a basic van or truck chassis, they feature bullet-resistant glass, armor plating, and reinforced shells and cabs. Armored cars are designed to resist attempts at robbery and hijacking, being able to withstand bullets from most handguns and rifles, as well as extreme degrees of heat, explosives, and collisions. The earliest form of armored transportation for valuables that actually went into production were the "ironclad" treasure wagons designed by the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Company during the American Old West. Back then, a platoon of soldiers and cavalrymen were used to transport valuables such as gold safely across the lawless frontier. They were not always successful in escorting their valuables, and some robbers managed to hold up and rob these transports, such as what happened in the Wham Paymaster robbery and the Skeleton Canyon massacres. In Deadwood, the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Company suffered robberies along the criminal-infested Deadwood to Cheyenne trail that also resulted in the death of one of their shotgun messengers named Johnny Slaughter. To deter bandits and prevent future robberies, the Stage Company built two steel-plated treasure coaches named Slaughter (after the former shotgun messenger) and Monitor (after the famous USS Monitor in the American Civil War). The stagecoaches had 5/16th-inch thick steel plates, portholes for guards to shoot from, and inside of each coach was a strongbox with walls three inches thick that was bolted to the floor, and was said to be able to resist assaults for 24 hours. Although the stage coaches were impenetrable, they still left its driver and shotgun messenger unprotected.