Exemplaire de passe (overrun copy)

In printing terminology, the 'passe' designates the surplus sheets printed beyond the number ordered, to make up for those that would be spoiled during printing, folding and binding; the word is attested in typographical manuals as early as the eighteenth century. When these surplus sheets are not used to replace spoiled ones, the publisher may have them gathered into complete volumes: these are the 'passe' copies, encountered chiefly among the luxury papers of the twentieth century, where the gap between the announced print run and the actual print run can be read precisely in these unnumbered copies.

A 'passe' copy is recognised by its justification lacking a number, sometimes struck through or replaced by the words 'exemplaire de passe', 'passe' or 'H.C.', on paper identical to that of the numbered copies. The bookseller describes it as such: the same paper, the same printing, but outside the justified print run. Its value is generally lower than that of a numbered copy on the same paper, except where the rarity of the paper or an inscription sets it apart; publishers often turned such copies into author's copies, and many accordingly bear inscriptions.

It is often confused with the hors commerce copy, which belongs to the justification and bears a letter or a stipulated mention, and with the review copy, printed on ordinary paper for the critics. The opposite error consists in presenting a 'passe' copy as a limited deluxe copy on the strength of the paper alone: paper is not sufficient, it is the justification that determines rank. A number added by hand to a blank justification does not turn a 'passe' copy into a numbered copy, and such additions give themselves away.