Είχε ένα θείο τραπεζιτικό (Τατιάνα Γκρίτση-Μιλλιέξ)

This sentence from the above author is puzzling me:

Ο φίλος μου είχε ένα θείο τραπεζιτικό (νύχι) που τον βοηθούσε στη δουλειά. Είχε τόσο βεβαιωθεί πως το σύμβολο του διανοούμενου ήτανε το νυχάκι που με όλες τις φωνές του δασκάλου [telling him to cut it??] δεν εννοούσε τ' αποχωριστεί. Το περιποιότανε ιδιαίτερα.

Does it mean:"My friend had a perfect fingernail for banking [for thumbing bank notes with??], which helped him at work. He was so convinced that the the little nail was the mark of an intellectual that despite all the shouts of his teacher he had no intention of parting with it. He took special care of it." :curse:

The author is (was) Τατιάνα Γκρίτση-Μιλλιέξ, but I had never heard of a «τραπεζιτικό νύχι» until today. I know that it was very usual for many men, especially of lower classes, to grow the nail of the small finger and to use it like as a small knife or screwdriver or whatever, but «τραπεζιτικό»;

The paragraph would have made perfect sence without the word in parenthesis.
My friend had an uncle, a bank employee, who (: the uncle) helped him (: my friend) in business. He (: the uncle) was so sure that a long nail in the last finger is the mark of an intellectual, that ...

drsiebenmal said:

... but I had never heard of a «τραπεζιτικό νύχι» until today. I know that it was very usual for many men, especially of lower classes, to grow the nail of the small finger and to use it like as a small knife or screwdriver or whatever, but «τραπεζιτικό»;

Click to expand...

Never heard of that "banking nail" either. However, the syntax "θείο τραπεζιτικό" leads me to read it as "an uncle who was a banker / worked in a bank" and assume that something's missing after that, until "νύχι", i.e. "Ο φίλος μου είχε ένα θείο τραπεζιτικό [... perhaps που είχε αφήσει ένα μακρύ] νύχι, που τον βοηθούσε στη δουλειά."

I omitted (by design) a relative clause after τραπεζιτικό, which reads που στο μικρό του δάχτυλο άφησε μακρόστενο νύχι που τον βοηθούσε στη δουλειά. Ρerhaps I should have included it but would that help the translation? It seems that by this I should apologise for leading the good Dr astray. 'Man is spot on because I added the νύχι from a previous sentence, because he had cut his precious long little fingernail to impress. Later on the author writes Ρώτησε τη μαμά αν ήθελε να δει και τα τετράδιά του. Κόπηκαν τα πόδια μου. Ήξερα τους βαθμούς του κι έτρεμα. Why on earth would he be bringing exercise books to show the person's mother [a girl, it seems now?]?, when he was was in a bank: clearly he wasn't. His uncle was. The nail was a red herring, which I failed to understand. For he had cut it to impress her (so she thought). But actually at the end it appears that it was the mother he was out to impress.

Objection Your Worship! This relative clause could have been easily omitted with absolutely no loss of meaning. I treated it this way.

Thanks, Earion--Objection upheld! Another mistake I made was that I thought it should be now be translated 'which helped him (the uncle) at work/in his job'. The whole excerpt was beginning to be more & more obscure. I still am not sure about whether 'my friend' was in business or whether the uncle helped him into a job in business (later). It seems from the end of the piece that he is showing off his exercise books to the girl's [?] mother & that his teacher is yelling at him to cut his treasured nail, which he had steadfastly refused to do until the moment when he wanted to impress the girl, or rather, her mother.