A packet of fags and a last will and testament form please

Maggie needed to get the equivalent of a police record check for her job as a teacher here in Spain. You buy the form from a tobacconist.

After the Spanish Civil War the licences to run tobacconists (an estanco) were dished out by Franco's Government to those who had faithfully served the cause and would find difficulty earning a living otherwise - people whose legs had been blown off, the widows of war heros etc. As nearly everyone smoked there were tobacconists everywhere, even in the remotest village. So tobacconists provided a good network to distribute official forms through a semi governmental organisation. They still do.