diff --git a/scripts/check_balance.sh b/scripts/check_balance.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3b358d1b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/check_balance.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# RustChain wallet balance check with consistent error handling.
+#
+# Exit codes (documented scheme):
+#   0 = success                 (balance fetched and printed)
+#   1 = usage error             (missing/invalid wallet address)
+#   2 = network error           (DNS/connect/timeout)
+#   3 = bad response            (non-200 HTTP, malformed JSON, missing field)
+#   4 = wallet not found        (HTTP 404 from the RPC)
+#
+# The script NEVER prints a balance it did not actually receive. Every
+# failure path prints a distinct error to stderr and exits non-zero.
+set -euo pipefail
+
+NODE_URL="${RUSTCHAIN_NODE_URL:-https://rustchain.org}"
+CURL_TIMEOUT="${RUSTCHAIN_CURL_TIMEOUT:-15}"
+
+usage() {
+  echo "Usage: $0 <wallet_address>" >&2
+  echo "Checks the RTC balance of a wallet via the RustChain RPC." >&2
+  echo "Exit codes: 0 ok, 1 usage, 2 network, 3 bad response, 4 wallet not found." >&2
+  exit 1
+}
+
+[ $# -eq 1 ] || usage
+WALLET="$1"
+
+# Basic address sanity check (RTC addresses are 32-64 base58-ish chars).
+if ! [[ "$WALLET" =~ ^[A-Za-z0-9]{20,64}$ ]]; then
+  echo "ERROR: invalid wallet address format: '$WALLET'" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+err_file="$(mktemp)"
+code_file="$(mktemp)"
+trap 'rm -f "$err_file" "$code_file"' EXIT
+
+# 1) Network layer: curl connection failures are distinct network errors (exit 2).
+body_file="$(mktemp)"
+trap 'rm -f "$err_file" "$code_file" "$body_file"' EXIT
+
+if ! http_out="$(curl -sS --max-time "$CURL_TIMEOUT" -w '%{http_code}' -o "$body_file" "$NODE_URL/wallet/balance?miner_id=$WALLET" 2>"$err_file")"; then
+  rc=$?
+  msg="$(cat "$err_file")"
+  if grep -qiE 'could not resolve|connection refused|connection reset|timed out|timeout|no route|failed to connect|could not connect|server' "$err_file" 2>/dev/null; then
+    echo "ERROR: network error - ${msg:-curl exit $rc}" >&2
+    exit 2
+  fi
+  echo "ERROR: request failed (curl exit $rc) - $msg" >&2
+  exit 3
+fi
+
+code="$http_out"
+
+# 2) HTTP layer: 404 = wallet not found (exit 4); other non-200 = bad response (exit 3).
+if [ "$code" = "404" ]; then
+  echo "ERROR: wallet '$WALLET' not found (HTTP 404)" >&2
+  exit 4
+fi
+if [ "$code" != "200" ]; then
+  echo "ERROR: server returned HTTP $code" >&2
+  exit 3
+fi
+
+# 3) Payload layer: strict JSON parse + required field check (exit 3).
+if ! parsed="$(python3 -c '
+import json, sys
+d = json.load(open(sys.argv[1]))
+if "amount_rtc" not in d and "balance_rtc" not in d:
+    raise SystemExit("missing balance field")
+print(json.dumps({"wallet_id": sys.argv[2], "amount_rtc": d.get("amount_rtc", d.get("balance_rtc"))}))
+' "$body_file" "$WALLET" 2>"$code_file")"; then
+  echo "ERROR: bad response - $(cat "$code_file")" >&2
+  exit 3
+fi
+
+echo "$parsed"
+exit 0
diff --git a/scripts/test_check_balance.sh b/scripts/test_check_balance.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1d533d49c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/test_check_balance.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Tests for scripts/check_balance.sh - mocked HTTP, no real network.
+# Run from the repo root: bash scripts/test_check_balance.sh
+set -uo pipefail
+cd "$(dirname "$0")/.."
+
+PORT="${TEST_PORT:-18111}"
+FAILURES=0
+check() { # check <desc> <expected_rc> <actual_rc>
+  if [ "$3" -ne "$2" ]; then
+    echo "FAIL: $1 (expected rc=$2, got rc=$3)" >&2
+    FAILURES=$((FAILURES + 1))
+  else
+    echo "PASS: $1 (rc=$3)"
+  fi
+}
+
+# Mock RPC on $PORT
+python3 - "$PORT" <<'EOF' &
+import http.server, socketserver, sys
+class H(http.server.BaseHTTPRequestHandler):
+    def do_GET(self):
+        if "goodwallet1234567890" in self.path:
+            body = b'{"amount_rtc": "42.5"}'; self.send_response(200)
+        elif "missingwallet12345678" in self.path:
+            body = b''; self.send_response(404)
+        elif "malformedwallet123456" in self.path:
+            body = b'not json'; self.send_response(200)
+        elif "emptyfieldwallet12345" in self.path:
+            body = b'{"hello": "world"}'; self.send_response(200)
+        else:
+            body = b''; self.send_response(500)
+        self.send_header("Content-Length", str(len(body))); self.end_headers(); self.wfile.write(body)
+    def log_message(self, *a): pass
+class T(socketserver.ThreadingMixIn, http.server.HTTPServer): pass
+T.allow_reuse_address = True
+T(("127.0.0.1", int(sys.argv[1])), H).serve_forever()
+EOF
+SERVER_PID=$!
+trap 'kill $SERVER_PID 2>/dev/null || true' EXIT
+sleep 1
+
+export RUSTCHAIN_NODE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:$PORT"
+export RUSTCHAIN_CURL_TIMEOUT="3"
+S=scripts/check_balance.sh
+chmod +x "$S"
+
+"$S" >/dev/null 2>&1; check "no args -> usage" 1 $?
+"$S" '!!bad' >/dev/null 2>&1; check "bad address format" 1 $?
+"$S" missingwallet12345678 >/dev/null 2>&1; check "404 -> wallet not found" 4 $?
+"$S" malformedwallet123456 >/dev/null 2>&1; check "malformed JSON -> bad response" 3 $?
+"$S" emptyfieldwallet12345 >/dev/null 2>&1; check "missing field -> bad response" 3 $?
+out="$("$S" goodwallet1234567890 2>/dev/null)"; check "success -> rc 0" 0 $?
+echo "$out" | grep -q '"amount_rtc": "42.5"' && echo "PASS: balance output" || { echo "FAIL: balance output" >&2; FAILURES=$((FAILURES + 1)); }
+RUSTCHAIN_NODE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:1" "$S" goodwallet1234567890 >/dev/null 2>&1; check "unreachable -> network error" 2 $?
+
+echo
+if [ "$FAILURES" -eq 0 ]; then echo "ALL TESTS PASSED"; else echo "$FAILURES TEST(S) FAILED"; exit 1; fi