Christmas Cheques

Here is a cheque I picked up on eBay recently. It is a Christmas cheque and I hadn't seen many issued by Canadian Banks, so I grabbed it. It is drawn on the Bank of Montreal, Aylmer, ON branch. Issued December 16, 1947 by the Town of Aylmer. It has a stamp cancelled Canada 3 cents. It was cashed on the 19th.

hi,

Interesting ... the blue cancel ..... what does it say ?

john

Nice -- thanks for sharing. $25 was not a bad gift in 1947!

KirkS

The blue cancel is more green in person and reads: (top angle)Produced at ?????; (bottom angle) Chartered Accountants; (in centre) ??? Peters, Brown & Good/ Toronto-Fort Erie

According to the Bank of Canada's inflation calculator, $25.00 in 1947 equals $287.63 today! Not bad!

Interesting, and something I've never seen.

From the looks of it, I'm guessing the payee was an employee of the Town, and this was his Christmas bonus cheque. Note that it is dated a week or so before Christmas, which would have been useful for that last-minute Christmas shopping.

What purpose did the postage stamp have? Since there is no address on the check, it doesn't seem that the stamp would be paying for postal service. Is this use of postage stamps still in use today?

Marty

maybe that is a documentary stamp tax.....the stamp reflecting payment of the tax

This is an example of a stamp duty, a form of tax levied on documents. Before the document could become legally effective, a physical stamp had to be attached or impressed on it to show that the tax had been paid.

In Canada, the earliest examples have the stamp printed right on the cheque, but from 1920 onward, postage stamps were used, because the money paid for the stamp itself went right to the government.

Typically, the stamps used were definitives because they're the most common stamps, and the use of commemoratives is much rarer. Uncommon are examples where the rate was made up of multiple stamps, because at the time the tax was in effect, the lowest rate matched (coincidentally) the rate of postage for a first class letter, which most offices already had supplies of in the course of normal business, because this was what they used on their mail.

The first definitive series so utilized were the "Admiral" issues. Occasionally, excise tax stamps were also used.

The value of the stamps used differed, based on the value of the cheque itself. Up to $100, the tax was 3 cents. Cheques over this amount called for more, but I am unable to state what the different taxes were, because I can find no information about it.

This tax ended in Canada sometime in the early '50s, the last definitive series used being the later King George VI issue, which show the King in both profiles and head on.

Thank You WpgLwr. Your expert knowledge of Canadian stamps is wonderfully helpful. I was sure the stamp on the check was a postage stamp rather than a revenue and that prompted my question. You answered me well.

Here is a Christmas Club cheque from the Anacostia National Bank of Washington, Washinton DC - November 10, 1958 for $189.00.



Christmas clubs became popular during the Great Depression when families would put a small amount aside each week into a special savings account and they would receive the money in time for Christmas shopping.

nice cheques!
thanks for sharing with us.There's a stamp on our deed.it's pretty old.The registration of the deed happened in 1930.
Anyway my mom doesn't allow me to touch it even:D