Checks Mix... It's Tasty!

I picked up this lot of various and sundry 19th-century checks on eBay. What drew me to it is the wide variety of states, businesses, banks, vignettes, etc. While there is some duplication, it's not heavy, and in some cases there are multiple different versions from the same bank or business.

While it was described as all checks, there are also things that looke like checks, but aren't: receipits, promissory notes, drafts, etc.

Rather than drown everyone here on the board with over 200 images, I've set it up as a stand-alone web page:

http://www.revenue-collector.com/checks/

I have numbered each of the items so you can refer to them easily.

Nothing all that great philatelically (a couple minor double transfers), but a few of the checks have really great aesthetics and will make their way into my collection.

I wish you could order checks today with vignettes similar to some the ones on these checks!

Which ones are your favorites?

Wow. Some very attractive checks! I agree about he vignettes and engravings.

I like the Broadway bank check.
Thanks for sharing.

What a lovely assortment! I primarily collect engraved material, so I tend towards those checks printed by bank note companies. #52 (Clinton Nat. Bank), 168 (Grocers and Producers), and 171 (LH Hershfield) are all fine examples and I have slightly different versions of these in my own collection. I also like the interesting background on #40 (Broadway Bank), printed by National Bank Note, and the indian vignette on 46 (Southwark Bank), which would have been printed pre-1852 by Draper, Welsh & Co. Draper Welsh eventually became part of American Bank Note Co. Lastly, I'm a sucker for steamship designs, so #152 (Old Colony Steamboat) is a favorite, even though the check is lithographic.

Many thanks for posting these online -- that must have been a lot of scanning!

Thanks Dan. I really like 43 & 44 and 144.
What do you call something like #64? I've found a number of these in my collection.

Dave

It's a promissory note, not stamped because it was after the tax was lifted.

Thanks Dan!

I can definitely see how it would have been a lot of fun to go through such a lot. I too love the vignettes -- especially the sailing ships like no. 154 -- and looking at these also made me think again about diving down the rabbit hole of revenue stamped paper. I marvel at the plethora of banks, including the Shoe & Leather National Bank (165) and the National Bank of the Northern Liberties (59). No. 144 is a check from Lanman & Kemp, which has several private die proprietaries, and I noticed that no. 40 is made out to A.T. Stewart & Co., whose red "A.T.S. & Co." cancel appears on several first issue revenues. Finally, I liked the somewhat odd Robinson Crusoe (?) vignette on no. 129, featuring the slogan, "Footprints in the Sands of Time." Nice!

Cool stuff! I just stumbled upon this, if you don't mind me asking, what's something like this cost?

Thanks for letting us see all of it!

Favorites:
#14 Pay to the order of "ourselves".

#38 I'm sure anyone would accept a check with a pasted-up bank name further corrected in pen. Also payable to John Mofs Jr and signed by Lucien Moss -- no chance of being relatives at all ...

#210 Wells Fargo and mining is always a good mix. The town of Randsburg still lives on.

"Cool stuff! I just stumbled upon this, if you don't mind me asking, what's something like this cost?"

Checks are the poor step-children of paper money and can be picked up quite inexpensively. There are some that run into the $20+ range (territorials, for instance, are in greater demand) but you can find *many* kinds of checks for just a couple bucks on eBay.

Why did they put stamps on them?

Still exuding newbie traits but that is the first time I have seen anything like that. Very cool!

There was a tax on checks, to help repay the civil war effort.

I too am learning, very interesting.

I don't see that many with stamps on them, guessing they are older, rarer & more difficult to find?