This is a genuine cheque from a bank which no longer exists.
At over 150 years old it is a lovely piece of Australian history and is in very nice condition for its age.
The cheque is blank but in pristine condition.
Maldon was reknowned for its vast riches during the goldrush of the 1850’s and 60’s.
This cheque represents a unique peice of that history and as such is highly collectible and desirable for all collectors.
Design
A cheque (or check in American English) is a document[nb 1] that orders a payment of money from a bank account. The person writing the cheque, the drawer, usually has a current account (most English speaking countries)[which?] or chequing/checking account (US; also, occasionally, Canada) where their money was previously deposited. The drawer writes the various details including the monetary amount, date, and a payee on the cheque, and signs it, ordering their bank, known as the drawee, to pay that person or company the amount of money stated.
Cheques are a type of bill of exchange and were developed as a way to make payments without the need to carry large amounts of money. While paper money evolved from promissory notes, another form of negotiable instrument, similar to cheques in that they were originally a written order to pay the given amount to whoever had it in their possession (the “bearer”).
Technically, a cheque is a negotiable instrument instructing a financial institution to pay a specific amount of a specific currency from a specified transactional account held in the drawer’s name with that institution. Both the drawer and payee may be natural persons or legal entities. Specifically, cheques are order instruments, and are not in general payable simply to the bearer (as bearer instruments are) but must be paid to the payee. In some countries, such as the US, the payee may endorse the cheque, allowing them to specify a third party to whom it should be paid.
Although forms of cheques have been in use since ancient times and at least since the 9th century, it was during the 20th century that cheques became a highly popular non-cash method for making payments and the usage of cheques peaked. By the second half of the 20th century, as cheque processing became automated, billions of cheques were issued annually; these volumes peaked in or around the early 1990s.Since then cheque usage has fallen, being partly replaced by electronic payment systems. In an increasing number of countries cheques have either become a marginal payment system or have been completely phased out.
History
A Time In Australian History When:
August 20 1860 – Burke and Wills expedition sets off from Royal Park, Melbourne at about 4pm watched by around 15,000 spectators.
November 12 1860 – The Victorian College for the Deaf is opened in a small house in Peel Street Windsor.
December 12 1860 – Initial riots began on the Lambing Flat goldfields near present day Young, New South Wales.
The spellings check, checque, and cheque were used interchangeably from the 17th century until the 20th century. However, since the 19th century, the spelling cheque (from the French word chèque) has become standard for the financial instrument in the Commonwealth and Ireland, while check is used only for other meanings, thus distinguishing the two definitions in writing. In American English, the usual spelling for both is check.
There have been suggestions that the word chek comes from ancient Pahlavi language which was used in the Achaemenid Empire in Persia. It may have spread from there to Arabic where saqq means a promise to pay a certain amount of money for delivered goods.