[net.misc] What can a Check be Written on

dkw (01/09/83)

The classic case concerning what constitutes a check is  Board of Inland
Revenue v. Haddock.  Mr. Haddock presented the	collector of taxes with a cow
on which he had written  " To the London and Literary Bank, Ltd.
	Pay to the Collector of Taxes, who is no gentleman, or Order, the
	sum of fifty-seven pounds (amd may he rot!)
The court enquired whether the cow bore the required stamp, and after being
reassured that the stamp was affixed to the dexter horn, ruled that the
cow was in fact a good faith attempt to pay,  ( ie that it was indeed
negotiable).
  The case was originally reported in @u(Punch) in the late 20's and
reprinted in A.P. Herbert's marvelous book @i(Uncommon Law)  (1936)

smb (01/11/83)

I've seen, in some money museum or other (this was many years ago,
incidentally), a check "written" on a large piece of metal.  The bank
cancelled it with a submachine gun -- they had a security guard "write"
PAID (or some such) across it.