Cheque

Do you consider cheques ancient or commonplace?

A cheque is a slip of paper that directs a bank to give the payee money, from the bank account of a person, known as the ‘drawer’, who issued the slip.
‘Cheque’ is a British English term, and it is known in the United States as a ‘check’, and it is also considered as a type of ‘bill of exchange’.
Cheques were invented as an easy and relatively safe way to obtain and hold money of large quantities, and they were originally known as ‘drawn notes’.
Early types of cheques were in use in 321 to 185 BC in India, Asia, named ‘adeshas’, and were particularly similar to the modern invention, and a similar idea was used in Ancient Rome from around 100 BC.
The first use of early cheques in European society were in Europe’s Venice in the 1200s, for trade purposes, and the practice of issuing bills of exchange became more widespread a few hundred years later, and were very common by the 1700s when banks were more commonplace.

Cheques are commonly obtained in a booklet form, generally with pre-printed details of the drawer, and this practice emerged in the early 1800s.
With the introduction of more practical, efficient and cost effective technology, cheque use is decreasing rapidly and they are no longer used in some countries.
Cheques generally have the details of the drawer’s bank account number, the person the money is to be given to, the bank that issued the slip, and the amount of money to be given.
Cheques often expire after a certain time frame, ranging typically from 6 months to 15 months, if they have not been banked or cashed.
Cheques are usually smaller than a standard size piece of paper, although the largest one issued spanned 12 by 25 metres (39 by 82 feet), although large ones are usually for display and promotional purposes.

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