Scrappy, I am thinking of you and your family and wishing you peace, as ita said. You are such kind and comforting person here at Buffistas and I hope we can be of some comfort now, to you.

Scrappy... I'm so, so, sorry. What a tragedy. I hope she is at peace, and I hope you and your family can come to peace with this. Much love to you and yours.

I knew this at one time, and not that long ago. I think it just needs the amount it is worth, the account it is drawn on, the account holder's signature, and the payee (or Payable to Bearer, I suppose). It seems to me that I've known someone who has used their pre-printed deposit slips as checks, just wrote Pay to the order of, etc. on them. I don't think your bank is legally obligated to honor that sort of thing if they don't want to, though.

A piece of bark with the routing code and account number on it would work just fine, as long as the teller could read the numbers and key them in rather than scanning it.

I know the problem when the amounts are different, or unclear, is the teller doesn't know what amount to make it. Even though the difference is usually in the cents, it matters. Or did back in dicky-two when I was a bank teller.

I think when I trained as a teller we were told to go by the written out amount in preference to the numerical, though they should, of course, agree, and this was ages ago so I am probably remembering something completely different. But the idea was that the written amount was harder to alter. I don't think it ever came up a a practical matter in my few months experience.

It's been a long time since Negotiable Instruments, but as I recall, a check is simply a written document drawn on a specific bank against funds that have been deposited. The document must state who is to be paid and how much.

But the idea was that the written amount was harder to alter.

of course, once people stopped writing out "thirty two cents" and started putting "32/100", that safety net went away :)

True. I do that myself, though I enjoy writing checks for whole dollar amounts as "FIfty-four only" or whatever, rather than "and 00/100".

people stopped writing out "thirty two cents" and started putting "32/100"

They did??? No one tells me anything! How will I ever keep up???

Okay, that last burst of work took a lot out of me. I am off home.

How could anyone fit the amount in without writing 32/100? I have trouble fitting amounts over one hundred dollars!