Old Check Collectors Share Your Checks!

For those who didn't notice something KEY about urbanchemist's old checks, those orange diamonds in the center are pre-printed revenue stamps, which in turn are listed in the Scott U.S. Specialized (Stamp) Catalog. Some varieties are extremely valuable, just like some stamps are.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Likewise, one of gsalexan's checks (post #20) has a pre-printed revenue stamp too.

 

Likewise, one of gsalexan's checks (post #20) has a pre-printed revenue stamp too.

 

There is an active club of old check collectors, with a very nice journal.

See http://ascheckcollectors.org/

 

My Stuff

Thought I'd add my small collection of stuff. Back when I was a small lad in the mid 1950s we lived in the Mojave Desert in Ridgecrest...back with it was called a cow town and they were testing the new ejection seats at the China Lake Naval Air Station where my father worked. We used to go arrowhead hunting up 395 at the lava flows, which I don't think you can do anymore. Still can't find all the arrowheads and shell jewelry we found that I hope is still stashed at my parents' house. My father passed a few years ago and my mother is not in the best of health but she can't remember where any of that stuff is. But we used to go to old mining towns which were more like ghost towns back then. We made a trip to Randsburg in Kern County, found an old safe in an old building that held a few things that I have managed to save all these years. Here are a few of the checks I have along with a couple other documents. Cannot find JD Voss on the Internet so don't know whatever happened to him. The check register still has a couple unused checks in the back.

 

Salty Sam got me thinking about pairing checks with their counterparts from roughly the same time period -- either obsolete banknotes or Nationals.

The checks are from my collection, however, the notes are not, shown here only for fun.

 

The Nationals are beyond my reach, mostly, but the checks are entirely affordable!

 

As Mr. Hessler explained the story to me..it was an experimental project to see if engraved checks would be widely acceptable to the general public..as you mentioned it was costly and never really caught on. I am not sure how many exist outside of those for Mr. Hessler but I found it interesting to say the least.

I feel extremely lucky to have received these examples!

 

I have one from an account for world paper money expert Neil Shafer.

 

Tell me about it.

 

lettow:
Do you have any other info on how many people were involved in this early stage issue?
You would think that more than 2 people that we now know of has these...pretty cool.
Thanks for posting.

 

Very Nice Checks to all!!!

gsalexan: Your Montana Territory Checks are great examples and since I collect Territorial checks I like them very much...


Here is an Indian Territory Check with a Revenue Stamp (difficult to find). I have some with printed revenue stamps and those are even harder to find...


I also like to collect Blue Checks (don't see them too often) and I like this one with the contrasting printed revenue stamp...


What about Checkbooks? Here is the only one I have:

 

Fyi, that Statue of Liberty engraving appears on a 1986 souvenir card (SO38). Here's an image, with the info card ABNC issued with it.

 

A little Hometown piece I picked up !!




To go with this !!

 

Get yourself an ink well and fountain pen, it makes any handwriting look like a million bucks. I did it with my father's old pen and ink supplies and it makes a tremendous difference!

 

GrimReaper, you just gave me a brilliant idea for a separate thread -- bank stocks! And as it turns out I do have a cert in my collection to match one of those checks. Not quite the same era, but you can't have everything.

 

Stock Certificate


National Bank Note


Check from the liquidation of the bank

 

For my silver and gold bullion displays I use old silver and gold mining stock certificates for the back drops. I also used an old railroad stock certificate for my obsolete bank notes. So many of them have railroad vignettes on their face, it seems to fit right in. It is also easy to pair up the vignettes themselves. Many stock certificates were also printed by the American Bank Note Company. They used many of the same vignettes for the bank notes, and the stock certificates, during the same time period.

 

If I remember right, Detecto tried to start one last year (2012) but had only one response. The one you started in March of 2011 had a much better level of participation. I think maybe Detecto's name scared people off? Probably by now, there should be some newbe's or additional purchases to old collections. You had some very nice certificates on that thread. I would do it again.

 

Is this the one you mean: http://www.cointalk.com/t163555/ ?

There's also this one --
http://www.cointalk.com/t180115/

Post a certificate and give 'em a bump!