Borrowed a tenner off a mate
back in 1998, and we were students in Manchester, so it was a not unreasonable amount of cash.

A few days later, I saw him again. Sadly, I didn't have the tenner on me to repay him, so I offered to write him a cheque.

"You don't have your chequebook on you, do you?"
"Don't need it. You can write a cheque on anything"
"Really?"
"Yeah, as long as it has your details on it and who you're paying it to, and you've signed and dated it and stuff, you can use anything. People do it all the time."
"So... what are you going to write me a cheque on?"
"How about this postcard?"

There was a cinema postcard nearby. I wrote my name, sort code, account number and bank's name and address on it. Put the date in the top right corner, signed the bottom right corner and wrote "Please pay [my mate] the sum of ten pounds only", followed by the amount in figures.

Several days later...

"Did you pay that cheque in?"
"No. I took it to the bank. They said it was acceptable, but, as it's a non-standard cheque, there would be a processing fee."
"How much?"
"£10"
"You should have paid it in anyway. I'd have given you the tenner just to see it go through."
( le brian, Sat 18 Jul 2009, 13:16, 4 replies)

Thanks for teaching
me something I didn't know mate!

*Clicky-Clicky!*
(chopper_harris is giving you a reach-around on, Sat 18 Jul 2009, 19:39, closed)

I'm going to write next cheque
shaved onto the side of a black horse.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Sun 19 Jul 2009, 0:12, closed)

:
Thank you, you made me chuckle
(Ligdheb, Sun 19 Jul 2009, 2:16, closed)

Wasn't there a passing trend...
...for people to pay the deeply unpopular Poll Tax with cheques hand-written on paving slabs, and similar heavy mediums; working on the basis that it would be prohibitively expensive for those cheques to actually be cashed?

edit: see news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3159242.stm
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Mon 20 Jul 2009, 4:00, closed)