Low Value Cheques.  A low value cheque is usually defined as any cheque made out for a value of £1 or below and used prior to the decimalisation that took place in February 1971.  Low value cheques are always in pre-decimal money – so there is no opportunity to specially create these cheques for the collector market.  Consequently as there were 240 pennies in a £1 there are, theoretically, 240 different low value cheques to be collected.  However, the lowest value cheque so far seen is for 1/-, so the eleven-penny values below 1/- are regarded as not available – although collectors live in hope.  This means that there are 229 available low values from 1/- to £1.  The challenge is to collect cheques that represent all 229 of these different values.

Market Price.  The market price of a low value cheque will have two components.  Firstly, the market value for the cheque in its own right without bearing a low value. Secondly, a premium on top of the market value which indicates the availability of that particular low value.

The chart below indicates the price premium for all low values from 1d to £1.  For example a cheque for £1 or 10/- carries no price premium beyond the normal market value of the cheque – because these low values are readily available.  On the other hand a cheque for 1/- will have a price premium of £15, in addition to its standard market value, because values of 1/- are not often seen – and this applies to all cheques for values under 2/-

Some “odd values” such as 17/1d; 13/7d; etc. are frustrating difficult to find.  It should be noted that such odd values command a higher premium that some lower values in round amounts e.g. 5/-; 7/6d; etc.  These cheques were all real transactions by real people and they reflect the way money values were actually used.  In normal commerce and business a 5/- cheque was needed more often than one for 13/7d – therefore the latter is less likely to be found.

How Many Are There?  Nobody really knows.  A search of a bundle of 100 cheques will usually find 5 or 6 examples with values under £1.  Of these 3 or 4 will be of 10/- or some other round shilling value.  Only 1 or 2 will be an “odd value” and it is unlikely that either will be an odd value under 5/-.  You will have to search perhaps 500 cheques to find a value for 3/- and under.  And you will hope that you are the first to look in that particular bundle.  The above analysis is based on average returns – you can be lucky and do a lot better.  Mostly you do a lot worse.

Best Collection.  Collections of 150 different values under £1 can be put together with a little patience.  200 different values under £1 appears to be the ‘magic number’ that indicates a serious and desirable collection.  Best confirmed collection to date is 209 different values under £1.  The values between 1/- and 2/- are the really, really difficult ones and the “holy grail” of a value below 1/- has yet to be found.  You can wait years to acquire your own particular “difficult piece” which might be 7/1d or 4/11d or similar.  It is all the more frustrating when you realize that someone else has apparently acquired that value without too much difficulty.  Tolerance of frustration is an essential prerequisite for this particular game.  Having lots of cash does not help all that much as it is persistent searching that pays dividends – although as established collectors disperse their accumulations this aspect may change. 

Why?  If you need to ask you will probably never fully understand.  Like Everest the challenge is there and some people just cannot resist the challenge.  Many collectors are interested in the now “quaint” nature of or pre-decimal currency e.g. £1 was made up of 20 shillings each of which was made up of 12 pennies.  Collecting low value cheques is one way of actually preserving and demonstrating the fact of pre-decimal money.  It is noticeable that a generation has now passed since decimal money was introduced and there is a nostalgic interest in the old money and how it actually worked.  Low value cheques are the perfect vehicle for illuminating the now lost intricacies of pre-decimal money.