BankNotes4U - For collectors and researchers of banknotes, cheques and banking history

By Roger Outing.

The use of replacement banknotes to replace misprinted banknotes within a bundle and still thereby maintain the correct value of the bundle is well known. What about replacement cheques?

Illustrated at Fig. 1 are three cheques from the Wymondham Branch of Barclays Bank. They are consecutively numbered, each dated 14^th July 1915 and are drawn by the same person. They all came from the same cheque book.

Closer examination reveals three anomalies. Firstly, the Duty Stamp date of the first and last cheque is “24-7-14” whilst the Duty Stamp date of the middle cheque is “1-8-14”. Secondly, the serial number of the middle cheque is just slightly larger than the serial numbers on the first and third cheque.

This serial number has the appearance of being manually applied. Finally, the middle cheque is fractionally shorter in length. This minor size difference is often found between cheques from different cheque books but cheques from the same cheque book will have been cut to size together and should all the same size.

Why are the Duty Stamp dates and the serial numbers different? Why is there a difference in size? One logical explanation is that a cheque became damaged (or was perhaps misprinted) and thereby unsuitable for use. The unsuitable cheque was replaced by the middle cheque shown here. This replacement cheque was manually printed with the correct serial number to maintain the sequence in the cheque book. However, the replacement cheque carries a different Duty Stamp date and is a different size because the cheque will have come from a different cheque book.

Why bother? Because each cheque carried a 1d Duty stamp which would cost the customer 2/6d for a book of 30 cheques. The Bank could not charge the customer full price if one cheque was missing. The Bank would not want to lose the 2/6d by throwing away the whole book – it would show as a loss on the local Branch accounts. Also there was the production cost of the cheque book itself. Remember that these money values would be more significant in 1914 than they are now.

What to do? Obvious – have a small supply of cheques that could be manually printed with the appropriate serial number and inserted into a cheque book to make up the required number. In other words – a replacement cheque.

Another example is shown at Fig. 2 with three cheques from the Sudbury Branch of Barclays Bank. They are consecutively numbered, all dated in June 1966 and are signed by the same persons. They all came from the same cheque book.

By this period the medallion style Duty Stamp was in use so there are no variations there. However, the serial number of the middle cheque is markedly smaller and of a different design to the other two. Once again the number has the appearance of being manually applied. Also the middle cheque is slightly shorter in length than the other two.

Why would this middle cheque have a different style serial numbers to the others? Why is there a difference in size? Because it is a replacement cheque for the reasons already described above.

These two examples are the first suggestion that replacement cheques were used. Both examples are from Barclays Bank – it not known whether or not other banks used this method. If you can add to the discussion – or offer an alternative explanation for the anomalies described then please do get in touch.

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