What do I have here? Lithuania Belgium checks from the 20s
DNADave
Posts: 7,271 ✭✭✭✭✭
DNADave
Posts: 7,271 ✭✭✭✭✭
DNADave
Posts: 7,271 ✭✭✭✭✭
Comments
that good huh?
It felt weird throwing them away after they made it all this time.
The last two marked Original (duplicate unpaid) are exchange drafts. presumably to make payments to someone in the US but originated in a foreign country. For a fee, the payer would purchase "exchange" (funds payable in another city or country) from his bank who would prepare these drafts in duplicate and to be mailed separately to the payee. The first draft to arrive would be paid from funds in the first bank's account. Such drafts were prepared for both domestic and foreign exchange to facilitate the movement of funds and as an alternative to sending cash.
The others look like regular checks or perhaps regular bank checks, again drawn in a foreign country to make a payment to a US payee. Not sure which backs go with which fronts, but it is possible to track how payments were originated and cleared/accounted for thru the system based on the cancellations on their back. Domestic exchange pretty much was put out of business by the creation of the Fed, but I think it is still possible (altho expensive and cumbersome) to get an FX draft. I've done it a few times over the years, but certainly the retail side of that business has been eliminated by paypal, sometimes direct debit and other electronic innovations.
Generally not of particular value (altho the Kaunas might be of some given the Judiaica tie)I think these are nice ephemera for a NBN or check collector and I have a few of these on STL located banks.
Feel free to throw them my way if you decide to just pitch them