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<p>This is from Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford's <i>The
Inheritors</i> (1901).</p>
<p><font color="#ff0000">One day, indeed, the matter was brought
home to me by the receipt from Polehampton of bills instead of
my usual cheques. I had a good deal of trouble in cashing the
things; indeed, people seemed to look askance at them.</font> <br>
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<p>From the SOED I gather that a "bill" in this context is the
equivalent of a promissory note. But how did such a bill work?
Incidentally, the writer/narrator is in Paris, so the assumption
seems to be that a cheque or bill written in England could be
cashed in France. It was not so when I grew up.</p>
<p>I write this two days after telling a US publisher that it's not
much use sending me a check, as no-one uses them in Norway any
more. The last one I wrote here was about a decade ago I think,
and my local bank charges 400 kroner (about 60 US dollars) to cash
a US check.</p>
<p>Jeremy H<br>
</p>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 17.07.2017 13:07, Stuart N. Clarke
wrote:<br>
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<div>When I went to open a bank a/c in 1966 with the
Westminster, I was asked whether anyone could give me a
reference. I replied: “I believe my [half-]brother works
for your bank.”</div>
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<div>(I’ve suddenly remembered something irrelevant but
comparable. A friend of mine did Art History under Quentin
Bell at Leeds. He applied for a job at the “Daily Mail”.
“What school did you go to?” My friend emigrated to
Australia.)</div>
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<div>Back to cheques. In “Zuleika Dobson”, when the Duke of
Dorset gives his landlady a cheque (presumably made out to
CASH), he encourages her to go that day to the bank to cash
it, for she wouldn’t be able to cash it the following day in
view of his imminent suicide.</div>
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<div>Stuart</div>
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