Quote:
Originally Posted by Those Who Squirm
I've noticed how old check forms have the location, often pre-printed, as well as a space in which to write the date. I wonder when banks stopped doing this, and why?
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That's what's known as a "counter check". As with all such bank forms, at least back in the day, it was printed up with the information for each individual branch. These checks were used whenever a customer's own personalized checks were not available, e.g. for a new account or when a customer ran out. They were also placed in the lobby so a customer could cash a check inside the branch without using one of his personalized checks.
Later, when MICR encoding (the line of printed numbers and symbols along the bottom) came into use, banks took these checks out of the lobby and the individual branch info off the checks.