SPECIMEN FORM OF PROMISSORY NOTE
A bill of exchange is defined by the N. I. L. as follows: "A bill of exchange is an unconditional order in writing addressed by one person to another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand or at a fixed or determinable future time a sum certain in money to order or to bearer."
A check is defined by N. I. L. as "a bill of exchange drawn on a bank payable on demand."
Other documents may be negotiable in form, such as the ordinary bearer corporation bonds, liberty bonds, certificates of stock, and bills of lading. The principles discussed in this chapter would apply, ordinarily, to these documents, and are discussed more in detail in the chapters devoted to them which we have already considered.
WHAT IS NEGOTIABILITY?—Negotiability has been defined as that quality whereby a bill, note, or check, passes freely from hand to hand like currency. In fact, all of these documents are substitutes for currency, and so far as is practicable, it is desirable that they should pass as freely as currency. Negotiability applies only to this branch of the law, while assignability applies to ordinary cases of contract law.