Though cheques are usually made out on engraved forms, you may write a cheque on a sheet of note-paper should a cheque-book not be at hand. In that case, remember to put a penny stamp on it, and to cancel the stamp by writing on it the date and your initials.
Keep your cheque-book always under lock and key. If you leave it about, it only puts temptation in the way of people to abstract a blank form and make free with your signature. Should your book ever be lost or stolen, give notice at once to the bank.
Lodging money is one of the easiest of business operations. You go to the bank, and fill up a slip, headed, say—
The Cosmopolitan Bank,
14, Marketjew-street.
............18...
Credit...........................
Paid in by.....................
Below this heading you enter the particulars of the sum you are going to lodge:—Bank-notes, so much; coin, so much; cheques and bills (mentioned separately), so much; total, so much. You hand this slip over to the teller with the money, and the whole thing is done. No receipt is given, and it says a great deal for the perfect machinery by which banking is conducted that one never hears of a mistake, or that any customer ever thought his confidence taken advantage of. We speak here of the method in the best London banks. In the provinces and in some London establishments the form of procedure varies a little.
When you send money to your banker by post, you should write with it somewhat as follows:—
Brackenhurst, 24th November, 1886.
Dear Sir,
I enclose cheque for £34 12/—Messrs. Bagwell and Sackit on the Welsh Counties Bank—which kindly place to my credit.
I remain, Dear Sir,
Yours truly,
Silvaninha Hamilton.
The Manager,
The Cosmopolitan Bank.