A Historical Look at Checks

Known as one of the common ways to trade money, checks have always been a major player in the financial industry. In 352 B.C., Romans first began using checks, but the idea didn’t catch on, and in the early 1500s, people in the Netherlands began using checks as part of the international shipping and trading center in Amsterdam. In the United States, the first check was used in 1681, and in 1762, a British banker created the first printed set of checks. The American Federal Reserve system was created in 1913, and in 1958, researchers developed and implemented magnetic ink characters on checks. Take to learn about the history of checks.