CHEQUE FOR 3d.

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3045, 29 August 1933, Page 3

CHEQUE FOR 3d.

Considerable interest has been aroused- by a framed cheque for threepence, which hangs on a wall in the office of the deputy-official assignee of New Plymouth (Mr J. S. Medley). On Thursday, while waiting for a bankrupt to put in an appearance, Mr Madley told the tale of one of the smallest cheques on record (says the Taranaki Daily News). The cheque was payable to Robert Wardrop or bearer, and was drawn on the Bank of New Zealand at New Plymouth. It was made out on March 8, 1905, and was signed by Mr Medley. The sum of threepence represented a dividend in the estate of Peter Gibson Clark, but the creditor never received the benefit of the payment. He resided at Whangarei, and it would have cost him sixpence to cash the cheque, involving a net loss of threepence, so he framed it instead. A coincidence occurred later. The man to whom the cheque was payable was himself a bank officer, and he was transferred to New Plymouth. There he met Mr Medley and presented the cheque to him, and it has hung on the wall of the office since then, an ever present reminder of an anomaly which is no longer possible. Nowadays, Mr Medley explained, no dividends for less than sixpence may be paid, and those for less than four shillings are not paid by cheque, but through a Government Department.