# Check law: Does the check have to be in local currency to legally be a check? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-law-does-the-check-have-to-be-in-local-currency-to-legally-be-a-check/607071 "2011-12-22T14:03:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-law-does-the-check-have-to-be-in-local-currency-to-legally-be-a-check/607071/1 "2011-12-22T14:03:23Z")
Kinda bizarre question. I’ve written plenty a check, but they were all clearly intended to be in US Dollars. The US seems to be somewhat old-fashioned with respect to checks - we still use them all over the place and our law regarding them is more similar to old-fashioned British law than current British law. What happens if someone in the US writes out a check in something other than US dollars, e.g.: 1. Foreign currency. E.g. they fill out an ordinary check from a basic US checking account, but they cross out “dollars” and write in “Japanese Yen”. 2. Tangible personal property: E.g. “Pay to the order of John Bill, One Ford Focus”, or “Pay to the order of Anna Victor, 10 gallons diesel fuel” 3. Real property: E.g. “Pay to the order of John Bill, (payline) 543 1st Street, Podunk, MS 65443” 4. Intellectual property: e.g. “Pay to the order of John Bill, the copyright on my work ‘Scene at Dawn’” I’m primarily interested in these things are legally considered checks. E.g. if Mary writes me a check for “One 2012 Honda Civic”, and her bank declines it because she does not have a 2012 Honda Civic in her account or sufficient money in the account to pay for it, and she knows that, can she be convicted of Writing a Bad Check with Intent to Defraud? Or, can a check for “One 2012 Honda Civic” that the bank WILL honor considered a full check for purposes of negotiability, e.g. allowing me to sign over my check for a Honda Civic over to someone by signing the back and writing “Pay to the order of Victor Mornington” An alternative question is what a bank would practically do when faced with an attempt to deposit or cash such a “check”, regardless of how a court would rule (e.g. assume that neither party sues over the check and regulatory agencies don’t notice it, so whatever the holder, writer, and bank manage to work out is what happens) There is ample evidence that a check can legally be WRITTEN on all sorts of stuff (a shirt, a cow, etc.) that does NOT affect the legality of the check or that the item is legally a check. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-law-does-the-check-have-to-be-in-local-currency-to-legally-be-a-check/607071/2 "2011-12-22T15:10:28Z")
Canadian here, and I’ve written a number of checks along the lines of “ten (U.S. dollars)”. For U.S.-based magazine subscriptions, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-law-does-the-check-have-to-be-in-local-currency-to-legally-be-a-check/607071/3 "2011-12-22T16:15:09Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Canadian here, and I’ve written a number of checks along the lines of “ten (U.S. dollars)”. For U.S.-based magazine subscriptions, for instance. Did you have to sign up for a special option with your bank for this? Does it always go through properly, and charge your account with the bank’s conversion rate? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-law-does-the-check-have-to-be-in-local-currency-to-legally-be-a-check/607071/4 "2011-12-22T16:26:17Z")
Even a regular check in national currency isn’t “legal” until your bank makes good on the payment. If you write,“One Ford Focus” on a check, and your bank is willing to procure and tender a Ford Focus–and if that’s what the payee wants to receive–then who cares about “legality”? There’s no special law involved (unless it’s part of some other contract or regulated somehow). Checks are just a service which your bank provides, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-law-does-the-check-have-to-be-in-local-currency-to-legally-be-a-check/607071/5 "2011-12-22T17:06:04Z")
A check is a the most familiar type of [negotiable instrument](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiable_instrument). I really can’t say for other countries, but in the US a negotiable isntrument can only be for money. You can’t write a check for any object, even an object regarded as currency (ie,“On June 24th I will give you my credit card with a $50,000 credit limit.”) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-law-does-the-check-have-to-be-in-local-currency-to-legally-be-a-check/607071/6 "2011-12-22T17:09:32Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Did you have to sign up for a special option with your bank for this? Does it always go through properly, and charge your account with the bank’s conversion rate? No, I didn’t have to sign up for a special option, and yes, it has always worked (at least I received my magazines, which is the important bit). Bank branches are perfectly happy to give me funds in foreign currencies upon request, in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-law-does-the-check-have-to-be-in-local-currency-to-legally-be-a-check/607071/7 "2011-12-22T17:21:08Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > A check is a the most familiar type of [negotiable instrument](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiable_instrument). I really can’t say for other countries, but in the US a negotiable isntrument can only be for money. You can’t write a check for any object, even an object regarded as currency (ie,“On June 24th I will give you my credit card with a $50,000 credit limit.”) This is exactly the type of thing I am interested in. There is apparently a specific body of law that applies to checks and/or other negotiable instruments. For example, a person can be a “holder in due course” with specific legal rights as they pertain to collection, but if the item is not legally considered a negotiable instrument, those laws may not apply. E.g. if a friend writes me a “check” for a “Ford Focus 2012, blue” in exchange for paying his son’s college tuition, and I, not really being a compact car fan, sell the “check” to my sister for $16000, then she might not be a “holder in due course” if the friend ends up suing me for failure to pay his son’s tuition, or if the tuition payment bounces. Do you know where it is defined in the law? ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-law-does-the-check-have-to-be-in-local-currency-to-legally-be-a-check/607071/8 "2011-12-22T19:05:18Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > This is exactly the type of thing I am interested in. There is apparently a specific body of law that applies to checks and/or other negotiable instruments. For example, a person can be a “holder in due course” with specific legal rights as they pertain to collection, but if the item is not legally considered a negotiable instrument, those laws may not apply. E.g. if a friend writes me a “check” for a “Ford Focus 2012, blue” in exchange for paying his son’s college tuition, and I, not really being a compact car fan, sell the “check” to my sister for $16000, then she might not be a “holder in due course” if the friend ends up suing me for failure to pay his son’s tuition, or if the tuition payment bounces. > > Do you know where it is defined in the law? [Uniform Commercial Code, Article 3](http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/3/). The UCC is a model document which must be enacted by the individual states to have the force of law. But it is widely (not universally) adopted. You have to understand, that a NI can NEVER be for an object. In this situation, > [@](#): > > if a friend writes me a “check” for a “Ford Focus 2012, blue” in exchange for paying his son’s college tuition you just have an ordinary contract, governed by UCC Article 2 (sales of goods). Some thinking about it as a “check.” An NI is only for money, and its between three parties: the author, the recipient/holder, and the bank. If you want to understand the subject deeply, I suggest law school, not a message board. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-law-does-the-check-have-to-be-in-local-currency-to-legally-be-a-check/607071/9 "2011-12-22T19:32:59Z")
A few significant additions are needed > [@](#): > > governed by UCC Article 2 (sales of goods) \*\* --adopted in 49 states – where applicable, and common law contract law, where not applicable\*\*.