Cheques on cows revisited

[Colophon]

Snopes says it’s a myth, but was a cheque ever written on the side of a cow and cashed?

Barclays Bank is currently running adverts on the London Underground, and one of the posters says “The UK’s strangest cheque was written on the side of a cow in 1970 [it specifies the month, but I can’t remember it]. It was led into a branch of Barclays and cashed.”

So, did this ever happen? Googling turns up nothing. Surely that well-respected financial institution wouldn’t go propagating urban folklore, would it?

[sailor]

Have you tried asking Barclays? They should know.

[Colophon]

Well, that was going to be my next line of enquiry. I suppose that in the spirit of stamping out ignorance I should ask them.

[friedo]

Cecil has this to say:

Charlie Rice, a columnist for the old This Week Sunday newspaper supplement, once wrote about various goofy checks that he claimed had been successfully cashed over the years:…

• Albert Haddock of England paid his taxes by whitewashing a check for 26 pounds, 10 shillings on the side of a cow. The check was ruled legal.

But!

**Dear Cecil:

This is 12 years too late, but better late than never._ In your column on checks you describe a non-standard check whitewashed on the side of a cow by one Albert Haddock._ I regret to inform you that someone has been funning you._ It is contained in a book of legal spoofs entitled Uncommon Law by A.P. Herbert and is, of course, phony.**

Cecil knows this–knows it now, anyway–but may as well give credit where it’s due. _ A.P. Herbert’s spoofs, many of which originally appeared in the British humor magazine Punch, were written in such a dead-on parody of legal style that they were often taken as fact by unwary journalists._