What Cheque Would Jesus Use?

Call me geeky. But cheques are my thing.

I’ve spent most of my life helping customers find the best (safest, fastest, cheapest)cheques for their business.

So, recently I wondered, “Who invented these things?”

Turns out the answer is (as it is with many ingenious concepts)… the ancient Romans.

According to Will Durant, in a book titled Caesar and Christ: A History of Roman Civilization and of Christianity from Their Beginnings to A.D. 325, the ancient Romans started using something called praescriptiones sometime in the First Century BCE.

So, the concept of cheques has been around since before Jesus!

Maybe the Disciples used a praescription to pay for the Last Supper?

Who knows.

Because not much is known about these praescriptiones.

Were they paper scrolls? Were they stone? Were they metal?

They certainly didn’t have those magnetic numbers at the bottom like we have today.

Or cute kittens in the background!

And even though I’m sure the Roman government did a good job of protecting merchants, they probably didn’t have many “security” features.

Yet, they were a smarter way of paying for things than carrying around heaps of gold.

And cheques can still be the smartest way for your business to pay today…even 2100 years later.