Since the beginning of modern banking, financial transactions have been recorded on checks and notes and various other types of paper documents. Besides the obvious transfer of money between two parties, there is another easily overlooked, aspect to these important pieces of paper. They have an artistic and historical value that can be, at times, even more valuable than the financial record. In this article we'll take a look at the value of artistic checks and see how it has changed over time.

The History of Artistic Checks

The history of money has always been meshed with art and artists. Even centuries ago artists were commissioned to decorate money and other currencies like checks, notes and coins.

For example, the check used by the United States to purchase Alaska from Russia in 1868 was a very artistic check. Decorated with fine cut lithographs, it featured perfect calligraphy and even the endorsements are historically very valuable and interesting. I wonder if, in a couple hundred years, we'll be looking back on our credit card statements with the same reverence?

Artistic Checks Have More Value

Why bother create checks with art on them? There is actually a very practical reason: artistic checks are instilled with a higher sense of value. Can you imagine a large banking transaction being transcribed onto a piece of ordinary blank paper? There would be a lack of trust due to the lack of perceived value. Artistic checks, and money in general, create a sense of value.

Decorating money and checks with art is actually quite necessary. With the exception of gold and silver coins, money doesn't have any real value. Artwork, symbols and decoration are used to create a feeling of trust in the value of the individual or institution that is backing the check or note.

Artistic Checks offer Higher Security

Our current artistic checks take the combination of decoration and security to new levels with all sorts of embedded features like watermarks, holograms and micro printing. All three of these methods have been developed to make checks much more difficult to counterfeit, thereby reducing fraud.

1. Watermarks are transparent markings that are only visible when the check is held up to the light. They are specially created by an artist so they will not reproduce if the check is copied.

2. Holograms are little images etched into metallic foil. They contain what appears to be an artistic 3-D picture which is visible only when held at a certain angle.

3. Micro printing is a special check inking technique that embeds words as simple lines that make up the images on an artistic check. Only when these lines are viewed with a magnifying glass, can someone read the words.

Current Day Artistic Checks

In the last few years, check styles have begun to transcend bank sponsored security prevention markings to the realm of personal expression. Now everyone can create a style of artistic checks which suits their personality and interests. There are companies that specialize in the production of artistic checks, purely to give consumers the choice of thousands of ways to express their personality and interests on their bank checks.

This article is a brief history of the decoration, both practical and purely esthetic, which is found on bank checks and money in general. Hopefully it will allow you to appreciate the history of and see new possibilities the next time you're writing or receiving a personal check.

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Well versed in many aspects of personal finance, William Gordon writes about artistic checks and many other types of deluxe checks for a variety of online publications.