Bills of exchange.

I don't know whether the man who sought to pay a parking fine by writing a cheque on toilet paper ("stationery which aptly reflects my feelings towards the system...") is a fan of A. P. Herbert but it immediately brought to mind one of the many of his stories originally published in Punch magazine in the 1920s and 30s. APH was both a lawyer and a humourist who wrote funny stories about fictitious court cases. One of these was entitled "The Negotiable Cow" which involved a man who tried to pay his income tax bill by means of a cheque written on the side of a cow. The Revenue refused to accept it, and took him to court. This being an APH story of course, the Revenue lost. The judgment of the court was that "...an order to pay is an order to pay, whether it is made on the back of an envelope or on the back of a cow..." and as it was accepted that the account involved had the funds to meet it, it constituted a valid cheque. Indeed there was no argument that the man's toilet paper cheque was not equally valid, but as it was not in the standard printed form, the bank would have charged an extra £15 to process it which is why the police authority concerned refused to accept it. A cheque, of course, is not legal tender, and therefore you are never under any obligation to accept one in payment of a debt.