When money is placed in a bank for safe-keeping, or "deposited," it is usually received from the "depositor" by an officer called the "teller." If a bank does a small business, one teller both receives money deposited and pays it out when wanted, but where the business done is large enough to require this, deposits are received by one or more "receiving tellers" and paid out to depositors by one or more "paying tellers."

When a deposit is made, the depositor must make a memorandum of the amount and description of the items composing same on a blank, usually furnished free, in printed form, by the bank, like the following:

Deposited In The

Allen National Bank,

Fair Haven, VT.

By........................................................................................................

...........................................................................................190.........

This is handed, with the deposit, to the "receiving teller," who counts the money and other items (if any), compares the amount he finds with the amount on the ticket, and if found correct, makes an entry of the amount on the left-hand page of a hook furnished by the bank to the depositor when the first deposit is made, or the "account is opened" with the hank. This hook, called the "depositor's pass-hook," the only receipt or voucher for money deposited given by the bank, is usually like the following:

The amounts entered on the left-hand page represent deposits made at different dates, while those on the right-hand page represent the amounts received from the bank, or "drawn out" by the depositor.

Unless there is a special agreement to the contrary, it is understood that money deposited with a bank can be taken out, or "drawn," by the depositor, on demand, at any time during the business hours, upon the presentation of a written or printed order for a stated amount, signed by the depositor, or some person duly authorized by him to sign his name for this purpose.

This order on the bank is called a "check," usually made payable "to order," like either of the accompanying:

In order that the bank may be able to verify the genuineness of the signature signed to checks drawn by depositors, each person, when he makes his first deposit, is required to write his name as he proposes to sign it on the checks he is to draw, and his address, in a book kept specially for this purpose, or on a piece of paper sent by him to the bank, to be pasted in the "signature book."

The better plan, now in use, is a system of cards, upon each of which a depositor writes his signature and address, the cards being arranged alphabetically in a box made for the purpose, and secured in same by a metal rod running through a hole punched in the lower edge. The rod, secured to the box, serves to bind the cards together, but loosely, so as to admit of easy reference to same in alphabetical order, as follows:

Authorized Signatures OF

.............................................................

For the National Bank of New York

Introduced by Address

A check should be presented for payment to the "paying teller," who, after satisfying himself that the signature is genuine and not forged, and that the signer has enough money in bank, or "to his credit" on the bank's books, pays .it to the person presenting it, if the check is payable "to bearer," regardless of who he is, unless he has good reason to believe that it has been stolen or improperly obtained by the person presenting it, or the bank has been instructed by the depositor drawing the check that he does not wish it paid. If the check is made payable "to the order" of any party, the teller, before paying it, requires the person presenting it to "identify" himself, if he is not personally known to the teller, and to endorse it by writing his name on the back. To "identify" himself it is necessary for the endorser of the check to get some person who knows him and is also known to the teller to state that he is the person to whose order the check is payable. This is the only way in which a bank can protect itself from fraud and dishonesty on the part of any person improperly coming into possession of a check drawn to the order of some other person.