Do not wait until you get to the bank to count your money, or to indorse your checks and arrange your deposit. This should be done before you come to the bank, or at least, before you present yourself at the receiving teller's window. Be sure that you have the figures correct. Place the bills all one way, right side up. Separate your gold and silver, and sort the silver by denominations.

Do not deposit your dimes, nickels, and pennies until you have a certain amount of them, say five dollars of each; then put them in a package, with the amount and your name marked on it, and leave for the teller to count at his leisure, with the understanding that if short or over the proper correction will be made.

Bank Checks. A check is an order for money, drawn by one who has funds in the bank, payable on demand. It is in reality a sight draft on the bank. Banks provide blank checks for their customers, and it is a very simple matter to fill them out properly. In writing in the amount begin at the extreme left of the line.

A Poorly Written Check.

The illustration given here shows a poorly written check and one which could be very easily raised. A fraudulent receiver could, for instance, write "seventy" before the nine and "7" before the figure "9," and in this way raise the check from $9 to $79. If this were done and the check cashed, the maker, and not the bank would become responsible for the loss.You cannot hold the bank responsible for your carelessness. A check was raised from $100 to $190 by the writing "and ninety" after the words "one hundred." One of the ciphers in the figures was easily changed to a "9" by adding a tail to it. It is wise to draw a running line---------------------after the amount in words, thus preventing any additional writing.

Checks should be dated, but the absence of a date does not warrant a bank in refusing to cash the check. Notes made and executed on Sunday are invalid, but a check so dated is good.

The signature should be in your usual style familiar to the paying teller.

A check is a draft or order on a bank, and need not necessarily be written in the prescribed form. Such an order written on a sheet of note-paper with a lead pencil might be in every way a legally good check.

If it is necessary at any time to write a check for a fractional part of a dollar, as 75 cts., write "Seventy-five Cents," and draw your pen through the printed word Dollars.

There hangs in the office of the Pacific Mills, Boston, the canceled check of the United States for one cent; and on the walls of the Bank of Commerce, New York City, hangs a handsomely framed check for $14,000,000, signed by the well-known banking house of Kidder, Pea-body & Co.

Usually checks should be drawn "to order." The words, "Pay to the order of John Brown" mean that the money is to be paid to John Brown or to any person ha orders it paid to. If a check is drawn "Pay to Bearer," any person, that is the bearer, can collect it. The paying teller may ask the person cashing the check to write his name on the back simply to have it for reference.

In writing and signing checks use good black ink and let the copy dry a little before a blotter is used.

Safety devices to prevent the fraudulent alteration of checks are of almost endless variety, but there has not been a preventive against forgery and alterations yet invented which has not been successfully overcome by swindlers. A machine for punching out the figures is in common use, but the swindler has successfully filled in the holes with paper pulp and punched other figures to suit his purposes.

The method adopted by the express companies and by the post office department in its money orders is perhaps the best plan yet offered to prevent the raising of the amount of a check or order. A glance at an express money order will illustrate this point. Notice the printed line on the left end - "Not payable for more than One Dollar" or "Five Dollars," as the case may be. To raise such an order it would be necessary to add to the length of the paper, which of course would be impossible.

The most experienced bankers favor a plain black and white check, drawn upon clear white paper with good strong black ink.

There are often presented to banks for payment, checks in which the figures in the margin do not correspond with the amounts stated in writing in the body of the checks. The law governing cases of this sort provides distinctly that the amount in writing shall be considered correct. If the amount of money involved were large, the paying teller would be justified in withholding payment until he satisfied himself that the amount in writing was what the maker really intended the check to call for.

Identification. The banks of the United States make it a rule not to cash a check that is drawn payable to order, unless the person presenting the check is known at the bank - or unless he satisfies the paying teller that he is really the person to whom the money is to be paid. It must be remembered, however, that a check drawn to order and then indorsed in blank by the payee is really payable to bearer, and if the paying teller is satisfied that the payee's signature is genuine he will not likely hesitate to cash the check. In England, all checks apparently properly indorsed are paid without identification.

In drawing a check in favor of a person not likely to be well-known in banking circles, write his address or his business after his name on the face of the check. For instance, if you should send a check to John Smith, Boston, it may possibly fall into the hands of the wrong John Smith;but if you write the check in favor of "John Smith, 849 Tremont St., Boston," it is more than likely that the right person will collect it.

If you wish to get a check cashed where you are unknown, and it is not convenient for a friend who has an account at the bank to go with you for the purpose of identification, ask him to place his signature on the back of your check, and you will not likely have trouble in getting it cashed. By placing his signature on the back of the check he guarantees the bank against loss. A bank is responsible for the signatures of its depositors, but it cannot be supposed to know the signatures of in-dorsers. The reliable identifier is in reality the person who is responsible.