While the phrase ‘blank check’ may live on, increasing numbers of young people have very little experience with physical checks. When I saw this pristine blank check from the Harlem and Spuyten Duyvil Navigation Co. for sale on Ebay, I was taken by the partially prefilled-out date: “187_”

The image on the left-hand side of the check is also wonderful. It shows the High Bridge when it was exclusively a masonry structure. (A steel span now has replaced the center arches.). You can also see the bucolic Bronx, and yes, a steamship with a paddlewheel, plying the Harlem River.

As Seen In Harlem