Rudyard Kipling could not understand why his cheque account was so much in credit. The answer was that the tradespeople in his village were selling his signature to autograph collectors for more than they would have received by presenting Kipling’s cheques to the bank.

Marcel Duchamp sent a cheque, drawn on an imaginary bank, to his dentist who did not accept that a work of art by Duchamp would bring far more cash than the account demanded.