Featured Bank checks featuring family members

I have a general query regarding the practice of printing family members' images on bank checks.

My great-grandfather was President of a West Virginia bank from the late 1800s - the early 1900s. I have two checks from that bank that feature his daughter (my grandmother), one as a young girl and another when she was in her early teens.

I'm wondering if putting such images on checks was a common practice in those days, and if so, when did it originate?

Thanks!

 

Would/could you post photographs? And are you talking about etchings of young women? Like the images that appear on these checks from the 1860s?

Debora

 

I guess the Bank President could do pretty much what he wanted to...

 

I figured someone might want to see one of the checks and I finally located one . . . here ya go!

 

Are you sure that's your grandmother? What year was she born?

Debora

 

There's a lot of information on the internet about the 19th century intaglio bank checks with vignettes. Here's a discussion on Coin Talk, for instance. I would think a portrait of a family member would be quite unusual.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/19th-century-intaglio-checks.108341/

Debora

 

And in tiny print it says:

"Kentucky Litho. Co Louisville"

​

 

I love how the first three digits of the year are pre-printed 189_ and the check writer had to cross them out and write in 1900!

 

I'll bet they had trouble changing their computers.....

 

Yes, that's my GrandMom -- born in 1883.

 

Good Eye! I didn't see that before, so there's another lead to follow. Thank you!

 

The URL you've shared looks like a Gold Mine! At the bottom I found The American Society of Check Collectors and am now on their home page. With luck I'll be able to do a deep dive there, later today. Thank you so much!