This Day in History January 1, 1772

Tweet

By Valentin Wittich (Kodak DX7590) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Think about travelers from way back when who had no credit cards or ATM's.  Money would have been a big issue.  And the London Credit Exchange came up with something that could help this problem on this date in 1772.  The first traveler's cheques were issued, and these were much more difficult for thieves to convert to cash.  It was not until the 1890's that American Express started issuing these, but London started the process.  Interestingly enough, they never gained the popularity you would have expected.

For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveler%27s_cheque
http://www.kesq.com/news/-/233092/17937020/-/displayReplay/true/displaySharing/true/endCapDisplay/false/leadLimitToHeight/360/leadLimitToWidth/640/numVisibleSlides/4/offset/2/res/medium/-/c5ygeaz/-/index.html
http://famousdaily.com/history/london-issues-travelers-cheques.html