Today people often purchase traveler’s checks. When they must go from one city or country to another, they prefer traveler’s checks to cash because the checks can be replaced if they are lost or stolen. In fact, traveler’s checks were invented only about one hundred years ago. Before that time, even famous people were not able to cash a personal check if they were in a foreign country. An employee of the American Express Company, Marcellus Berry, came up with our current system of traveler’s checks, which requires the person to sign the checks twice—once when they are purchased and again when they are cashed.

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