When government checks were printed on computer punch cards!

When I was in college my roommate and I received our final phone bill while we were living in separate cities. We each calculated our share and made partial payment, but each overestimated to the point where we had collectively overpaid by 2 cents. The phone company sent each of us a check for one penny. It probably cost 13 cents in postage (x2) at the time.

I never cashed the check - I wanted to keep it forever as the smallest check I had ever received. The record still stands, although I received a class action settlement check of 14 cents a few years ago. I joked with the bank teller that it would probably be the smallest check she would see, but she said another customer got 11 cents in the settlement!