Stan Laurel signed his signature thousands of times during his lifetime; many were for eager fans longing to own his autograph. But he would have never had guessed when he was signing a check (cheque) for anything and everything that they would end up being sought after collectables.

In those days once a check was paid out it was returned to the owner, in fact I can remember getting my own cheques from the TSB bank many years back. Well, Stan kept all of his stored at his home, these later passed on to his daughter Lois. Over the years these have been steadily coming on the market via ebay and other sources.

Of course there are some real gems, like checks payable to THE HAL ROACH STUDIOS and even to Oliver Hardy!

This page brings you a selection of signed Stan checks to look at, just click on the thumbnail to see enlargement.

Oliver Hardy checks are extremely rare indeed, unlike Stan, Ollie must have thrown his away as I have heard of only FIVE in existence, here is one below.