[sneak]

Checks are basically the same thing, they're just given to the payee to give to their bank (to give to your bank) instead.

The high penalties (historically) for writing bad checks meant that if you had a signed check in hand, you had at least a small level of confidence that you had actually been paid the money, much like cash in hand (it could of course be counterfeit, but you can assume to some extent that it is not).