Discussion on answer by littleadv: I wrote a check with an unambiguous but casual written amount - why did the recipient's bank reject it for "invalid written amount"?

@SelfEvident I'm sorry to tell you, but no - it's not grammatically a number.

@SelfEvident, well, depending on interpretation, "Thirty Four Ninety Five" can be: 4 numbers (30/4/90/5), 3 numbers (34/90/5 or 30/4/95) or 2 numbers (34/95). But in no case it can be one number (other than if both interlocutors use a pre-agreed shorthand notation). Regardless, the several interpretations possible make it too risky for a bank to validate that as an actual $$ amount.

@SelfEvident True, but that was not your claim, your claim was that it's a valid number. It's not, grammatically. Sure, people use this notation in speech, but.... People say a lot of grammatically incorrect things.

@SelfEvident you wouldn't be the first American not to know proper English :)

@mikey555 "I say there’s no ambiguity - “ninety five” specifies dollars since I wrote “and 00/100”." The bank does not know that you wrote this, and that's precisely the issue here. Suppose you wrote "thirty four ninety five". It's reasonably likely that you intended $34.95. I intercept your check, and I add "and 00/100" to it. Suddenly, it looks like you intended $3495. I just stole $3,460.05 out of your pocket. This is precisely why the bank doesn't trust it. There is no way to verify that the original writing's interpretation is unchanged by any later malicious additions.

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