History of Science & Technology, Including the World of Richard Feynman, and Natural History

Jobs, Steven; [Apple Computer Co.]

Check No. 6 Written and Signed by Steve Jobs for Apple Computer on March 28, 1976, Four Days Before the Official Founding of the Company

Lot Closed

December 13, 07:27 PM GMT

Estimate

50,000 - 80,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

JOBS, STEVEN; [APPLE COMPUTER CO.]

Wells Fargo Bank check, No. 6, written and signed by Steve Jobs ("Steven Jobs") in blue ink, payable to The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company ("Pacific Telephone") for $47.50 ("fourty [sic] seven dollars and 50/100"), March 28, 1976.

7½ x 3 inches, Wells Fargo stagecoach logo with "PAID" stamp to recto, manuscript notation to verso in black ink in unknown hand ("AP NC 797898 / DBA ("Doing Business As") Apple Computer Co. / Steven Jobs & Stephen Wozniak & Ronald Wayne / 770 Welch Rd. / Palo Alto"), four bank stamps in black, red, purple, and blue ink to verso, with various printed bank notations to both recto and verso.

ONE OF THE EARLIEST EXISTING PIECES OF APPLE COMPUTER HISTORY — STEVE JOBS SIGNED APPLE COMPUTER CHECK NO. 6, MADE OUT TO PACIFIC TELEPHONE FOR $47.50, MARCH 28, 1976

The sixth in a series of original checks issued to Jobs and Wozniak before their custom-printed Apple Computer Company checkbook became available, this check was likely used to pay for the telephone line and answering service that Jobs and Wozniak had set up at 770 Welch Rd. in Palo Alto, an address that can also be found on some of the company's earliest promotional material. This is the second earliest Apple Computer Company check to come to auction, and bears the same routing and bank account numbers as the earlier check as well as the custom checks later issued to Jobs and Wozniak.

Made out to Pacific Telephone and signed by Steve Jobs on March 28, 1976, this check represents one of the earliest existing pieces of Apple Computer history as it was filled out, signed, and dated four days before the official founding of the company on April 1, 1976. In addition, this check is of particular interest as it lists out on the back, in an unknown hand, each of the original three founders ("Steven Jobs & Stephen Wozniak & Ronald Wayne") and notes that they were doing business as ("DBA") Apple Computer Company. Ronald Wayne would famously relinquish his 10% stake in the company for $800 on April 12, 1976, only twelve days after the founding. Apple would of course go on to become the most valuable company in the world at the time of writing.

As this check was written and cashed before Paul Terrell of the Byte Shop purchased the first 50 Apple I computers, the money used to pay this bill likely came, at least in part, from the sale of Jobs' Volkswagen Bus and Wozniak's Hewlett-Packard HP-65 scientific calculator. The sale of these two cherished items has entered Apple lore as the necessary sacrifice the co-founders made to get the company off the ground.

In his bestselling autobiography iWoz, Wozniak recalled that, after confessing to Jobs early on that he was scared they wouldn't succeed, Jobs said, "Well, even if we lose our money, we'll have a company. For once in our lives, we'll have a company." Having convinced Wozniak to join him on the adventure of starting Apple, the check offered here is an enduring testament to Jobs' powers of persuasion, and to the early business expenses that paved the way for Apple's success, leading to the first $3 trillion company.

REFERENCES:

Wozniak, Steve, and Gina Smith. iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006.