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* The name of a bank official, not of the person actually footing the bill, appears on both treasurer's and cashier's checks. As Lishman suggested, this "masks" the identity of the real payer. Moreover, such checks have no time limit on them, as opposed to ordinary checks, which are rarely honored after they get to be a year old. This, as Lishman also suggested, raised another possibility: that the checks had been given to public officials "who may have possibly been too bashful to come forward and get them cashed" but still may have used them as prime collateral in getting loans.