Check signed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The historic Steve Jobs check that pre-dates Apple by less than two weeks is up for auction. The Wells Fargo bank payment is also signed by Steve Wozniak, with whom Jobs would co-found Apple Computer, Inc. shortly after. PHOTO BY RR AUCTION/SWNS
A historic Steve Jobs check that pre-dates Apple by less than two weeks is up for auction.
The Wells Fargo bank payment is also signed by Steve Wozniak, with whom Jobs would co-found Apple Computer, Inc. shortly after.
“Experts believe that this payment of $116.97 to Ramlor, Inc., a Palo Alto-based printed circuit board maker, was likely linked to the production of the first Apple-1 Computers,” said Boston-based RR Auction.
Bidding on the check dated March 19, 1976 has already surpassed the estimate of $50,000 (£39,000), having reached $61,080 (£48,000), with an auction end date of August 25.
“This temporary Apple check is one of the first documents ever signed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, predating the famous Apple agreement with Ron Wayne,” said Bobby Livingston, Executive VP at RR Auction.
“The second Apple check ever written paid for the initial batch of Apple 1 circuit boards— The financial transaction that started the revolution.”
Marked as check “No. 2,” it was signed thirteen days before April 1, 1976, the date co-founders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne would sign the partnership agreement that officially brought Apple Computer into existence.
The document features the same routing and account numbers as other early Apple Computer Company checks RR Auction has offered. Those, however, date to July 1976 and are imprinted with Apple’s first official address at 770 Welch Rd., Ste. 154, Palo Alto, the location of an answering service and mail drop they used while still operating out of the famous Jobs family garage.
Another historic lot in the sale is an early advertising draft for the “Apple Computer-1,” written entirely in the hand of “steven jobs” in 1976. It includes two Polaroids of the working prototype, photographed at The Byte Shop and annotated by Jobs. Estimate $30,000 (£23,000).
RR Auction said: “According to Apple historian Corey Cohen, the technical specifications of this handwritten advertising draft match neatly with the original advertisement for the Apple-1, which was first printed in the July 1976 issue of Interface Magazine.”
Produced in association with SWNS Talker
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