The receipt: a short history of proof of payment

Most receipts are thrown away within seconds. They curl up in pockets, fade in drawers, pile up in inboxes. Yet the receipt is one of the oldest documents in commerce, and for most of history it has been the main way to answer a simple question when two people disagree: did this payment happen?

A receipt is a promise about the past, and it is only as good as the record it points to. That idea runs through its whole history, from clay to email.

Clay and ink

Some of the oldest surviving written records are economic: tablets from ancient Mesopotamia recording deliveries of grain, livestock and silver, and acknowledgments that a debt had been settled. Scribes pressed marks into wet clay and sometimes sealed the tablet in a clay envelope, so that tampering would be visible.

The structure is recognizable: who paid, who received, what, how much and when. Those five elements have survived every change since.

Split sticks

In medieval Europe, especially in England, tally sticks recorded debts and payments. Notches cut across a stick represented amounts. The stick was then split lengthwise, so that each party kept a half with matching notches. To check the record, the halves were fitted together.

The tally was clever because it could not easily be altered by one side alone. Adding a notch to one half would not match the other. It was a receipt and a counterfoil in one object.

Handwritten receipts

As paper became common, handwritten receipts spread. A merchant wrote "received of" a name, an amount and a date, and signed it. Receipt books with numbered pages and carbon or stub copies let the merchant keep a matching record.

Those stubs mattered: a receipt with no matching record on the seller's side was weak evidence. The pairing of the customer's copy and the seller's copy, like the halves of a tally, made the system work.

The cash register

In 1879, a saloon keeper in Ohio named James Ritty patented a mechanical cash register, reportedly to stop employees from pocketing money. Later machines added paper rolls that printed a record of each sale, and receipts for customers followed. The cash register made the shop's own record automatic and harder to falsify.

The printed receipt from a register was a small revolution. It came from the same machine that recorded the sale, so the customer's copy and the shop's record were produced together.

Card slips

Card payments added their own receipts: carbon slips from imprinters, then printed slips from electronic terminals, often with a signature line. The merchant copy, signed by the customer, became evidence in disputes. We followed that era in from carbon copies to chips.

Thermal paper

Many receipts today are printed on thermal paper, which darkens when heated and needs no ink. It is cheap and fast, but it fades with time, heat and light. A receipt kept in a wallet for a year may be almost blank. Some thermal papers have also raised health and environmental questions about the chemicals used to make them.

For anything important, a scan or photo of the receipt soon after purchase keeps it readable.

Email and the digital receipt

Online purchases brought the email confirmation, and many shops now offer digital receipts in person too. Digital receipts do not fade, can be searched and are easy to forward. They also depend on the email reaching you and being kept. And they can be faked, just as a screenshot of a transfer can, a problem we described in screenshot fraud.

What makes a receipt worth something

Across all these forms, a receipt carries weight when:

1. it contains the essentials: who, what, how much, when, and a reference;
2. it can be matched to a record held by the other side, like the second half of a tally;
3. it is hard to alter without detection;
4. it is kept until any warranty, refund or dispute period has passed.

A receipt that cannot be matched to anything is just a piece of paper. That is why a transaction ID that can be checked against a public ledger, or an order number the seller can look up, is so much stronger than a picture. We explored that idea further in ledger: the oldest technology in finance.

Keeping receipts today

A simple system is enough for most people:

• keep email confirmations in a dedicated folder;
• photograph paper receipts for significant purchases;
• keep receipts for anything with a warranty for as long as the warranty lasts;
• note the order number and transaction ID for online payments.

Our receipts

Each order with us has its own reference, and its page in your account shows the amount, the fees, the payment route and, for transfers, the transaction ID you submitted. When a card is issued or a refund is paid, you receive an email and the event is added to your account's timeline. If you ever need to show a payment, the help center explains which details to include.

Receipts and the tax collector

Receipts do not only protect customers. Governments have long been interested in them because every receipt is a record of a sale that may owe tax. In many places, businesses are required to issue receipts, and to keep their own copies for a number of years.

Some countries have gone further and turned receipts into a game. They run lotteries in which receipt numbers are the tickets, giving customers a reason to ask for a receipt every time and so making unrecorded sales harder. It is a neat reversal of the usual incentive: the person who would normally throw the slip away becomes the one who wants it most.

For consumer rights, the original paper is often less important than people think. Many shops and laws accept other proof of purchase, such as a card statement or an email confirmation, when a receipt is lost. A receipt makes things easier, but it is the record behind it that counts.

Questions people ask

How long should I keep receipts?

At least until any return, warranty or dispute period has passed. For tax or business purposes, local rules may require longer.

Is an email confirmation as good as a paper receipt?

Usually, yes, and often better, because it does not fade and can be matched to the seller's records.

Why do some receipts fade?

Thermal paper darkens with heat to print, and the image degrades over time, especially with light and warmth.