In the mythology of Silicon Valley, there are artifacts that transcend collectibility and enter the realm of foundational relics—documents so early, so embedded in the DNA of innovation, that they serve as mile markers of history. RR Auction is honored to present one such relic: Check No. 6 from Apple Computer Co., filled out and signed by Steve Jobs just four days before Apple’s official founding.
Dated March 28, 1976, and made payable to Pacific Telephone for $47.50, the temporary Wells Fargo check captures a critical moment—before the ink had dried on Apple’s formation documents, before the first Apple-1 had been sold, and before Ronald Wayne walked away from his 10% stake. What makes this check extraordinary is not only its date and provenance, but also the handwritten endorsement on its reverse: “DBA Apple Computer Co., Steven Jobs & Stephen Wozniak & Ronald Wayne, 770 Welch Rd., Palo Alto.”
This unique inscription—written not by Jobs but in the hand of an unidentified bank teller—lists all three co-founders of Apple Computer, Inc., marking a rare and possibly singular appearance of the full founding trio on a Steve Jobs–signed check. The address noted, 770 Welch Road, belonged to a simple answering service and mail drop. At the time, Apple still operated out of the Jobs family garage in nearby Los Altos. This was a company still in its embryonic phase—existing largely on paper, dreams, and Wozniak’s soldering iron.
The Founding Ink
Jobs’ lowercase signature—“steven jobs”—matches those seen on a short series of Apple’s very first checks, many of which RR Auction has proudly brought to market. In Check No. 2, jointly signed by Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the two co-founders issued a payment to a PCB manufacturer, laying the groundwork for the Apple-1.
A few weeks later, Check No. 3, entirely filled out and signed by Jobs, sold for $176,850—one of the highest prices ever paid for a Jobs check.
That historic artifact was followed by Check No. 4, which predated the company’s founding and fetched $66,844.
Each of these successive checks—Check No. 5, for example, sold for $112,054—offered rare insights into Apple’s earliest expenditures, each a milestone in startup formation.
But Check No. 6, with its listing of all three founders, stands alone. This is more than a payment record; it’s a first-draft annotation of Apple’s birth certificate.
A Snapshot Before the Breakup
The story behind Ronald Wayne’s exit is well known. Just twelve days after co-signing Apple’s original partnership agreement, he accepted $800 to walk away from his 10% share. A year later, he signed away all further claims for another $1,500—his name forever etched into the footnotes of tech history. This check marks one of the last moments in which Wayne stood on equal footing with Jobs and Wozniak.
This document also indirectly foreshadows Apple’s revolutionary trajectory. It paid for a telephone bill—a modest gesture in 1976, but resonant in hindsight. Exactly 31 years later, Apple would redefine the very notion of the telephone with the release of the iPhone on June 29, 2007. The check may as well have paid the phone bill for the future.
The Signature That Started It all
The mystique surrounding Jobs’s signature continues to captivate collectors and historians alike. In our Signature Study of Steve Jobs, we charted his evolving handwriting style, from the rounded loops of the 1970s to the minimalist slashes of his later years. This March 1976 check—written in Jobs’s early hand—exemplifies the unpolished beginnings of a man who would later reshape multiple industries.
Other notable Apple Computer checks previously offered by RR Auction include:
- A July 1976 check to RadioShack, sold for $46,063
- A signed check to Quement Electronics, sold for $33,219
- A dual-signed check to Elmar Electronics, sold for $37,500
Each tells a story of necessity, urgency, and invention. Each is a sentence in Apple’s origin story.
A Defining Artifact of the Digital Age
For those seeking the rarest and most resonant artifacts of the modern tech era, this check may be unparalleled. It captures Apple’s first financial breath—before equity deals, IPOs, or keynote addresses.—when the company was little more than an idea shared by two twenty-somethings and a wary forty-something who would soon walk away.
Though numbered Check No. 6, its historical weight arguably places it at the top of Apple’s origin story.
