Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a cheque that is not honoured by the writer’s bank; thus rubber checkbook; rubber check artist, one who passes such cheques.

1921		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 70: Say I’d like to sell you some oil stock — ha ha Those rubber checks of his are all over town.
[1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 13/1: Rubber dime – Counterfeit money].
1933		C.W. Willemse Cop Remembers 285: He’s a professional rubber-check artist and ‘kiter.’ (A kiter is a man who steals small checks from the mail and raises them. Rubber checks are worthless checks that bounce back for lack of funds.).
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Inner tube, a fraudulent (rubber) cheque.
1935		Belfast News Letter 10 Oct. 9/5: They hired a motor car, giving the owner what Americans call a ‘rubber cheque’.
1940		S. Lister Mistral Hotel (1951) 199: The French are very hard on people who use indiarubber cheques.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 23: ‘I’m a millwright — I make rubber.’ ‘Rubber checks, you mean.’.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 145: After trying his luck at passing rubber checks, Booth enlisted in the marines.
1957		‘Ed Lacy’ Lead With Your Left (1958) 26: I’m sending Hayes downtown to the line-up to look over a rubber check artist we’re interested in.
1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 136: If it wasn’t for Dan Porter and his rubber cheque we’d have been miles away by now.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 107: He’s always brushing with the law, but not for anything serious, just a bouncy cheque or something silly.
1961		J.A. Williams Night Song (1962) 118: Too many o’ them damn agents passin’ rubber around ’cause they done spent up all the musicians’ bread.
1964		Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 225: That’s why a drug addict tries to do something non-violent, like [...] passing a rubber check.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 36: How fast money goes [...] All he has left now is a rubber checkbook.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 115: There’s also a lot of stuff she charged at stores and some rubber checks.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 14: A woman had stiffed Cal with a rubber check.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘Cash and Curry’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] He’s the one who gave me the bouncy cheque.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 203: She had also left behind fifteen thousand pounds in debts to the bank and store cards and a swatch of rubber cheques.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 139: Orphan paper Rubber cheques, funny money, counterfeit currency.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 158: He made the down payment with a rubber check.