What actually happens when you make a check out to "cash?"
As far as I know, it just makes it so anybody can cash it. Is that it?

And what exactly is the point? Why would you want a check that anybody can cash?

My mom was saying that back in the dark ages, when there wasn't an ATM on every corner, she would occasionally write herself a check to get cash from a bank, and she'd make it out to cash. When I asked her why she didn't just write it to herself, she didn't have an answer.

I feel the reason for writing a check to "CASH" is to make it instantly payable. Making it out to a person requires presenting identification or maybe even a deposit into an account before funds are available for use (depending on the bank).

Contrarily, it could also be a mechanism favored by banks to allow a person to tap into their own account by using a check as an ATM card. These are the only plausible explanations that I can come up with.

Maybe you want it to be stolen?