Some of us have kept old car window price stickers to show friends and family our purchase of a prized possession. But sometimes it’s not about the purchase itself, but rather the place of a random purchase. For a time I kept receipts from my foreign travels to show that I’d been to exotic locales.

Receipts can show a historical document and another way to mark history. When you bought anything in a place that no longer exists, a receipt shows you were there before that place disappeared into the past.

Receipts are routinely used as proof of guilt or innocence in legal cases by providing proof of your presence (or absence) for locations by relying on the time stamp and pointing to method of payment for corroboration.

Unlike roadside historical markers, receipts travel with the spender, but serve the same purpose as a historical place and time record.