The printers themselves usually aren't special, at least ours aren't. It's the toner we buy for it, and then the access control to be able to print to those specific ones. The printer itself is just an off the shelf one.
Yeah basically nobody in my country uses them or has seen them in years. Despite that fact, I still found myself working a busy job in a cheque factory for a while
Really old OCR was even company-specific. From what I can tell that's why there are some old typefaces with company names like "Aetna Gothic" and "Hendrix Gothic" - they're designed to work with highly-specific, probably very unreliable 1970s OCR readers.
That too, probably. I used to have a job double checking OCR though, and it isn’t foolproof, especially in case of smudging, bad light, or people’s signatures obscuring a digit.
US banknotes also utilize magnetic ink. I don't know if it's a hidden pattern or throughout the whole bill but there are devices that detect this and in my opinion are the most accurate and reliable counterfeit detection method because it's incredibly hard to replicate.
in my opinion are the most accurate and reliable counterfeit detection method because it's incredibly hard to replicate.
No, they're relatively easy to replicate.
It's true that they can stop obvious / low-effort fakes e.g. by school kids trying to beat the vending machine. But professional forgers routinely replicate these magnetic signals.
So in reality the main purpose of using magnetic ink is to help automatic cash counting machines. Each denomination has a different magnetic pattern, which high speed counting machines can quickly recognize and tabulate.
designed with a different amount of ink in each character
This part is incorrect.
The amount of magnetic ink doesn't matter. What matters is the shape of the fonts (geometry) -- causing the characters to produce distinct waveforms when they pass by the magnetic reading head.
This is important because the MICR line was printed using mass production processes and therefore can have issues like overprinting, etc. So the amount of ink cannot be used to reliably identify each character.
Fun fact. When the check is processed by the receiving bank the dollar amount is encoded onto the check before it is shipped out by more micr ink. This is to prevent disappearing ink from changing the value of the check in transit.
Say you write it for four thousand five hundred and 00/100c. Write the 4 and four thousand in disappearing ink. check arrives at the scammers bank saying five hundred only. Except the micr on it shows the original value.
There's a manual for the IBM 1255 MICR machine up on Bitsavers.org, the giant site stuffed with a bazillion (85,000) old computer manuals.
Page 1-4 includes a sample of what the contents of MICR are expected to be.
Fun MICR fact: for a while, you could engage in bank fraud thanks to MICR. Just deposit a check from a bank, but fraudulently write MICR so that magnetically the check is routed to a small, unsophisticated bank that doesn't use magnetic MICR, but when you look at the check, the MICR looks like the a big bank.
When the check is set to the clearing house, it'll be sent to the small bank. The small bank will eyeball the check and say, "this check isn't for us, it's for big bank and send it to the big bank. The big bank, in turn, will magnetically read the bank info and automatically decide to forward the check to the small bank.
Allegedly, this was only discovered when the check had been passed around to much it was starting to physically wear out.
Similarly but inverse, individually sold chocolate letters usually have the same amount of mass for each character. So a font that had equal amount of weight per character has to be used
The only people I know who use checks are my 70 year old aunts and they continue to accidentally loop their signatures over the numbers so they can't be submitted electronically. I have to drag their birthday checks to the bank every time.
In the US it's common for businesses to charge more if you use a bank card, and checks are inconvenient but free. Some landlords still don't even accept cards still.
What century is this from? Two generations have now matured in the civilsed world who have never ever in their lives seen a paper check. It's like 1880-1980 proper pre-internet era tech. Pre-telegraph even
fyi post dating checks doesn't actually do anything from a legal standpoint. While a lot of banks by policy don't take post dated checks not written off them due to a much higher chance of them bouncing legally as long as everything necessary is filled out the check recipient can immediately cash it if they want
In short if you don't want someone to cash a check until a certain date do not give them the check until that date
I used a cheque this year to pay for my roof - it seemed like the easiest option to pay them when they were done, e-transfer has limits and my credit card doesn’t have that high of a limit.
Nevertheless, there are still pockets of usage and it is widespread. According to scheme company Pay.UK, 44 percent of current account holders and 78 percent of businesses write at least one cheque per year.
They're still used in the USA, Canada, UK, India, Israel and to some extent Japan. They were phased out here in New Zealand in 2021, they're all but gone in Australia too (final closure 2030), they've been gone from most of Europe for decades, over 30 years in the case of Finland (1993) and almost 20 years in the case of Poland (2006)
I had no idea about the magnetic aspect, always just thought it was visually distinct for OCR.
The checks are also printed on special printers that only have the special ink.
The printers themselves usually aren't special, at least ours aren't. It's the toner we buy for it, and then the access control to be able to print to those specific ones. The printer itself is just an off the shelf one.
Just have to have MICR toner. Doesn't matter the printer.
Yup, regular ol’ HP printer
It doesn't even matter anymore, in a lot of cases. In the US, magnetic ink is optional. At least, for personal checks.
In the rest of the world cheques are barely seen in the wild at all, and many retailers don't even have the means to accept them anymore.
In 2 decades of adult life I have never written a cheque, and have only received them for tax refunds and such, last one being about 3 years ago.
Yeah basically nobody in my country uses them or has seen them in years. Despite that fact, I still found myself working a busy job in a cheque factory for a while
Yea. The magnetic aspect was relevant and used long before OCR was reliable enough for this.
I worked an IT project around '91 as OCR was just then becoming useful enough to process pre printed forms, but still had a ton of bugs.
But banks were reading the magnetic ink for 30 years already at that time.
I deal with OCR stuff today and am sick of my customers expecting it to be infallible magic
Really old OCR was even company-specific. From what I can tell that's why there are some old typefaces with company names like "Aetna Gothic" and "Hendrix Gothic" - they're designed to work with highly-specific, probably very unreliable 1970s OCR readers.
It was magnetic character recognition for decades before OCR. This is why you should never try to microwave a check
I regret never having learned that lesson.
why did you microwave a check?
Why would you launder money?
It only adds a day or two to processing time
I’d completely forgotten about this… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_ink_character_recognition
That too, probably. I used to have a job double checking OCR though, and it isn’t foolproof, especially in case of smudging, bad light, or people’s signatures obscuring a digit.
US banknotes also utilize magnetic ink. I don't know if it's a hidden pattern or throughout the whole bill but there are devices that detect this and in my opinion are the most accurate and reliable counterfeit detection method because it's incredibly hard to replicate.
No, they're relatively easy to replicate.
It's true that they can stop obvious / low-effort fakes e.g. by school kids trying to beat the vending machine. But professional forgers routinely replicate these magnetic signals.
So in reality the main purpose of using magnetic ink is to help automatic cash counting machines. Each denomination has a different magnetic pattern, which high speed counting machines can quickly recognize and tabulate.
Core memory unlocked. Ye olde IBM 1419 check processor. Bane of my existence back in the day.
I used to use it also. Learned patience and perseverance from that damn machine
Why is the line broken under where check is signed?
If you look closely it's not a line it's micro print https://brokensecrets.com/2011/05/04/the-signature-line-on-checks-is-not-a-line-at-all/
Fascinating. TIL something else!
I just pulled out the checkbook my mom made me get in 2012. I zoomed and... yep
TIL that MICR works based on the weight, I thought it was just an oldtimey way of doing image recognition.
In the car business they are used all the time. MICR printers :)
It's called MICR - magnetic ink character recognition.
It's how those rapid check readers work as well.
There's also a whole ass standard about where the MICR line needs to be on the check and it's a fucking hassle to design them.
Yep gotta get one of those special gauges to make sure they are in the right place.
Still have mine, haven't needed to use it in the last decade but it was a staple tool when running the 3890 and 7780.
Hell ya. I used to dispatch techs to work on the 3890s. Had a guy that just permanently stayed at the fed reserve in Detroit
This part is incorrect.
The amount of magnetic ink doesn't matter. What matters is the shape of the fonts (geometry) -- causing the characters to produce distinct waveforms when they pass by the magnetic reading head.
This is important because the MICR line was printed using mass production processes and therefore can have issues like overprinting, etc. So the amount of ink cannot be used to reliably identify each character.
Fun fact. When the check is processed by the receiving bank the dollar amount is encoded onto the check before it is shipped out by more micr ink. This is to prevent disappearing ink from changing the value of the check in transit.
Say you write it for four thousand five hundred and 00/100c. Write the 4 and four thousand in disappearing ink. check arrives at the scammers bank saying five hundred only. Except the micr on it shows the original value.
I learned about that at one of first jobs, as a cashier. We ran checks through a MICR reader.
Used to be read magnetically. Now most check scanners just use OCR.
Had to use MICR toner but not very common today
There's a manual for the IBM 1255 MICR machine up on Bitsavers.org, the giant site stuffed with a bazillion (85,000) old computer manuals.
Page 1-4 includes a sample of what the contents of MICR are expected to be.
Fun MICR fact: for a while, you could engage in bank fraud thanks to MICR. Just deposit a check from a bank, but fraudulently write MICR so that magnetically the check is routed to a small, unsophisticated bank that doesn't use magnetic MICR, but when you look at the check, the MICR looks like the a big bank.
When the check is set to the clearing house, it'll be sent to the small bank. The small bank will eyeball the check and say, "this check isn't for us, it's for big bank and send it to the big bank. The big bank, in turn, will magnetically read the bank info and automatically decide to forward the check to the small bank.
Allegedly, this was only discovered when the check had been passed around to much it was starting to physically wear out.
That's really clever.
I feel like maybe 1:1000 checks go through the readers that use that ink.
Similarly but inverse, individually sold chocolate letters usually have the same amount of mass for each character. So a font that had equal amount of weight per character has to be used
Ironically, that whole process went mostly optical 20-ish years ago, and the magnetic ink is largely gone.
The only people I know who use checks are my 70 year old aunts and they continue to accidentally loop their signatures over the numbers so they can't be submitted electronically. I have to drag their birthday checks to the bank every time.
You still use checks?
I run a small business and write checks more days than not.
In the US it's common for businesses to charge more if you use a bank card, and checks are inconvenient but free. Some landlords still don't even accept cards still.
Great not a single example, not even on the linked wiki
If you open the "Fonts" section they show the 10 digits which I believe they're referring to.
There are multiple examples under “Fonts,” but since you asked so nicely, LMGTFY.
What example are you looking for?
Try looking in the History section.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_ink_character_recognition#History
What century is this from? Two generations have now matured in the civilsed world who have never ever in their lives seen a paper check. It's like 1880-1980 proper pre-internet era tech. Pre-telegraph even
A lot of businesses in the US still use physical checks. Especially for paying contract labor.
Paying rent with 12 post dated checks.
fyi post dating checks doesn't actually do anything from a legal standpoint. While a lot of banks by policy don't take post dated checks not written off them due to a much higher chance of them bouncing legally as long as everything necessary is filled out the check recipient can immediately cash it if they want
In short if you don't want someone to cash a check until a certain date do not give them the check until that date
I used a cheque this year to pay for my roof - it seemed like the easiest option to pay them when they were done, e-transfer has limits and my credit card doesn’t have that high of a limit.
Many places still use checks, especially businesses and you can still get paper checks from the IRS for example.
Ah the old 'Look at me!' post. Always a crowd pleaser. /s
There's always the "It works on my machine!" guy on every topic.
there s a wider world out there. i still use checks monthly and for large purchases. checking accounts are still available in most countries
Sorry you’re not getting any checks, bro :(
As the of 2022, cheques were still widely used in the United Kingdom.
You’re smoking crack if you think the recent generations has never seen a physical check, at least in the U.S.
Typically most large recurring payments for things like rent are still made via physical check to avoid transaction fees.
I refuse to pay processing fees so I write a lot of checks and send most of them by snail mail.
Greetings, fellow passive-aggressive "your check for $3.78 will be there in 5-7 days" person.
Not everyone uses direct deposit
And you can set up direct deposit with a (voided) cheque
They're still used in the USA, Canada, UK, India, Israel and to some extent Japan. They were phased out here in New Zealand in 2021, they're all but gone in Australia too (final closure 2030), they've been gone from most of Europe for decades, over 30 years in the case of Finland (1993) and almost 20 years in the case of Poland (2006)
Wow.