What Is a Magnetic Ink Character?
Magnetic ink characters (MIC) are numbers, letters, or symbols that are usually used in conjunction with magnetic ink recognition technology. This technology is primarily used by the banking industry to read and sort checks using a process called Magnetic Ink Character Recognition or MICR. MICs are printed at the bottom of a check in the MICR line and are usually 3 or 4 sets of numbers and symbols.
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History
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By the 1960s, most American banks were looking to standardize and universalize their ability to read and sort checks through MICR technology. This meant that a distinct font would have to be created for the MICR line at the bottom of paper checks. General Electric, who owned the patent for the MICR line, asked one of its employees, George Jacobi, to create a font for the MICs that was unique and able to be used with MICR technology. Jacobi came up with the E-13B font for MICs. That font is still used on most checks in America today.
Significance
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MICs allow banks to better facilitate and standardize the way they handle customers' checks. Reader/sorter machines at banks pick up the MICs by using magnetization and then sort checks into their appropriate destinations. Since the invention of the MIC, incidences of check fraud have declined. This is because it is very expensive and difficult to create or alter MICs. MICs also make incidence of error in reading a check very rare. Most large banks are handling thousands, even millions, of customers' bank accounts and even the smallest error can create a disaster. With the advent of MICs working in conjunction with the reader/sorter machines, the incidence of error in reading checks is drastically reduced. A reader/sorter machine has an error margin of less than 1 percent.
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Features
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MICs are not like a font you would use when typing in your word processor. Nor are printed MICs made up of the ink that you would use to print out text from your word processor. The ink used to print MICs is toner that contains iron oxide that magnetizes the ink. Iron oxide is a chemical compound made up of iron and oxygen. The ink used to print MIC ink contains around 50 percent more iron oxide than standard printer ink. When a MIC is printed using ink containing iron oxide, the MIC is not automatically magnetized, the iron oxide simply allows for the MIC to be magnetized by a reader/sorter machine. When a check is put into the reader/sorter machine, the machine activates the magnetization contained in the MICs. Then the MICs will pass through a magnetic read head in the machine. The magnetic read head then creates an electromagnetic field in which the MICs can now be recognized and read by the reader/sorter machine.
Identification
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Most MICs are printed in the E-13B font. The E-13B font can be identified using different methods. First, the font looks rather "blockish." There are no curves in the font like we are used to seeing in most fonts such as Times New Roman and Helvetica. The E-13B font does not come standard in font packages for word processors. So if you are looking to use E-13B font on your own checks or other documents you will need to download the font from the Internet or from a software disc.
The standard E-13B font contains only 14 characters. The reason for this is because it was invented specifically for MICs, which are almost always numbers and symbols. The E-13B's font library consists of the numbers 0-9 and 4 symbols that stand for: Transit, Amount, On-Us, and Dash. These symbols can usually be found on the MICR line of the check and are used by a bank's reader/sorter machine to make further check identifications.
The E-13B font used for MICs cannot be "played" with. It is meant to be a static font. In other words, you can't make the font 46 point, aquamarine, with a shadow effect. Grab your checkbook and look at the bottom of one of the checks. Those 3 or 4 sets of numbers and symbols at the bottom of the check are probably made using the E-13B font.
Considerations
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Some people and companies opt to print out their own checks. If you are considering this option, you should familiarize yourself with MICs and how they are used in the MICR line. It is very important that when you are printing checks that the MICR line is especially accurate. Even the smallest mistake by you or your printer in creating a line of MICs can make it impossible to be read by a bank's reader/sorter machine, thus invalidating the check.
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