# Seventies-looking digits on checks **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2017, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299 "2017-01-04T05:44:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/21 "2017-01-04T14:00:51Z")
Just found this: [Magnetic ink character recognition - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_ink_character_recognition) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/22 "2017-01-04T14:20:12Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Ahhh, they’re 1950’s-style “debt pays”. Nice. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/23 "2017-01-04T15:24:13Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > They do it optically too. They have to be able to, otherwise they’d still need you to hand over the actual piece of paper to deposit a check into your account. When I was a kid/teen, one of the ‘crap jobs’ pilots would take in order to build hours was ‘bank pilot’. They’d load their planes with bags of checks in the middle of the night, and fly them to where they would be processed. Sometimes I wonder if there are any of those flights left, or when they stopped making them. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/24 "2017-01-04T15:28:30Z")
Back in the day, kids, checks were self-standing financial instruments that had to have a set of specific characteristics to be valid in their chain of transfer from the gas station in Montana to your account in Nashville. There was essentially no way to validate funds or accounts except by adhering to these standards (and checking ID of the issuer). If a check didn’t have all the components (from memory: date of issue, payee, PAY TO [THE ORDER OF] instruction, numeric amount, legal/written-out amount, issuer signature, account number… and for nearly all recipients, the MICR encoding of routing number and account number at the bottom), it was not a valid “check” and could be refused by any link in the chain from the receiving merchant or bank to the Fed to the other Fed to the issuing bank. These days, they’re wastepaper, a note to tell the electronic system to move this much money from here to there, validated on many levels other than the instrument itself. I expect they’ll disappear completely in another decade, except possibly for some business transfers. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/25 "2017-01-04T18:39:07Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > When I was a kid/teen, one of the ‘crap jobs’ pilots would take in order to build hours was ‘bank pilot’. They’d load their planes with bags of checks in the middle of the night, and fly them to where they would be processed. Sometimes I wonder if there are any of those flights left, or when they stopped making them. There aren’t nearly as many such flights as there used to be. Loss of an important opportunity to accumulate flight hours is a significant, and completely unintended, consequence of changes in banking practices. Cite: [Commentary: Flying Checks Will Be Missed : NPR](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1482387) ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/26 "2017-01-04T20:57:45Z")
cecil alredy answered > **[Why do banks use that awful robotic looking type font for routing and account...](https://www.straightdope.com/21343835/why-do-banks-use-that-awful-robotic-looking-type-font-for-routing-and-account-numbers-why-do-people)** ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/27 "2017-01-04T22:56:25Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I expect they’ll disappear completely in another decade, except possibly for some business transfers. They already did in most modern economies. I used two in 2015 and received none. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/28 "2017-01-05T05:41:29Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > cecil alredy answered > [Why do banks use that awful robotic looking type font for routing and account numbers? Why do people hang catfish heads from fences? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2713/why-do-banks-use-that-awful-robotic-looking-type-font-for-routing-and-account-numbers) Thanks - I don’t think I ever read that before. Link fixed: [Why do banks use that awful robotic looking type font for routing and account numbers? Why do people hang catfish heads from fences? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2713/why-do-banks-use-that-awful-robotic-looking-type-font-for-routing-and-account-numbers) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/29 "2017-01-05T07:26:26Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > When I was a kid/teen, one of the ‘crap jobs’ pilots would take in order to build hours was ‘bank pilot’. They’d load their planes with bags of checks in the middle of the night, and fly them to where they would be processed. Sometimes I wonder if there are any of those flights left, or when they stopped making them. In the Norwest (now Wells Fargo) system, they disappeared when minicomputer or PC prices came down enough that outstate local banks began to have one at the local branch. One of the tasks shifted to local banks was the data entry of the information from the checks deposited there (onto 8" floppy disks). At first they just continued to send couriers/pilots to to deliver the checks, but now with disks also. At the central processing center, they got the data from the disks; the actual checks were just backup for days when the disks were unreadable. But fairly soon technology improved so that the disks were reliably readable, and soon after that data communication (dial-up transmission) began replacing the physical transportation of these disks. The actual checks still had to be transported, but only needed to arrive by the end of the month when they were sorted and included when the monthly bank statement was mailed to the customer. And that began to end about 1984, when the US Check-21 act allowed banks to switch to digital copies of the checks, without retaining & transporting the actual physical checks. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/30 "2017-01-05T08:43:42Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > And that began to end about 1984, when the US Check-21 act allowed banks to switch to digital copies of the checks, without retaining & transporting the actual physical checks. 1984? The Check-21 Act wasn’t passed until 2003. Maybe you meant to say 2004? ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/31 "2017-01-05T09:30:07Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > That appears to be using a font called Westminster, which is an offshoot of MICR, with alpha characters included (MICR only had numbers and a few symbols). There’s another font like this that quick googling didn’t turn up–bear with me, but: There used to be a machine called a Chyron that generated text on a video screen. Until the early 90s this was how networks like CBS superimposed the words “Eagles 20-Giants 17” or what have you. The machine was invented to throw text on screen for educational purposes and was named after Chiron, the legendary centaur teacher. That’s interesting but not relevant. There was a font in the Chyron I worked with called something like “Computer 90” (not Westminster) which was basically the check font. It was kind of weird that we had the option at all because the machine was so limited, but I used the font now and then for a goof (I was at Comedy Central then). The Chyron machine was quickly overwhelmed in my professional experience by what amounted to the computer revolution–newer machines did the job better and faster. But you still hear people–well, maybe people of my generation–referring to text on screen as a “Chyron.” Anyway, in the early 90s something like check font was already a joke. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/32 "2017-01-05T15:17:48Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > They already did in most modern economies. I used two in 2015 and received none. Due to two different companies choosing to do things “old school”, my paychecks have been actual, physical checks since late 2011. In the first case, I’m pretty sure that my old employer chose to enjoy the little bit of extra interest he’d get from the float (i.e., the time between cutting a check, and it being deposited). In the second case, it’s likely due to the hassles of trying to arrange direct deposit for freelancers, many of whom are only briefly employed. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/33 "2017-01-05T17:01:22Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > At first they just continued to send couriers/pilots to to deliver the checks, but now with disks also. At the central processing center, they got the data from the disks; the actual checks were just backup for days when the disks were unreadable. One of the first companies I worked for had as its major early product a system for routing vehicles for cheque delivery. The requirement that the physical cheque make it back to its originating bank was a legal one long after the technical requirement was obsolete, resulting in this ridiculous high-tech solution to optimally do this primitive thing. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/34 "2017-01-05T18:16:09Z")
Although not digits, the computer-looking font (Data 70) on the [Rochester Minnesota](http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-mn-r.html) city flag now looks old-fashioned. When the flag was designed in 1980, it had a picture of the Mayo Clinic with some Giant Canada Geese, and the font was to represent the other major employer in town, IBM. There was a [discussion](http://www.postbulletin.com/opinion/our-view-rochester-s-city-flag-needs-a-makeover/article_3e49a8a2-1659-5df9-a014-dcadabca0bba.html) about the need for a make-over, focusing precisely on the font. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/35 "2017-01-05T19:58:25Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > They already did in most modern economies. I used two in 2015 and received none. Emphasis on “completely,” as in, banks won’t let most customers use them. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/36 "2017-01-06T14:33:21Z")
I knew I recalled a book that used that kind of font on the cover - and if the one I was thinking of wasn’t “The Adolescence of P1,” that book’s cover [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adolescence-P1-Thomas-J-Ryan/dp/0020248806](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adolescence-P1-Thomas-J-Ryan/dp/0020248806) will do until I remember another one. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/37 "2017-01-06T17:51:03Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > Although not digits, the computer-looking font (Data 70) on the [Rochester Minnesota](http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-mn-r.html) city flag now looks old-fashioned. When the flag was designed in 1980, it had a picture of the Mayo Clinic with some Giant Canada Geese, and the font was to represent the other major employer in town, IBM. There was a [discussion](http://www.postbulletin.com/opinion/our-view-rochester-s-city-flag-needs-a-makeover/article_3e49a8a2-1659-5df9-a014-dcadabca0bba.html) about the need for a make-over, focusing precisely on the font. At first glance that’s a pretty lame flag. Not just the font but everything. Reading the explanation below about the symbolism of each element of the flag, though, it’s actually pretty cool. A lot of thought went into it. In particular that font really invokes “IBM” to me. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/38 "2017-01-06T18:37:08Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > At first glance that’s a pretty lame flag. Not just the font but everything. > > Reading the explanation below about the symbolism of each element of the flag, though, it’s actually pretty cool. A lot of thought went into it. In particular that font really invokes “IBM” to me. Whatever font it’s in, it’s disobeying one of the supposed “rules” of flag design by having printing on it all. Actually, they’re more like “guidelines”, and sometimes you can break the rules and get away with it: > **[7 fantastic flags that break every design rule](https://ideas.ted.com/7-fantastic-flags-that-break-every-design-rule/)** > > These flags violate the five basic principles for designing a great flag. The results are epic. I don’t think that’s one of those cases, though. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/39 "2017-01-06T20:37:42Z")
I dunno, I’m no big fan of writing on flags, either, but I think that by the time you get down to city flags (and not even particularly big cities, at that), you have to make some allowances. And yes, a bear physically splitting an atom with its claws is awesome enough to justify any rules violations. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299/40 "2017-01-06T21:14:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And yes, a bear physically splitting an atom with its claws is awesome enough to justify any rules violations. The look on the bear’s face as he’s obviously ripping apart the atom with his bare (bear?) hands is pretty freakin’ great, but I’m partial to a [bear casually toting an artillery shell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear)#/media/File:Wojtek_soldier_bear.svg), how much more metal than that can you get? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seventies-looking-digits-on-checks/776299.md?page=3)