Once in a while, I’ll get one of my cancelled checks in my bank statement that will have a white strip attached to the bottom edge. It has exactly the same info (routing, acct, & check #'s and the amount) as the printed line on the bottom of the check itself. I’m guessing somehow the check didn’t make it through the sorter, but I could be wrong.
Could be the magnetic ink was “damaged” in some way, and thus un-readable to the reader/sorter.
File this under useless information---- the reader/sorter does not care what shape the numbers are it goes by weight of the ink, thus the funny shapes of the numbers.
Also most institutions will put the white strip on checks that are being returned NSF, but then the encode line will be different. It would contain the Routing number of the original depositing bank.
They’re also used when the encoder ( the person, not the machine) makes an error in the amount.
As one who has actually seen a sorter operating:
those strips are attached by the sorter operator if/when the sorter cannot read the check - it is a replacement for the MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) info.
and the sorters do NOT try to detemine how much the item weighs (your tax refund check doesn’t weigh the same as your personal checks, and you should see some of the items which go through a sorter), let alone attempt to figure out how much the ink on the item weighs.
I believe most readers are no longer magnetic but optical. I print my own checks using a regular inkjet printer and have never had any problems.
They are optical. I used to process payments for a credit card bank.
If the check was mis-encoded, or damaged in some way the scanner couldn’t read it (torn, wrinkled), an operator will sticker it and manually encode the check.
Thanks for the info. I figured the check had some sort of damage even though I couldn’t detect any.